Trump Tests Gag Order as Trial Adjourns for the Day

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.

Mr. Davidson said he sent four or five emails with wiring instructions and Mr. Cohen repeatedly asserted he didn't have them.

When Mr. Cohen called him on Oct. 26, 2016, to tell him "we've got everything we need and we're sending you the money."

Mr. Davidson read an Oct. 25, 2016, email from Mr. Howard in which he said "we have to coordinate something on the matter he's calling you about or could look awfully bad for everyone."

Mr. Davidson said he wasn't trying to reach Mr. Cohen himself at this point. Mr. Howrad emailed him saying that he and Mr. Pecker had told Mr. Cohen he had to "pay the 150."

"There was an attempt to resurrect this deal that had once fallen apart. AMI had divested themselves from the deal, but they were encouraging Cohen to deal directly with me, and that I should try to get as much as I could up to $150,000," Mr. Davidson said.

Prosecutors tried several times to ask an admissible question that could tie President Trump to the deal Mr. Cohen agreed to, but they were struck from the record. Mr. Davidson never dealt with Mr. Trump and had no personal knowledge of his involvement.

Then prosecutors showed texts between Mr. Howard and Mr. Davidson joking about Mr. Trump's frugality or lack of cash.

"I reckon a Trump impersonator has more cash," Mr. Howard wrote.

Mr. Davidson said he let Mr. Cohen know "the level of dissatisfaction was quite high," and Mr. Cohen, cursing, said, "I'll just do it myself."

He said he believed that Mr. Cohen "would not seek authority to consummate the deal, fund the deal.

Mr. Davidson said that to add to his frustration, Ms. Clifford and Ms. Rodriguez wanted frequent updates.

In emails on Oct. 11, Oct. 14, and Oct. 17, 2016, Mr. Davidson and Mr. Cohen followed up about payment.

Mr. Davidson said he began to see that Mr. Cohen was making excuses for failure to fund the agreement, and he re-forwarded the wiring instructions. Mr. Cohen had missed the first settlement payment deadline on Oct. 14, 2016.

"My client informs me that she intends to cancel the settlement contract if no funds are received by 5PM PST today," the Oct. 17 email reads.

"Did you know when you were dealing with Cohen that you were dealing with Donald Trump?" Mr. Steinglass asked.

"I never thought otherwise," Mr. Davidson said.

He read from the agreement, which was supposed to be paid by Resolution Consultants Incorporate. Ms. Clifford was referred to by the pseudonym Peggy Peterson and Mr. Trump as David Dennison.

"Was it unusual for Dylan Howard to connect you to someone outside AMI to purchase a story?" Mr. Steinglass asked.

"This is the only time it ever happened," Mr. Davidson said.

Mr. Davidson said this was a different situation than the 2011 leak. "It was fairly conciliatory," he said.

Mr. Howard connected Mr. Davidson and Mr. Cohen on Oct. 10, 2016, regarding a "business opportunity," according to a text.

Mr. Davidson said Mr. Howard and AMI had backed out of the deal with Ms. Rodriguez, and so Mr. Howard had asked Ms. Rodriguez to call Mr. Cohen and finish the deal with him.

"Gina refused so she asked me to call Michael Cohen, and I refused and then Dylan called me to convince me to call Cohen," Mr. Davidson said. "The moral of the story is, no one wanted to talk to Cohen."

On June 30, 2016, Mr. Howard texted Mr. Davidson that Ms. Rodriguez was trying to sell him a story involving "Stormy."

"I think I previously stated that Gina was trying to bring this story back to market," Mr. Davidson said. He said after he had it taken down from the blog, years went by with little interest in the story.

"I was not involved, but through the summer into the fall where there was still very little interest despite the fact that Mr. Trump's notoriety was gaining," Mr. Davidson said.

Mr. Davidson said Gina Rodriguez, a talent agent, referred Ms. Clifford to him.

