In a departure from previous answers, President Trump signaled he may not testify at trial after all.
"Well I'm not allowed to testify, I'm under a gag order," he said, before turning to his attorney. "I guess."
Mr. Blanche smiled and gave a non-committal shake of his head.
President Trump blasted the case as election interference as he left court for the day.
"I'm very happy about the way things are going," he told reporters outside the courtroom. But "looking outside" at the economy and rise in crime, he said he thought it "ridiculous" to be sitting in a courtroom all day.
"Never done before in our country and I want to be out campaigning, like I was yesterday when I finally had a break," he said. "There's never been anything like this in the history of our country, ever. The polls are great despite that."
Douglas Daus works in the Manhattan District Attorney's office processing digital evidence. He confirmed the process for extracting data from phones, and confirmed that Mr. Cohen was one of the parties from whom evidence was collected.
A voice memo recording of Mr. Trump was played.
Attorneys played a record of a conversation Mr. Cohen had with Mr. Davidson.
Mr. Cohen said, “What would you do if you were me? Would you write a book? Would you break away from the entire Trump doctrine? Because it’s not just me, it’s my entire family that’s being affected. … Who else would do that for someone else? I did. Because I care about the guy, and I wasn’t going to play penny-wise, pound-foolish.”
They also played the clips of Mr. Davidson describing Ms. Clifford hypothetically having "settler's remorse" and Mr. Avenatti driving "a serious wedge" between Ms. Clifford and Ms. Rodriguez.
Mr. Davidson confirmed that he continued to correspond with Mr. Cohen in 2018, after the deal in which Mr. Davidson represented Ms. Clifford. At one point, Mr. Cohen was opposing counsel in a separate matter.
Mr. Davidson said he was previously interviewed by prosecutors about his talks with Mr. Cohen, including phone calls which Mr. Davidson thought might have been recorded.
"Certainly I recall a few conversations when I was speaking with Mr. Cohen, and the conversations seemed off, which led me to think I was being recorded," he said. "It was a more structured conversation which wasn't really his usual manner."
Mr. Davidson continued his testimony, providing additional background details to how he began to work with Ms. Clifford. He confirmed that when Ms. Rodriguez wanted him to issue a cease-and-desist to get an article about Ms. Clifford's alleged encounter with Mr. Trump taken down from a blog in 2011, the manager and actress had looked at other deals.
"They were using my efforts to create an exclusive opportunity with another magazine," Mr. Davidson said.
Defense attorney Susan Necheles handed Justice Merchan a stack of articles by legal commentators that President Trump would like to post on Truth Social, all discussing the case.
"We think that they are perfectly fine, but we think that there is ambiguity about the gag order, so we are asking your honor to take a look at them so he knows he is not violating the gag order when he posts them," Ms. Necheles said.
Justice Merchan declined.
Mr. Davidson confirmed that non-disclosure agreements are commonly used. Mr. Bove also asked whether Mr. Davidson was "well-versed" in using a non-disclosure agreement without it being exortion.
"I don't understand the question," Mr. Davidson said.
Mr. Bove elicited testimony from Mr. Davidson that he was investigated for events in 2012 for committing extortion against celebrities like Hulk Hogan.
Mr. Davidson confirmed that he was concerned about Mr. Cohen's "physical safety and well being" after Mr. Cohen called to initiate an hour-long talk about how he didn't believe he wouldn't be going to Washington.
"I thought he was going to kill himself," Mr. Davidson said.
Mr. Bove asked whether Mr. Cohen had referenced potentially becoming Attorney General of the United States, and how it "was never going to happen and he was very, very upset about it."
Attorney Emil Bove questioned Mr. Davidson for the defense.
Mr. Davidson said what he knew about Donald Trump "certainly" did not come from Mr. Cohen.
He confirmed that Karen McDougal's goals in doing a media deal were to rejuvenate her career, make money, and to not have to tell her story of the alleged affair with Mr. Trump. He said that Mr. Cohen was not involved with this deal, and that Mr. Davidson had only reached out to him after it had closed as professional courtesy because the story involved Mr. Cohen's client.
Mr. Davidson and Mr. Cohen also texted regarding a statement Mr. Davidson would issue denying that President Trump paid for the deal.
Mr. Davidson sent to CNN news broadcaster Chris Cuomo a statement that Mr. Cohen had paid Ms. Clifford "from his own personal funds" and this was what Mr. Cohen had also informed him at the time of the agreement.
Mr. Davidson maintained the statement was truthful because Mr. Cohen had, prior to wiring the money, stated "I'll just do it myself."
Texts also showed Mr. Davidson responding that Ms. Clifford's manager Gina Rodriguez was also not happy, as her client had made her "look like a liar."
"Gina says she is going to have a LONG talk with stormy on the plane to NY tomorrow/ She assured me this will get handled," Mr. Davidson texted Mr. Cohen.
