An appellate court has denied former President Trump's bid to have Judge Juan Merchan recused from his hush money trial.

Trump's application sought a stay of the proceedings and Merchan's recusal.

Both were denied without explanation by the appellate judge.

All nine of former President Trump's social media posts cited by Judge Juan Merchan in his contempt of court ruling this morning have been removed.

The judge ruled that the nine posts violated the limited gag order prohibiting Trump from targeting potential witnesses and others involved in the case.

The nine posts were deleted during the court's lunch break.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass resumed his direct examination of Karen McDougal's former attorney Keith Davidson regarding his text messages with National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard as the two were negotiating how much the publication would pay McDougal for the exclusive rights to her story alleging she'd had an affair with Donald Trump.

“I can't believe they are asking me to go back for another 25 but they are. He deal is accepted at 150k. Can u do that?” Davidson wrote on August 2, 2016.

“He just called me. F--- it. Not my money. I'll ask,” Howard responded.

Davidson told the jury that Enquirer parent AMI initially provided a contract that did not match the terms originally discussed with Howard.

“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,” Davidson wrote to Howard on Aug. 5, 2016.

Davidson testified that he initially avoided interacting with Michael Cohen while negotiating the deal with AMI due to a negative interaction he had with Cohen in 2011.

“My interaction with him was not pleasant or constructive and I didn’t particularly like dealing with him, and that is why I was trying like hell to avoid talking to him,” Davidson testified regarding Cohen.

Donald Trump reentered the courtroom after the lunch break, with his son Eric Trump following a few steps behind.

Trump campaign adviser Susie Wiles and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are seated, along with Eric Trump, in the first row of the gallery behind Trump's defense table.

Judge Merchan took his seat on the bench and asked for Keith Davidson to be brought back to the witness stand so his testimony could resume.

As part of a series of video, jurors were shown a video of an October 2016 Trump rally in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

"They are trying to poison the mind of the American voter. Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign," Trump said in the video.

Lastly, jurors sew a brief video of a press conference by President-elect Trump praising Michael Cohen.

Trump, in one of the videos, appears to acknowledge how damaging the stories could have been to his election prospects.

"If 5% of the people think its true, and maybe 10% of the people, we don't win," Trump says in the speech.

In the courtroom, Trump's demeanor completely changed immediately after the videos were played for the jury. He perked up and frantically whispered with his attorney Todd Blanche, looking displeased.

Browning, the C-SPAN executive, concluded his testimony, and defense lawyers opted not to cross-examine him.