Donald Trump trial LIVE – 'Did he cheat on Melania?' Court hears bombshell text messages National Enquirer editor sent to Karen McDougal's lawyer during deal over her 'affair' story

During Davidson’s testimony, the jury is shown a series of text exchanges between lawyer Keith Davidson and former National Enquire editor Dylan Howard.

The texts are about former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal’s story of an affair with Donald Trump as the ex-president looks on in court.

One text from Davidson reads ‘I have a blockbuster Trump story.’

‘Talk 1s thing. I will get you more than ANYONE for it. You know why…’ Howard responds.

During this portion of testimony, Trump shook his head in apparent disgust.

Davidson tells the court his text was meant as an ‘entree or a teaser’ for Howard to get his attention.

‘I knew Dylan’s boss David Pecker and Mr. Trump were longtime friends and M. Pecker published Trump magazine and AMI had announced explicitly they had endorsed Mr Trump’s candidacy,’ Davidson testifies.

Trump is also forced to listen as Davidson read out another text from Howard: ‘Did he (Trump) cheat on Melania?’

Trump did not appear to react to the text.

Another from Howard reads ‘Do you know if the affair was during his marriage to Melania?’

Davidson told the court that he demurred from replying as he didn’t want to say at that stage.

Earlier, Davidson said he first met McDougal 25 years ago when she was dating his friend.

Stormy Daniels’ attorney said Michael Cohen missed the first deadline for the $130,000 payment because he didn’t get approval from Trump.

Cohen came up with a ‘barrage of excuses’ which he called ‘circular arguments’ or ‘contradictions,’ Davidson testified.

Davidson said: ‘He stated that the computer systems were ‘all f***ed up.’

He stated you can’t believe what we’re going through, the Secret Service is here, there’s so many firewalls, I can’t get shit.’

Eventually, Davidson said he called Cohen saying his client was ‘very upset’ and the delay was making him ‘look bad.’

Cohen replied, saying ‘God dammit what do you expect me to do my guy’s (Trump) in five different states today. There’s nothing I can do. I’m doing everything I can.’

It was clear to Davidson that Cohen didn’t have the authority to spend money despite missing the funding deadline.

Davidson said that the level of frustration from Daniels was ‘quite high.’

Cohen supposedly replied: ‘God dammit, I’ll just do it myself.’

The prosecutor asked where the money would be coming from. Davidson said: ‘Donald Trump.’

Davidson emailed Cohen on the 17th of October, three days after the deadline, saying that as far as Daniels was concerned, the contract was void.

As he walked out of the courtroom, a frustrated Trump muttered under his breath: ‘Fake trial’.

The judge and jury had already left and Trump was speaking to a woman sitting in the front row of the public gallery next to his son, Eric.

Keith Davidson detailed the convoluted plot that led to Stormy Daniels’ hush money deal eventually being paid for by Michael Cohen.

He told the court that National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and Gina Rodriguez, Daniels’ PR, negotiated a deal for $120,000.

But then Howard backed out and refused to close.

The jury heard that Howard asked Rodriguez to call Cohen to get him to pay, but she refused to speak to him.

Davidson told the jury that Rodriguez then asked him to call Cohen and close the deal.

According to Davidson, Rodriguez told him: ‘It’s going to be the easiest deal you’ve ever done in your entire life. All you need to do is pay for it and talk to that a**hole Cohen’.

The deal had initially been for $120,000.

But after Davidson got involved, he asked for another $10,000 to pay for his time.

Davidson said that he used fake names for the deal, or what he called ‘code words’ which were to ensure ‘further confidentiality in case the contract was lost or stolen’

Daniels was referred to as ‘Peggy Peterson’ while Trump was ‘David Dennison’.

The names were because Daniels was the plaintiff and Trump was the defendant, Davidson said.

He got David Dennison from somebody who was on his high school hockey team.

The real life Dennison was ‘very upset’ with me, Davidson admitted in yet another sheepish moment.

Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson told the court he first dealt with the porn star in 2011 when a blog post mentioned her ‘fling’ with Trump.

Davidson said that he called Michael Cohen and before he could get a word out ‘I was met with a hostile barrage of insults, allegations, insinuations that went on for quite a while’.

