The lawyer who helped bury alleged extramarital affairs involving former President Donald Trump testified Thursday that on the night Trump won the 2016 presidential election, he texted “What have we done?” to a tabloid editor who worked on the deal with him.
The attorney, Keith Davidson, was asked on the stand about the text, which he sent as Trump pulled off a stunning upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The recipient of the text was Dylan Howard, then the editor in chief of the National Enquirer, who was also involved in the $130,000 hush money payment at the center of the New York criminal hush money trial trial of the former president.
“Oh my god,” Howard texted back.
Davidson, who represented porn star Stormy Daniels at the time, testified that his text was “sort of gallows humor.” But he added that he and Howard understood at the time that “our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.”
Davidson returned to the witness stand late Thursday morning, after Judge Juan Merchan held a second hearing on whether Trump violated his gag order by speaking about likely witnesses in the case.
Two days earlier, Merchan held Trump in criminal contempt for nine violations of the gag order, which bars Trump from discussing jurors, witnesses and others involved in the Manhattan Supreme Court trial.
After the first gag order hearing last week, state prosecutors accused Trump of violating the gag order four more times, prompting the judge to schedule a second hearing.
“His statements are corrosive to this proceeding, and to the fair administration of justice,” prosecutor Chris Conroy said of Trump on Thursday morning.
Merchan on Tuesday imposed the maximum fine of $1,000 for each of the nine violations, an amount he acknowledged was barely a slap on the wrist for Trump, a multibillionaire.
But the judge also warned Trump that future violations of court orders could land him in jail.
Conroy said in Thursday’s hearing that, “Because we prefer to minimize disruptions to this proceeding, we are not yet seeking jail.”
Merchan did not issue a ruling before Davidson resumed his second day of testimony.
The lawyer, who represented Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, had testified Tuesday about his involvement in selling the story rights for both women, each of whom separately claimed to have had sex with Trump while he was married.
The $130,000 payment to Daniels in particular is at the center of the historic criminal trial in Manhattan Supreme Court, where Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accuses Trump of mislabeling those records as part of a scheme to secretly reimburse his then-lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Trump unlawfully tried to influence that election by buying and suppressing damaging information about him, Bragg alleges.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, must sit in court throughout the trial, which is expected to last six weeks.
This is developing news. Check back for updates throughout the day.