Live updates: Donald Trump’s hush money trial resumes

Defence attorney EMil Bove is now cross-examining Mr Daus, suggesting that the digital transfer of files could be compromised and mess up the chain of custody.

Again, planting that seed of doubt with the jury.

The sound was muffled as if a phone was being stuffed into a pocket.

We hear the last 46 seconds of that recording and see the transcript.

Cohen can be heard telling Trump “I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, you know so that I’m going to do that right now.”

Cohen says “no, no, no,” several times.

So we only saw the transcript for that bit. We were straining to hear the first bit, but there wasn’t a transcript for it. It established that Trump and Cohen were in the room together, partially talking about unsealed divorce filings before moving on to that crucial last part.

In that clip, Cohen also referenced “financing,” with Trump appearing to cut him off, asking: “What financing?”

This of course was about the McDougal payment, but jurors got to hear on tape for the first time that Trump was directly involved in the catch-and-kill scheme.

Trump is hunched over and squinting at the small screen in front of him on the defence table, whispering to attorney Todd Blanche.

We’re hearing a recording of Trump speaking on the phone then speaking with Michael Cohen. It’s hard to hear it but we’re now looking at a transcript…

Looking at the contents of Cohen’s phones we see a text from Michael Cohen to Hope Hicks at 7.09pm on 4 November 2016: “Call me.”

We see a picture of Michael Cohen posing at the lectern in the White House briefing room.

It was taken on 8 February 2017 — a few weeks after Trump was already in office.

Bizarrely: Cohen has 39,750 contacts on his phone.

“Is that unusual?” asks attorney Christopher Conroy.

What would be the average number of contacts?

We see a log for a WhatsApp call on 29 March 2018 to Keith Davidson, and an entry for a Voice Memo recording of Keith Davidson on 16 October 2017 – all metadata pulled off Cohen’s phones.

Another Voice Memo recording on 6 September 2016 labelled “New Recording 3”.

The purpose of this testimony is to go through stuff admitted into evidence and get the custodial witness to testify to their validity under oath before they are used at trial and shown to witnesses.

One more recording, still April 4:

“I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he comes out and says, You know what, Stormy Daniels, she wanted this money more than you can ever imagine. I remember hearing her on the phone saying, You fucking Keith Davidson, you better settle this god damn story … because if he loses this election, and he’s going to lose, we lose all fucking leverage and this case is worth zero.”

In full context, these were not his thoughts, these were Davidson’s description of what her manager Gina Rodriguez’s boyfriend said. Not him.

Davidson’s testimony concludes.

Emil Bove is up for recross of Davidson.

We’re hearing another recording from March 7 2018.

It’s the “hypothetically speaking” and “settler’s remorse” conversation.

Another conversation about Avenatti driving a wedge between Stormy and Gina, and how Avennatti is “leaning” on Gina.

And another one, from 4 April 2018. It’s Davidson telling Cohen about that CNN interview and how we answered if Cohen “needed authority from Donald Trump” about the payment. Davidson said it was “about completing a deal between two consenting adults, or that my client wanted and that his entity wanted. That’s it.”

Davidson states that Michael Avenatti was trying to drive a wedge between him and Daniels

He also reframes what those conversations – which Davidson says were recorded “surreptitiously” – were about, and to whom he was referring.

It’s Michael Cohen’s voice.

“What would you do if you were me? … Would you write a book? … Would you break away from the entire Trump, you know, we’ll call it, doctrine? Would you go completely rogue? … Any thoughts? Because it’s not just me that’s being affected. It’s my entire family. … Nobody’s thinking about Michael. Know what I’m saying? … I’m saying to myself, What about me? What about me? I can’t even tell you how many times he said to me, I hate the fact that we did it. And my comment to him, anyone I spoke to, was that it was the right move.”

Steinglass asks who said that “we did it” part. Donald Trump. The “right move”: the settlement with Daniels.

Bove finishes his cross-examination of Davidson.

It seems like Bove’s questions intended to give jurors the impression that Davidson – portrayed as a serial tabloid celebrity extortionist attorney – had coached Stormy Daniels himself to strike while the iron was hot to get Trump to pay her, knowing that he was vulnerable with the 2016 election.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is up for redirect questioning.

He notes that at the time of that April 2018 conversation with Cohen, Daniels was being represented by Michael Avenatti – who was suing both of them.