‘He was just screaming,’ Davidson said.

He said: ‘He was upset that the story on the dirty had been published and believed Stormy was the source

‘Finally, after he finished I explained I was calling because my client, Stormy Daniels, did not want the story published and I wanted to see if he had done anything to get that story taken down’

There was little interest in Daniels’ story for the next five years but that all changed in 2016 during Trump’s presidential campaign after the Access Hollywood tape came out.

After that ‘interest reached a crescendo’, Davidson said.

On October 8th, after the Access Hollywood tape came out, Davidson texted Howard: ‘Trump is f***ed.’ 

In court, an uncomfortable Davidson said ‘effed’ rather than the f-word.

Howard texted back: ‘Wave the white flag, it’s over people!’

The following day, Davidson texted back that the story was already out there.

Howard replied, saying that Daniels giving an interview would be the ‘final nail in the coffin’, adding: ‘He’s f***ed already.’

Davidson responded via text: ‘He really is.’

Trump showed no obvious reaction as the messages were read out.

McDougal’s attorney Davidson testified that American Media Inc. – the publisher of National Enquirer – had no intention of publishing her story even though they bought it for $150,000.

He said that the reason was because of an ‘unspoken understanding of the close affiliation between David Pecker and Donald Trump.’

Pecker was the editor of the National Enquirer at the time.

He said: ‘AMI would not run this story or any story related to Karen and Donald Trump because it would tend to hurt Donald Trump’.

Prosecutor Josh Steinglass if this meant hurting the Trump campaign.

Davidson was asked if McDougal really was offered a place on Dance With the Stars by ABC.

He said: ‘It was discussed a lot. There was an inference (that) best efforts would be made to make that happen. It was never guaranteed, never part of a deal. Best efforts were discussed.’

Eric Trump joined his father for the first time at his New York criminal trial on Tuesday morning and offered a withering assessment of what he saw.

‘There are hundreds of law enforcement officers, the streets are closed down for blocks around the courthouse and the entire district attorneys office is in attendance — their top prosecutors, all for $130,000 payment by a lawyer in 2016?’ he told DailyMail.com.

Eric Trump sat in the front row just behind his father for proceedings on the 15th floor of Manhattan’s aging criminal court.

Trump has denied 34 counts of business fraud.

During the lunch break, Donald Trump took to Truth Social where he slammed the judge in the hush money case.

‘This Judge has taken away my Constitutional Right to FREE SPEECH,’ Trump wrote in a post. ‘I am the only Presidential Candidate in History to be GAGGED.’

He claimed the whole trial is ‘RIGGED’ and that the judge is ‘RIGGING THE PRESIDENTIAL OF 2024 ELECTION.’

The ex-president took down seven posts Tuesday afternoon that were found to have violated the hush money trial gag order. He has been fined $9,000 for the violations.

The judge’s order took into account that Trump is running for president.

‘It is critically important that Defendant’s legitimate free speech rights not be curtailed, that he be able to fully campaign for the office which he seeks,’ it read.

Former President Donald Trump returned to the Manhattan criminal courtroom from his lunch break.

He did not speak to reporters but raised a fist as he walked by cameras.

The ex-president was accompanied by his son Eric, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and campaign aides Susie Wiles and Jason Miller as well as his lawyers.

Donald Trump has taken down the seven social media posts violating the hush money trial gag order that landed him a $9,000 fine.

Judge Juan Merchan gave Trump and his legal team a deadline of 2:15 p.m. to take them down and pay the fine by Friday May 3.

By around 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday, links to the offending posts displayed either ‘Not found’ or a ‘404 error page’.

Trump faces another hearing Thursday on at least three additional comments and posts that prosecutors say violate the order.

Donald Trump exited the courtroom for a lunch break.

He did not acknowledge the reporters as he left or answer shouted questions about whether he is happy he will get to attend son Barron’s high school graduation.

Lawyer Keith Davidson testifies that he set up a meeting between Karen McDougal and then-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard.

That’s where she told her story about her relationship with Trump to the tabloid.

American Media Inc. first declined to buy the story because she lacked evidence.

Davidson texted Howard on June 27, 2016 ‘It’s a story