Trump trial: Hope Hicks faces her ex-boss on 'Access Hollywood' tape, Daniels payment

Sometime in mid-December 2016, after the election, Keith Davidson and Michael Cohen spoke by phone, and Cohen unloaded on Trump.

In Davidson's recollection, Cohen told him, "Jesus Christ, can you f----- believe I'm not going to Washington? After everything I've done for that f----- guy. I can't believe I'm not going to Washington. I've saved that guy's ass so many times you don't even know."

"That guy's not even paid me the 130,000 back," Davidson said Cohen told him.

Davidson was then asked about his actions in January 2018 when the Wall Street Journal reached out for comment about the Stormy Daniels contract.

"They wanted a comment on any interaction regarding Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump," Davidson said.

"Nothing about the present day regurgitation of these rumors causes us to rethink our prior denial issued in 2011," Davidson wrote in response to the request for comment in 2018. Davidson had sent a cease-and-desist letter in 2011 when the affair was mentioned on a blog.

Davidson said he forwarded the comment to Michael Cohen given their aligned interest at the time.

Jurors were shown the January 10, 2018 denial issued by Stormy Daniels, which Davidson said he wrote.

"An extremely strict reading of this denial would technically be true," Davidson testified. "I don't think anyone ever alleged that any interaction between she and Mr. Trump was romantic."

"OK," Steinglass responded, prompting some laughs from the gallery.

"It wasn't a payoff and it wasn't hush money -- it was consideration in a civil settlement," Davidson said.

On election night, as results were coming in that were favorable to Trump, Stormy Daniels' attorney Keith Davidson texted National Editor Dylan Howard, "What have we done?" according to texts shown the jury.

"This was sort of gallows humor. It was on election night as the results were coming," Davidson testified.

Asked to explain his text message, Davidson responded, "There was an understanding that our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump."

"Oh my god," Howard responded to the text on election night.

Jurors were shown the final Stormy Daniels contract, which prohibited her from making public statements about her alleged affair with Trump.

"That's essentially part of the nondisclosure aspect of the agreement," her then-attorney, Keith Davidson, told jurors after reading aloud from the contract.

The contract stated that Daniel's would owe $1 million for each breach of contract, though Davidson said that portion of the contract was likely unenforceable.

Davidson testified that Michael Cohen requested the $1 million penalty be added to the contract.

Jurors were shown signed copies of the agreement, which was signed by Daniels, Cohen, and Davidson.

The signature line for "David Dennison" -- the pseudonym used for Donald Trump -- was never signed by Trump. In one version of the contract, Cohen signed for "Dennison."

Davidson testified that he made $10,000 for negotiating the contract.

Following the contempt hearing, Keith Davidson, the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, has returned to the stand to resume his testimony.

When Davidson stepped off the witness stand on Tuesday, he testified about the difficulty in getting the $130,000 payment from then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen for Stormy Daniel's hush money agreement.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass resumed the direct examination by asking Davidson about a phone call between himself, Michael Cohen, and National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard about the payment.

"That conversation took place because there was difficulty in communications with Michael Cohen and I had lost trust in what he was telling me, and Dylan came in as a mediator," Davidson said. "I believed he was not telling me the truth ... about the delays in funding."

Jurors then looked at an email from Cohen where he flagged to Davidson that the wire would be coming from an account for Essential Consultants LLC.

On Tuesday, jurors heard from a banker who described Cohen's rushed effort to create a bank account for Essential Consultants LLC, which prosecutors say was a shell company created for the Daniels payment.

Emails and texts involving Cohen, Davidson and Howard, displayed to the jury, indicate the hush payment was finalized with the wire transfer of $130,000 on October 27, 2016 -- 12 days before the 2016 election.