"Like I said, we're trying to thread a needle, and hold of allegations of breach where Cohen would sue Stormy and that would be another disaster. So we're trying to placate him while also trying to meet Stormy's desires," Mr. Davidson said.
Mr. Davidson read texts into the record where he confirmed, on Jan. 24, 2018, that Ms. Clifford "steadfastly refuses to speak about the past" after they had a conversation. Then the next day, Mr. Cohen texts Mr. Davidson, "Why is she going on Kimmel after the Sotu."
Mr. Davidson responded that he didn't know and was also upset about it.
"She said this is her shot. I'm meeting with her this weekend to prep her and get the statement," he texted back,
Mr. Davidson read an email from Mr. Cohen that stated he had Ms. Clifford "tentatively scheduled for Hannity tonight" on Jan. 17, 2018.
Mr. Davidson said he was in trial at the time, which was "frankly, all-consuming," yet Mr. Cohen had been in one of his "pants on fire stages" and "frantic," sending "many, many calls and many, many text messages with little regard for my schedule."
He clarified that when Mr. Cohen asked him to issue a strong denial as he did in 2011, he was referring to the cease-and-desist Mr. Davidson sent the blog that published a third-party account of Ms. Clifford's alleged affair and "there was no denial" in that letter. "That was just wrong," Mr. Davidson added.
"Did you intend this statement to be cleverly misleading?" Mr. Steinglass asked about the denial statement.
"I don't understand your question," Mr. Davidson said.
"It's really no different than our interaction a few minutes ago, where you called it a payoff. It wasn't a payoff, and it wasn't hush money. It was consideration in a settlement agreement."
Mr. Davidson confirmed he prepared Ms. Clifford's 2018 statement denying an affair.
It reads, "I recently became aware that certain news outlets are alleging that I had a sexual and/or romantic affair with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago. I am stating with complete clarity that this is absolutely false. My involvement with Donald Trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more."
Mr. Steinglass asked Mr. Davidson to "characterize the truthfulness of this statement."
Mr. Davidson confirmed he received requests for comment from the Wall Street Journal in 2018 about the Ms. Clifford deal, and he stated "Nothing about the present day regurgitation of these rumors causes us to rethink our prior denial issued in 2011."
Mr. Davidson forwarded a copy of his January 2018 response to Michael Cohen.
"Because we had a mutuality of interest at this point in time," he said. "We had a fully executed settlement agreement, and confidentiality agreement, and now the underlying matter was about to be published. I think I had a contractual duty to let them know that something was about to be published, and we were acting in unison."
Mr. Davidson said that Mr. Cohen called him "fairly frequently" after the election.
"There was one particular day in mid-December," Mr. Davidson said, placing it after President Trump was sworn in. "I got a call from a very sad and despondent Michael Cohen."
"The whole situation was very off, that he was calling me and I was in this strangely decorated departement store and there was this long phone call and he was depressed and despondent. He used very colorful language about that stage of his life," Mr. Davidson said.
Mr. Davidson confirmed he talked to Mr. Cohen about the Wall Street Journal article "that publicized the underlying contract between Karen McDougal and AMI.
"He was very upset that the article had been published, he was very upset about the timing of the article, he wanted to know who the source of the article was," Mr. Davidson said. "He stated that his boss was very upset, and he threatened to sue Karen McDougal."
Attorneys showed an email Mr. Davidson sent to Mr. Howard after the article was published, which read, "What have we done?"
Attorneys showed email correspondence on Oct. 11, 2016, where Mr. Cohen and Mr. Davidson confirmed funds were wired.
Mr. Cohen signed off as the Managing Member of Essential Consultants LLC.
"Funds received," Mr. Davidson wrote to Mr. Cohen. The money went into an escrow account. Texts between Mr. Davidson and Mr. Howard showed that Mr. Davidson said he was "never really sure" the deal would close.
Keith Davidson returned to the witness stand to continue his testimony. Mr. Davidson is an attorney who represented Karen McDougal in her deal with American Media Inc. (AMI) and Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels) in her deal with Mr. Cohen.
He read into the record an email from Dylan Howard, former chief content officer at AMI, to Mr. Davidson and Mr. Cohen on oct. 26, 2016.
Mr. Davidson said that over the course of dealing with Mr. Cohen and requesting payment that never arrived for the deal for Ms. Clifford, he "lost trust in what he [Cohen] was telling me."
Mr. Blanche argued that President Trump did not violate his gag order when he gave a 21-minute interview that mentioned the case. President Trump had said the jurors were selected in a blue city that voted 95 percent Democrat.
"This trial matters to voters, and there was a question about this trial. We very much believe that this is political persecution," Mr. Blanche argued.
"Did he violate the gag order?" Justice Merchan asked.
Mr. Blanche read as examples several posts by Mr. Cohen mocking President Trump, and submitted one where Mr. Cohen had posted an image of President Trump in an orange jumpsuit.
