Trump trial: Trump hit with contempt, witnesses detail Stormy Daniels deal

Stormy Daniels' attorney Keith Davidson testified that he began to think Michael Cohen was beginning to come up with excuses not to send the $130,000 payment owed to Daniels for her silence regarding an alleged rendezvous with Trump.

Jurors saw an email from Cohen where he blamed the delay on the Yom Kippur holiday.

"There were other excuses," Davidson said.

On October 17, 2016, Davidson threatened to cancel the contract with Daniels after he said Cohen made a "barrage of excuses" and failed to meet the funding deadline for the contract.

"The things he was saying didn't make sense from one conversation to the next," Davidson said.

Davidson listed the excuses including, "the computer systems were all f----- up," there was increased security due to the Secret Service, and he had lost the wire instructions.

"This is a very bad situation," Davidson recounted telling Cohen. "It is making me look bad, and I don't really believe a word that you are saying."

"What do you expect me to do -- my guy is in five f------ states today," Davidson said Cohen told. "I am doing everything I can."

Davidson testified his interpretation was that Cohen did not have the direct authorization to send the money.

"Where did you believe the money to be coming from?" prosecutor Josh Steinglass asked. "From Donald Trump or some kind of corporate entity," Davidson said.

On October 17, 2016, Davidson said he emailed Cohen to cancel the Daniels agreement and tell him that he no longer represented her.

"This is the straw that broke the camel's back," Davidson said following all the excuses from Cohen. "I said, 'Hey, this deal is over.'"

"I am out. Go in peace," Davidson summarized his email to Cohen.

"I believed Cohen was not being truthful," Davidson said. "I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road until after the election."

Cohen finally budged and said he would send the money himself, according to Davidson.

"God damn it, I will just do it myself," Cohen eventually said, according to Davidson.

Court subsequently recessed for a short afternoon break. Trump did not speak with reporters as he left the courtroom.

Stormy Daniels' attorney Keith Davidson testified that he used the pseudonym "David Dennison" to reference Donald Trump in the contract that paid Daniels for her silence regarding an alleged rendezvous with Trump.

"Who came up with those pseudonyms?" prosecutor Josh Steinglass asked Davidson.

"I did," replied Davidson, who said that the real David Dennison was on his "high school hockey team."

"How does he feel about you now?" Steinglass asked about the real David Dennison.

"He is very upset," Davidson said, prompting some smiles from the jury and laughter from the gallery.

Stormy Daniels' attorney Keith Davidson testified that National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard reached out to him in June 2016 to let him know that Stormy Daniels' agent Gina Rodriguez was attempting to shop around the Daniels' story.

"Gina is trying to hawk Stormy again," Howard texted Davidson in messages shown to the jury.

"Lol - she's trying to sell the story to you?" Davidson replied.

"Yep," wrote Howard.

Davidson testified that the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape, in which Trump was heard bragging about grabbing women, reinvigorated interest in Daniels' story.

"As far as I am aware, it had a tremendous influence," Davidson said. Before the 'Access Hollywood' tape, there was very little if any interest. It wasn't until 'Access Hollywood' that interest reached a crescendo."

"Trump is f-----," Davidson write in an Oct. 8, 2016, text message to Howard that was displayed for the jury.

"The Dirty post was bad, but it could get a lot worse," Davidson said.

According to Davidson, Howard and Rodriguez worked out a deal for AMI to buy Stormy Daniels' story for $120,000, but AMI backed out at the last moment. Howard suggested that Rodriguez reach out to Cohen to broker the deal, but she refused. Rodriguez instead asked Davidson to contact Cohen directly.

"Michael Cohen stepped into AMI's shoes" after "AMI washed their hands of the deal," Davidson said.

Davidson said he padded the Stormy Daniels' deal so he could get paid at the request of Gina Rodriguez.

"It is going to be the easiest deal you've ever done in your entire life," Davidson said to describe Rodriguez's request. Her only ask, according to Davidson, was that he would need to "talk to that a------ Cohen."

"It was the original [$120,000], plus $10,000," Davidson said about the $130,000 payment made by Cohen.

Following Keith Davison's testimony about the deal between Karen McDougal and AMI, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass turned to the topic of Davidson's representation of Stormy Daniels.

Davidson recounted a conversation he had in 2011 with Cohen after a blog first posted a story about the Trump and Stormy Daniels affair allegations.

First, he said he got a call from Daniels's talent manager, Gina Rodriguez:

"The blog post had published and apparently I was informed that Gina had received a phone call from Michael Cohen," Davidson testified. "Gina called me up to tell me that some jerk called me and was very, very aggressive and threatened to sue."

"And I would like you, Keith, to call this jerk back," Davidson recounted Gina told him.

"I hate to ask it this way, but who was that jerk?" prosecutor Steinglass asked Davidson.

"Michael Cohen," Davidson said.

Davidson said he did call Cohen back, and proceeded to tell the jury about that call.

"It was to the Trump Organization. I called and was transferred to Michael Cohen," Davidson said. "I introduced myself and before I could barely get my name out, I was just met with a hostile barrage of insults and insinuations and allegations that went on for quite a while."

In the courtroom, both Trump and his attorney Todd Blanche appeared to laugh as Davidson continued with this description of Cohen.

"What did you tell him?" Steinglass asked.