He had sent a cease and desist letter to a blog that posted that Ms. Clifford and Mr. Trump "had some sort of a physical or romantic interaction."

Mr. Davidson said that after the blog post went up, Ms. Rodriguez had received a call from Mr. Cohen, which was left as a voicemail and initially answered by Ms. Rodriguez's ex-husband.

Mr. Davidson read from the contract and explained that AMI had the option to run Ms. McDougal's "story of her relationship with a married man or not."

Mr. Steinglass asked if Mr. Davidson had an understanding of "why AMI was purchasing a story that they didn't intend to print?"

"Our explanation was that they were trying to build Karen into a brand and didn't want to diminish her reputation," Mr. Davidson said.

After a lunch break, Mr. Davidson's testimony continued with the witness reading texts between himself and Mr. Howard into the record.

On Aug. 2, 2016, they continued negotiations. "I can't believe they are asking me to go back to you for another 25, but they are. The is accepted at $150 can you do that?" Mr. Davidson wrote to Mr. Howard, who said he would ask.

Then on Aug. 5, 2016, another message from Mr. Davidson to Mr. Howard, saying "Cameron's agreement wasn't really even close to what we were expecting. Please review the red-line I just sent. Need to handle this quickly."

On July 21, 2016, Mr. Howard sent Mr. Davidson a text: "Let's talk DT/Ross tomorrow. I think this is the entree for me to go back to them."

Mr. Davidson said his understanding was that "DT" was Donald Trump and "Ross" was a man named Brian Ross, a news broadcaster and head of investigative reporting for ABC News.

Mr. Davidson sent a reply text: "Better be quick."

Mr. Davidson said that Mr. Howard had a meeting with Ms. McDougal and Mr. Davidson. Texts showed it would have been on June 20, 2016.

Ms. McDougal told her story to Mr. Howard under an agreement that nothing was to be published so that Mr. Howard could gauge interest in the story.

"Dylan wanted to return to New York, run it up the flagpole, and stated that he would get back to me," Mr. Davidson said. "It was my understanding that the only one higher than Dylan at AMI was David Pecker."

Mr. Davidson said he had met Karen McDougal about 25 years ago when she was dating a friend of his.

He represented Ms. McDougal in the summer of 2016 "in order to provide advice and counsel as to to what her rights and obligations would be with regard to a personal interaction she had."

"With who?" prosecuting attorney Joshua Steinglass asked.

Prosecutors next called Keith Davidson, an attorney who was named as a source for Dylan Howard.

Mr. Davidson owns the law firm Davidson & Associates in Los Angeles and works in civil litigation, injury cases, and media cases. He said he frequently worked on non-disclosure agreements.

Mr. Davidson confirmed that he was testifying pursuant to a subpoena, and had received immunity.

Prosecutors next called to the witness stand Philip Thompson, a regional director for Esquire Deposition Solutions.

He discusses the process by which testimonies are transcribed, and reviewed for errors.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office had subpoenaed Esquire for a transcription of the defamation lawsuit trial writer E. Jean Carroll brought against President Trump.

Prosecutors called Robert Browning, executive director for archives at C-SPAN [Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network], as the next witness.

The network was subpoenaed for videos by the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Clips were entered into evidence, including one of President Trump making a statement about the allegations of a "hush money" payment.

"As you have seen, right now I am being viciously attacked with lies," he said in one clip. "They're all false, they're totally invented, they're all 100 percent, completely fabricated. ...It's a total setup."

Prosecutors gave the defense notice that if President Trump decides to testify, they will ask about the nine gag order violations.

Prosecutors also argued that the defense made, in their opening statements, claims that Mr. Cohen's livelihood depends on attacking President Trump. They asked to be able to introduce evidence to counter claims that Mr. Cohen and Stephanie Clifford have a vested interest in advancing claims against President Trump.

The judge affirmed the defense had opened that door and they could advance that line of questioning.

Mr. Farro said later he was taken off the assignment.

