Daniels’ lawyer believed Cohen was going to kill himself when Trump denied him White House gig

Stormy Daniels’ former lawyer has said he thought Michael Cohen was going to kill himself when Donald Trump did not give him a plum job in the White House.

Keith Davidson said Cohen had previously discussed how he hoped to become Mr Trump’s chief of staff or attorney general.

But in December 2016, Cohen realised he was not being handed a top job and called Mr Davidson while “depressed and despondent”.

“He said something to the effect of, ‘Jesus Christ, can you f---ing believe I’m not going to Washington?’”, Mr Davidson told prosecutors in his second day of testimony during Mr Trump’s hush money criminal trial.

He said Cohen told him “‘After everything I’ve done for that f---ing guy … I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington. I’ve saved that guy’s a-- so many times you don’t even know’.”

Mr Davidson said Mr Trump also complained that “that f---ing guy” hadn’t repaid him the $130,000 for the Ms Daniels deal.

Mr Trump is accused of covering up hush money payments – including $130,000 given to Ms Daniels by Cohen – recording them instead as legal expenses.

The 77-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has denied having a sexual encounter with Ms Daniels or Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, who claimed she had a 10-month affair with Mr Trump in the mid-2000s.

Asked about the call during defence lawyer Emil Bove’s cross-examination, Mr Davidson said: “I thought he was going to kill himself.”

The jury was also played three clips from an audio of a conversation that Cohen had secretly recorded when he was speaking to Mr Richardson.

“Nobody’s thinking about Michael”, Cohen said in the recording.

He added: “I’m sitting there and I’m saying to myself, ‘what about me? What about me?’”

Referring to Mr Trump, Cohen said: “I can’t even tell you how many times he said to me ‘I hate the fact that we did it’.”
Mr Davidson clarified that Cohen was speaking about the deal between Ms Daniels and Mr Trump.

Technical details

The court was also given an insight into how Mr Davidson helped craft cleverly worded denials of Mr Trump’s affair with Ms Daniels.

In one statement issued on Jan 10 2018, Ms Daniels said claims she and Mr Trump had a “sexual and/or romantic affair” were “absolutely false”.

Mr Davidson, who prepared the statement, said “an extremely strict reading” of the denial would show it was “technically true”.

Asked how it is “technically correct”, Mr Davidson said: “I think you’d have to hone in on the definition of romantic, sexual and affair.”

He added: “I don’t think anyone had ever alleged that any interaction between she and Mr Trump was romantic”.

A second denial stated the pair had never had a “sexual relationship”. Mr Davidson said a relationship implies something that goes on for an extended period of time.

He also claims the denials of “hush money” payments were technically correct, as he would “never” use that term.

Rather, he said, he would refer to the $130,000 pay-off to keep Ms Daniels quiet as a “consideration”.

Mr Davidson is seen as a critical building block for the prosecution’s case that Mr Trump and his allies hatched a “catch and kill” scheme to bury negative stories in the run up to the 2016 presidential election.

He represented both adult movie star Ms Daniels and Ms McDougal in negotiations that resulted in the rights to their claims of sexual encounters.

The jury was also shown a text message Mr Davidson sent to Dylan Howard, the former National Enquirer editor, at 3am on election night, saying: “What have we done?”

Mr Howard responded: “Oh my god.”

Asked about what he meant, Mr Davidson said it had been “gallows humour”.

“There was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way – strike that – our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump,” Mr Davidson told the court.

The jury was also played a recording of a conversation between Cohen and Mr Trump, during which Cohen says: “I need to open up a company for the transfer about our friend David.”

The David he is referring to appears to be David Pecker, the tabloid boss who agreed to be Mr Trump’s “eyes and ears” in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr Trump was accused of further violating his gag order with “corrosive” and “insidious” attacks on witnesses.

Days after the judge overseeing his hush money case warned the former president he could be jailed for future breaches, prosecutors claimed four recent comments by Mr Trump also fell foul of the court order.

The alleged breaches included attacks on Cohen made in the courthouse hallway, as well as comments about the jury and former tabloid boss David Pecker, who testified last week.

“His statements are corrosive to this proceeding and the fair administration of justice,” prosecutor Christopher Conroy said.

Calling on Justice Juan Manuel Merchan to hand Mr Trump another $4,000 (£3,200) fine – $1,000 for each alleged violation – he added that Mr Trump’s attacks create “an air of menace”.

Mr Merchan will rule on the four alleged violations at a later date.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump was held in criminal contempt for nine violations of the court order, which prohibits statements about witnesses, jurors and court staff.

Mr Merchan fined Mr Trump $9,000 and ordered the Republican presidential nominee to remove the offending posts from his Truth Social account and his campaign website.

The trial continues.