"Mr. Cohen has started going on TikTok nightly and literally making money with people doing things while they're watching you on TikTok," Mr. Blanche said. "This is not a man that needs protection from the gag order, and when you look at what President Trump said about Mr. Cohen out here, and in response to the question from the interviewer, he wasn't talking about his testimony in this trial."
The judge said he wanted to move on to a comment about the jury.
Mr. Blanche argued that every time he and his client confer it's a live update across several media outlets, and as the Republican candidate running for president, "it's also appropriate to react to what's happening in this trial."
He argued President Trump couldn't repeatedly answer "no comment" about the trial.
The judge said he rejected the media analogy.
Mr. Blanche said that President Trump gave "factual, neutral" answers when asked about David Pecker or his testimony.
"It wasn't a warning, it wasn't commentary about what David Pecker would be testifying about. There''s no threat in what President Trump said, and we cited, there's multiple articles, new articles, that are going into excruciating detail about Mr. Pecker's testimony," Mr. Blanche said.
The judge pushed back, and said it wasn't just the substance of the comment itself that he thought an issue.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche said they've heeded the court's most recent decision and order regarding the previous nine gag order violations in preparing today's arguments.
He sought to provide context, and argued that it's not enough to look at the exact date and time of a post to decide whether President Trump's statements are responses. He pointed out that President Joe Biden recently commented on President Trump and his trial in a public forum.
"He mocked President Trump, said 'Donald has had a few tough days lately, you might call it Stormy weather,'" Mr. Blanche said. "Your Honor, [it] is an obvious reference to Stormy Daniels."
Prosecutors also pointed to remarks President Trump made outside the courtroom when he referred to payments made to Michael Cohen, which are at the center of the trial.
President Trump had said, "But they called a payment to a lawyer a legal expense in the books. They didn't call it construction, they didn't call it building a building ... He [Cohen] represented a lot of people, but he puts in an invoice, a bill, and they call it a legal expense. I got indicted for that. ... And when are they going to look into the lies Cohen did in the last trial?"
Prosecutors argued President Trump was disrupting the case with "corrosive" statements.
On April 25, President Trump visited construction workers in Manhattan early morning before trial. A reporter asked about witness David Pecker's interview, and President Trump replied "David's been a very nice, a nice guy."
"The witness was going to be testifying an hour or two after the defendant made that statement," prosecutors argued, adding that President Trump did not answer all questions and yet selected this one.
"They are deliberate shots across the bow to anyone who comes to this courthouse to testify," they argued.
Justice Merchan said the defense submitted close to 500 pages including a brief, memorandum of law, and exhibits arguing that President Trump did not violate his gag order, and asked prosecutors to present their arguments.
Prosecutors argued that even a statement that did not name any particular party could constitute a violation if it interfered with the proceedings. In one statement, President Trump said "but this judge said I can't get away from the trial, he's rushing the trial like crazy. Nobody's ever seen anything like this ... it's a very unfair situation, that I can tell you."
"This is just hours before he had a hearing here related to his preceding violations," prosecutors argued. "There's no inference needed, it's not just any jurors, it's those jurors who are going to be seated here in a few minutes."
On President Trump's one-day-a-week off trial, he held two rallies in two states, and told reporters yesterday's events in Wisconsin and Michigan were "tremendous."
"Enthusiasm's never been better. It's nice to be able to campaign one day without being in this Biden trial, show trial," President Trump said, adding that he thought the coverage of the rallies was "fair."
He commented on inflation and college campuses, as well as the trial before heading in for another hearing on whether he violated his gag order.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has scheduled a 9:30 a.m. hearing on an order for the defense to show cause why he should not hold the defendant, former President Donald Trump, in contempt for four public statements he has made about the case.
The hearing comes after the judge found President Trump in violation of his gag order in nine of 10 social media posts flagged by prosecutors, issuing a $9,000 fine on April 30. The judge also ordered the deletion of the relevant social media posts, and warned President Trump he could face incarceration with repeated offenses.
President Trump is on trial for allegedly falsifying 34 business records in an attempt to influence the 2016 elections.
Former President Donald Trump removed multiple social media and website posts on Tuesday to comply with a judge’s order.
Earlier Tuesday, Judge Juan Merchan ordered the former president to remove seven posts on Truth Social and two on his campaign website, alleging they violated a gag order. He also held President Trump in contempt of the court and fined him $9,000 for the posts.
He told the former president that the offending posts must be removed by 2:15 p.m. ET. The posts were removed by that time.
President Trump exited the courtroom and told reporters his gag order was "unconstitutional."
"This gag order is not only unique, it's totally unconstitutional," he said. "I'm the Republican candidate for president of the United States, I received this honor in record time ... and I'm sitting in a courthouse all day long listening to this stuff that everybody knows ... everybody says this trial is nonsense that should have never been brought. Yet the judge is totally conflicted ... rushing this case through."
"There's no crime, no anything here," President Trump said.
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