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5 months ago
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Donald Trump was the subject of another contempt hearing this morning in his Manhattan hush-money trial.
In a repeat of an earlier courtroom debate that led to a contempt ruling and a $9,000 fine for Trump, prosecutors argued that the defendant had committed still more violations of the judge’s gag order restricting attacks on trial jurors and witnesses.
Trump has “willfully and knowingly violated the lawful order of this court,” assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy told Judge Juan Merchan, citing four more instances of Trump sounding off against witnesses and jurors. The instance that appeared to interest Judge Merchan most was a comment by Trump to a radio show on April 23: “That jury was picked so fast—95 percent Democrats. The area is mostly all Democrats.”
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, explained Trump’s remark by saying, “We very much believe that this is a political trial, and part of President Trump’s belief is the location of the trial.”
Merchan cut Blanche off, asking, “Did he violate the gag order?” Blanche replied that he was making an argument that Trump did not violate the gag order and laying the foundation for his argument. “I’m not accepting your argument,” Merchan snapped.
Blanche insisted Trump was talking about the political climate that the jury represented, not attacking the jury or individual jurors.
The 30-minute hearing ended with no ruling. Prosecutors said they want fines, not jail, for Trump, but allowed that they could ask for stronger penalties if the gag order violations continue.
The judge found Trump in contempt on Tuesday for online posts in April targeting jurors and witnesses — specifically, Cohen and Daniels — and fined him $9,000. Merchan warned Trump that jail is a possibility if he keeps up the attacks, and prosecutors have already teed up four more instances where they say Trump violated the gag order, including during one of his hallway press encounters.
The gag order leaves Trump free to harangue Merchan and Bragg, but forbids any statements against jurors, witnesses, other trial participants and members of Merchan’s own family — including a daughter of the judge’s who has worked for Democratic campaigns and was a target of pre-trial Trump complaints tying Merchan to Trump’s political opponents.
Blanche argued this morning that Daniels and Cohen — frequent Trump antagonists — don’t need the gag order’s protection if the order’s aim is to keep trial witnesses from feeling intimidated.
In the trial itself, prosecutors are not done yet with the Beverly Hills lawyer who represented Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in their six-figure payouts for silence about Trump. Keith Davidson, who could face cross-examination today by the defense, returned to the stand this morning after spending much of Tuesday in court talking about his distaste for dealing with Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
In the middle of Trump’s 2016 White House campaign, Davidson and Cohen were negotiating the sale of exclusive rights to both women’s claims of intimate extramarital encounters with the GOP nominee, with the intent of burying both stories.
Jurors saw a text exchange between Davidson and his contact at the National Enquirer tabloid, editor in chief Dylan Howard, confirming that Cohen had wired $130,000 to Davidson in late October 2016 after a long struggle to get Daniels paid.
“Money wired, I am told,” Davidson wrote.
“Unbelievable,” Howard replied.
“He was an excitable, sort of pants-on-fire kind of a guy,” Davidson said on Tuesday of Cohen as he was questioned by Joshua Steinglass, one of a handful of Manhattan assistant district attorneys trying the hush-money case against Trump. Davidson elaborated, saying Cohen reminded him of Dug, the high-strung, talking dog in Pixar’s animated hit movie, Up — “where the dog says, ‘Squirrel! Squirrel!’ “ Davidson remarked.
Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges tied to his payment of $130,000 to Daniels, is expected to testify for the prosecution. The indictment of Trump broke state and federal law by disguising the hush money reimbursement to Cohen with dozens of falsified check receipts and ledger entries. Trump was en route to winning the presidency in 2016 when the payment was made. He has denied any sexual involvement with Daniels and said he paid Cohen for standard legal work.
Jurors on Tuesday saw reams of texts between Davidson and Howard. In one text to Howard after the infamous Access Hollywood tape emerged a month before the election, Davidson wrote, “Trump is f——d.” Howard replied with a white flag emoji, apparently signaling surrender despite their best efforts to contain bad news about the candidate favored by Howard’s boss, American Media CEO David Pecker. “I think he was seconding my opinion,” Davidson testified.
On his way into the courtroom this morning, Trump gave another free-ranging speech about his presidential campaign and the criminal case, which is in its third week.
“It was nice to be able to campaign one day without being in this ridiculous show trial — Biden trial, I call it,” Trump said.
