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 on 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 her 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.
