Trump faces prospect of additional sanctions in hush money trial as key witness resumes testimony
NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump faces the prospect of additional sanctions in his hush money lawsuit as he returns to court Thursday for another contempt hearing, followed by testimony from a lawyer who represented two women who said they had sexual encounters with the former president.
Defense attorney Keith Davidson’s testimony is seen as a key building block in the prosecution’s case that Trump and his allies planned to bury unflattering stories in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. He is one of several key players accused of are expected to be evoked in the run-up to the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer.
Prosecutors are seeking a $1,000 fine for each of four comments by Trump that they say violate a judge’s silence order barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others closely involved in the case. Such a fine would be in addition to the $9,000 fine imposed by Judge Juan M. Merchan on Tuesday in connection with nine separate violations of the silence order he found.
It was not immediately clear when Merchan would rule on the request for new sanctions, but the prospect of further punishment underlines the challenges Trump, the presidential candidate, faces in adjusting to the role of criminal defendant, subject to a rigid courtroom protocol where he has no control over. It also remains to be seen whether a court reprimand will prompt Trump to change his behavior, given the campaign advantage he believes he will gain from portraying the case as politically motivated.
During a one-day break in the trial on Wednesday, Trump maintained his condemnation of the case, though he made no comments that could violate the gag order.
“There is no crime,” he told supporters in Waukesha, Wisconsin. “I have a crooked judge, a completely conflicted judge.”
The trial, now in its second week of testimony, has exposed the underbelly of tabloid journalism practices and the protection, at a price, afforded Trump during his successful bid to become president in 2016.
The case involves hush money paid to suppress embarrassing stories, including from a porn actor and a former Playboy model, and reimbursements by Trump that prosecutors say were deliberately fraudulent and designed to obscure the true purpose of the payments to cover up and interfere in the elections.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified last week that he offered to be the “eyes and ears” of the Trump campaign and detailed his role in buying a sordid story from a New York City doorman that was later determined to be untrue, as well as allegations of an extramarital affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
The goal was to keep the stories from coming out, a concern that was especially highlighted in the wake of the disclosure of a 2005 recording of “Access Hollywood” in which he was heard catching women without their consent.
A separate payment of $130,000 was made by Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, to porn actor Stormy Daniels to prevent her claims about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump from surfacing.
Trump’s company then reimbursed Cohen and recorded the payments to him as legal fees, prosecutors said as they charged the former president with 34 felony counts of falsifying company records — a charge that carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.
Returning to the booth Thursday will be Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented both Daniels and McDougal in their negotiations with the National Enquirer and Cohen.
He testified that he arranged a meeting at his Los Angeles office in the summer of 2016 to see if the tabloid’s parent company, American Media, Inc., was interested in McDougal’s story. They initially objected, saying she had “no documented evidence of the interaction,” Davidson testified.
But the tabloid eventually bought the rights at Pecker’s insistence, and Davidson testified that he understood — and McDougal preferred — that it would never be published. One reason for that, he said, is that there was an “unspoken bond” between Pecker and Trump and the desire of the company that owned the Enquirer not to publish stories that would hurt Trump.
The morning starts with another hearing on a gag order. The four statements in question were made by Trump before Merchan warned Tuesday that further violations could lead to jail time.
They include comments to reporters and in interviews attacking Cohen’s integrity.