Stormy Daniels' former layer Keith Davidson's cross-examination underway in Trump's hush money trial

it's day six of testimony it's getting ready to resume after the lunch break in the trial of former president Donald Trump uh returning to the stand for more cross-examination this afternoon Keith Davidson he's a lawyer he says he was the one who brokered the hush money payments on behalf of Donald Trump to stormmy Daniels and Karen McDougall another woman that Trump supposedly bought her silence a former former Playboy model we've got live team coverage starting off with AB news Olivia Rubin outside that Manhattan courthouse and attorney and former prosecutor in the justice department anush kadori so Olivia let's start with you uh what are we expecting to pickup when court gets back underway Keith Davidson this this issue this witness right in the middle of all of these actions taken by President Trump what do we expect he was Terry and we expect that Donald Trump's attorney is going to pick up his heated and pointed questioning of Keith Davidson and the way that he handled himself in brokering the $130,000 payment between Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels Donald Trump's attorney AML boovie has sought to paint Keith Davidson essentially as an extortionist someone who was a career-long guy who would find women who are making claims and extort money from powerful men so that they would not come forward with him Donald Trump's attorney actually brought up a previous investigation that Keith Davidson was in snared in in which he was investigated for extortion of of course there doesn't seem to have been any charges there but he is trying to paint that here and he referenced previous texts that the jury saw from Keith Davidson asking for much more money for Stormy Daniels agreement that she made with Michael Cohen at one point he asked for $1 million well above the 130,000 that they settled on so that is the framing that Donald Trump's team is going for here and it did get quite T set points Terry before the lunch break and a boovy was essentially saying we are looking for truthful answers you have to answer the questions and he shot right back and said I am answering your questions sir and it was broken up by a sidebar but very tense and you could see that Donald Trump sort of appreciated that he was leaning back in his seat angled right towards the witness on the witness stand to his right and really taking in this tense questioning which we know is something that he probably enjoys all right Olivia thank you with for that also with us A's executive editorial producer John santui so John you know Olivia just described as a Donald Trump smiling and appreciation as his lawyers go after a witness now that happens a lot but there is a sense that that Trump wants his lawyers to be more aggressive do you get that sense oh without question I mean listen we know that Donald Trump at the end of the day Terry believes that he is his own best attorney spokesperson you name it iner title there he believes he's number one so clearly whatever Donald Trump's lawyers do though he may be satisfied he's not going to be ecstatic and I think that's a really important thing here as this gets going and I think that look one of the things that Donald Trump famously says Terry you know this is that he doesn't throw the first punch but he is a counter puncher so to see anyone on that witness stand that is saying anything that Donald Trump thinks is a slight or attack on him he is going to want his lawyers to punch back the other thing we must remember here is that Donald Trump so often talks to all of his lawyers and says you know I wish you were more like Roy con of course referring to the infamous attorney that actually was at one point Donald Trump's attorney in the early portion of the former president's business career and every lawyer that has come into contact with Donald Trump has been given that ultimatum that comparison why aren't you more like this I remember this I liked that and at the end of the day Terry it's part of the reason why Donald Trump has gone through as we both know so many attorneys especially within the last decade that he has been a politician you know how many lawyers that are part of this legal team were a part of Donald Trump's original legal team when you were going through the campaign or special councel Robert Mueller's investigation the answer zero yeah he is a tough client no question about it uh Anish Bo the Trump's lawyer suggested that Davidson was committing extortion when he negotiated the payment to stormmy Daniels now you know this is something that apparently he makes a practice of paying money to to people to keep silent who've been uh involved in some kind of thing they don't want the public to know about first is that extortion uh or or are they they're actually talking about something else too I guess what do you make of his argument well I mean look it's not extortion per se unless there are a whole bunch of additional facts that we don't know that make it a much more coercive um uh Endeavor uh but I think that the broader theme that Trump's lawyers are trying to portray and I think they're doing a pretty good job of it quite honestly is of a fact pattern that involves a whole bunch of unseemly character unse seemly characters right there are no really sort of Heroes in this story there aren't really any sympathetic parties you know I think some of the jurors may have learned for the first time in in the last few days that you know it was Stormy Daniels who effectively solicited this payment um and it's not the situation where she was sort of coerced into it which I think is a misapprehension that some people who aren't that familiar with the case may have so um you know any particular Witnesses cross-examination is not going to make or break the case but we do see a theme Here developing that I do think is going to continue throughout this case you know Olivia you've been in court you've described you the contention in court it's quite natural in a criminal trial there's a lot at stake uh have you got a sense of of whether the prosecutors you know are satisfied with the way things going are they getting discombobulated a bit by the way Trump and his team are trying you know to really throw anything at them to throw them off off their stride we haven't seen much much of the prosecutors being you know thrown off their tracks in any way what Donald Trump's attorneys have been doing in the courtroom is