"When we saw negative press," he said. He said the bank could not close out of a mortgage, so they maintained those accounts but closed out Mr. Cohen's bank accounts.

"Once we find out a client has not been honest with us, we choose not to do business with that client going forward," he said.

Mr. Farro explained that PEP, or Politically Exposed Person, was someone who has held office, is in office, or has a very close personal relationship with someone in office. He told Mr. Blanche that Mr. Cohen, as a personal attorney to President Trump in 2017, was not considered PEP, which would have garnered a second layer of vetting.

He said that moving money quickly itself was not unusual. "A yacht, an aircraft. There's many reasons why clients came to us, our ability to execute transactions quickly," he said.

In Mr. Cohen's case, the money was being transferred to a law firm account, and would not have been something that required a second look. "It happens a thousand times a day," Mr. Farro said.

Prosecutors ended direct examination of Mr. Farro.

Mr. Farro told defense attorneys that Mr. Cohen's rush to open an LLC itself was not a red flag.

Mr. Blanche showed the forms required as filled out by Mr. Cohen, wherein he answered "no" in response to whether he is acting as an agent for someone else.

Mr. Farro affirmed that he did not know the purpose of the account was to use it to pay a porn actress, confirming that this would have delayed the opening because that was an industry the bank would not want to work with.

"It is an industry that we would not work with. We would make a determination whether we wanted to proceed at all. It would certainly delay it," Mr. Farro said.

He was also asked whether the paperwork indicated the account would be used to buy a media story, and said no.

Gary Farro, who was assigned Michael Cohen as a client when he was at First Republic Bank, returned to the witness stand, confirming documents created in the opening of an account for Mr. Cohen's new company.

Essential Consultants LLC was opened in Delaware on Oct. 17, 2016.

Correspondence showed five to six hours between Mr. Cohen calling Mr. Farro, and the opening of the account.

Justice Merchan said prosecutors "met their burden of proof and demonstrated contempt" and President Trump has been fined $1,000 per gag order violation. Prosecutors had brought 10 violations before the judge in the first two weeks, and he ruled nine of them violated the gag order, bringing the fine to $9,000.

The judge still has four alleged gag order violations to rule on, related to interviews and press conferences President Trump gave.

Justice Merchan approved the defense's request to adjourn on May 17 so President Trump can attend his son Barron's high school graduation.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche had also requested June 3 to attend a graduation, and the judge said he would leave it up to counsel, and jury may still be deliberating at that time.

President Trump blasted the case as a "disgrace" before entering the courtroom, and commented on the riot at Columbia University, comparing the situation to the Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021.

"The Biden protests that are going on are horrible. It’s all caused by him because he doesn't know how to speak. He can't put your senses together. He's got to get out and make a statement because the colleges are being overrun in this country. The anti-Semitism, all of the problems going on, they're being overrun. I've never seen anything like it," he said.

"And Charlottesville is peanuts compared to what you're looking at now with this whole country is up in arms, breaking into colleges, knocking the hell out of Columbia University. I mean, they took over, I know the building very well. They took over a building, that is a big deal. And I wonder if what's going to happen to them will be anything comparable to what happened to J6, because they're doing a lot of destruction, a lot of damages, a lot of people getting hurt very badly."

In contrast to past days of President Trump’s criminal trial, a small MAGA rally is taking place outside the court building. Earlier this morning, a van with Trump banners drove by honking.

Besides the usual press and curious citizens, a few members of mock debate teams from a local high school were present outside.

The trial against former President Donald Trump for 34 counts of falsifying business records—which the Manhattan District Attorney alleges was done to cover up a scheme to influence the 2016 elections, resulting in a felony—is entering into its third week.

Thus far, prosecutors have called former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, President Trump's longtime assistant Rhona Graff, and banker Gary Farro to testify, establishing the context and big-picture narrative of the alleged scheme.

Prosecutors have kept their witness list close to the vest, arguing they hope to prevent further potential gag order violations with public statements about the witnesses.