quite standard they are trying to pick at the witness where they can and get a punch in when they can and they have not always been successful with that particularly with the cross-examination of David pecker Donald Trump's attorney was trying to land some tougher punches on him making it seem like he was changing his story switching up his credibility but it sort of became this convoluted line of questioning and one of the prosecutors on redirect was able to quickly pull David pecker back into the direction that they wanted and get on the record a bunch of statements from him about how this was related in his opinion to the 2016 election so they have been able to navigate that quite well but it does not take away from the story that Donald Trump's team is trying to weave I think we just heard it unsavory characters Hulk Hogan Tila Tequila Rah Emanuel bought stories they are throwing every name there to try to say their central line was business as usual and you may not like it but there is nothing wrong with having someone sign an NDA there is nothing wrong with making this sort of agreement and there is nothing wrong with buying someone's story so that is the thread that they have been trying to to weave there well said so the prosecutors are saying what's wrong is that he misidentified those payments uh on business records and that that was in furtherance of this effort to uh keep it from the voters which is an election law violation they say John I want to ask you and and and Anor as well I want to ask you about the contempt hearing today prosecutors uh made clear they don't want to seek jail time against Donald Trump for alleged violations of the gag order yet is it possible that the court would actually put him in jail oh it's definitely possible Terry I mean listen we know ABC News reported about a week ago that Federal prosecutors of course have weighed this conversation over times as of course Donald Trump went through all of his proceedings involving special counsel Jack Smith what would happen could it happen Etc but in New York things actually took a very different turn last week we know that members of the Secret Service had conversations with the NYPD and Court officials here in lower Manhattan and that conversation did in fact happened that if judge Juan Maran decided that Donald Trump violated the gag order and thus said temporary confinement of some sort was necessary how would it work so they've absolutely had those conversations but Terry I also think an important point and and uh not not to be her spokesperson but Olivia Rubin made this first earlier this morning she was sitting in that courtroom Donald Trump's demeanor during those proceedings I think was the most striking of the day because you got to see Donald Trump react to all of this right because it's so much at the end of the day about Donald Trump's own words his statements and where this gag Gorder violation is different than the first round being the one that he's already been punished with a $9,000 fine that's due tomorrow this round is Donald Trump on camera it's Donald Trump actually speaking to our station wpv leading up to the Pennsylvania Republican primary a week ago it's him on the radio it's him outside of Court Terry at that very camera and at one point judge Juan Maran actually made a remark saying well you know your client doesn't need to make a statement there he doesn't have to speak there and the defense attorney agreed that is the weirdest thing for a defense attorney for Donald Trump to do because the end of the day the way you and I and Olivia we breathe oxygen Donald Trump's oxygen is looking into the camera so anyone saying no he doesn't have to do that I'm not sure that's a conversation afterwards I would want to be a part of but God I'd love to listen in yeah and he does have a constitutional right Anor she's running for president but also just as an American and I want to ask about the the the gradual tightening it seems of the restrictions of Donald Trump it's one thing to talk about a judge's daughter or a judge's Clerk or or jurors but it's another thing to retweet or to repost on his truth social some someone who is uh insulting Michael Cohen who the witness who is out there insulting Trump is just talking smack back and forth and I'm I'm in mindful of the Supreme Court saying that the the threshold for a gagod is the imminent danger to the judicial process and I how would a court an appeals court you know look at at this gagot not direct not trying to threaten a c a court clerk or the daughter a family member of a judge but just basically out there as a presidential candidate as well as a defendant you know mixing it up with with Michael Cohen yeah you know it is a tricky little situation because of course Michael Cohen has been very much engaged in this back and forth himself um and and I think the Judge has acknowledged that as well and he sort of suggested that Michael Cohen should perhaps keep uh some of his thoughts to himself and Cohen has indicated he may um but yeah I I I I agree like the sort of the the gag order here you know I I don't expect Trump to to ever face jail time in connection with this because the statements are uh unfortunate and they're derogatory to the witnesses and more importantly to the jury I care less about Michael Cohen than I care about the jurors candidly um and I same with Stormy Daniels I care about the jurors not not these folks um but um they aren't so damaging uh that I think the judge will feel compelled to try to send Trump to prison I mean he's gonna keep racking up these fines and more to the point I think over the last few days we have seen Trump modulate his comments he has not been attacking the witnesses or the jury in the last few days he was at some rallies uh um yesterday where he offered some very sweeping comments denigrating the court uh and the judge but those are okay under the gag order um he does seem to be coloring within the lines at least for the time being color within the lines that is not something one Associates with Donald Trump but you're right we may be seeing under the pressure of this gag order a new defendant anyway anos kadori John sanui Olivia Rubin thank you very much

Channel: ABC News

Views: 106,397

Keywords: 2024, abc, abcnl, criminal, daniels, davidson, donald, election, hush, keith, money, news, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-109878906, stormy, trial, trump

Id: AyoneG8hjBk

Length: 12min 6sec (726 seconds)

Published: Thu May 02 2024