Week three of Donald TrumpsHush Money Criminal Trial. I, wolf blitzer in washington, Kaitlan Collins is outside the courthouse in new york, right . Now, the prosecution is questioning Keith Davidson, the former attorney for Stormy Daniels, and Karen Mcdougal to women who say they had affairs with trump anywhere paid to keep quiet. Jurors also heard from the banker who processed the Stormy Daniels payment. He said he was misled about that transaction caitlin yeah. Wolf, its been fascinating inside that courtroom because also remember at the start of today, the judge ruled that trump violated his gag order in this case nine times. He find trump the max its a mum of 1,000 per violation and even floated the possibility of jail time for future ones. Cnns paula reid and Phil Mattingly are here covering all of this with me. I should note that the court has just taken a break for lunch, which means Keith Davidson is off the witness stand. Donald trump is leaving the courtroom, so as the judge and the jury, just for a small moment, but Keith Davidson is an incredibly significant witness for the jury to be hearing from paula. Yeah. And then the past, our theyve heard mostly about Karen Mcdougal and her or his efforts to represent her as she tried its a shopper story and he lays out a couple of significant things. First of all, that she has competing offers. Hes trying to build pressure to get this soul. He talks about the quote estrogen mafia, as he said as he regrets describing it, some female producers at abc news or pressuring her to give them the story while hes quoting ami, American Media incorporated, the owner of the National Enquirer perhaps purchaser story, and he suggests that Karen Mcdougal actually preferred the National Enquirers approach because she didnt necessarily want her story published, but its also something to see the kind of offers he tossed out on behalf of his client. The first offer was over 1 million, and then to pay her to be a calmness. So hes going through stepbystep. What he did to try to get this deal for his client and its important that were going to get to the Stormy Daniels aspect and that agreement that Keith Davidson also negotiated. But what we learn from david pecker last week is that Karen Mcdougal is someone that trump was very much checking in with long after he was already in the white house david pecker recalled when he visited the white house, donald trump asking him, hows karen doing . Several times, the former president , then candidate, and then president would add david pecker. Theres the meeting at trump tower with several future white house officials and the former president where after they left, they included fbi director jim comey, included the future cie director, my palm peo rents previous as well. And after they departed, he asked how she was doing in the white house, as you noted, a couple of months later, did the same exact thing. The present very cognizant of something going with Karen Mcdougal. And now youre getting the dynamics. We talked a lot when david pecker testifying about the foundational elements of what they were setting up. The prosecution. This is very much along those lines as well. Didnt gotten to Stormy Daniels yet, but the jury is hearing how this all works and getting a very inside look into as opposed to competing dynamics between two different news organizations. And also the very clear desire stated by davidson that mcdougal not want her story to be public, wanting to go through ami, including some pretty exorbitant michelle offers on the table to try and ensure that the story did not ever see the light of day. It also shows how much negotiating happened backandforth, and how the urgency changed is weve got closer to there are convention. And as well learn with Stormy Daniels, the election and paula Keith Davidson is going to be a juicy witness before that, there were some witnesses who would not be described it in that way i love a good archives. I saw you guys riffing on cspan earlier and i was very here. But well work proceeds spat on this panel, but obviously to the jury, they were having to explain Pool Reporters and going into the details of of Court Testimony in depositions that trump is good given that could be key to this. Weve actually found those key moments that they are putting into the evidence rucker. I just want everyone to see and listen to what the jury was watching. Im listening to earlier as you obscene right now, i am being viciously attacked with lies and smears its a phony deal i have no idea who these women are every woman allied when they came forward to hurt my campaign total fabrication the events never happened never they want. To be able to use this. Its some point later on down the road. I mean, they already showed it to the jury, but to use it to show what trump was saying at the time. Yeah. Look, its not a crime to stand on a stage and vladimir supporters, or to lie to the press in these poor ports. But its interesting, he said, these women are lying to hurt my campaign. So at some level he is acknowledging that he knows that these stories could potentially hurt his campaign. And of course, we now know that these stories are other fairs. And though he has deny them, it does appear that they were all true. So this also works to undermine and his credibility and show that he was working as prosecutors allege on this cover up on this conspiracy to conceal these payments, to conceal the stories of the affairs. Why . To help his chances in the 26 cant team campaign. And thats so critical because its that part of the case that elevates this to a felony well, i was just gonna say so much of what weve heard over the course of the last week and a half is at least at some point it was not about the family anymore is about the campaign. It was about both his election and then what his white house would be like talking about the urgency as you were noting as we move towards Stormy Daniels through the part of the story, but also as weve already heard, the president , at least according to david pecker, was repeatedly asked asking about one of the women and how she was doing, saying once again, there they didnt know any of the women. We dont know the allegations are true. Hes denied all of them, but we do know at least according to one firsthand witness, the president pretty much knew who cared mcdougal was and wolf that point that fill just made about protecting the president s family is also key given one thing that were seeing thats different today is trump has a Family Member in the courtroom with him that he he has not had since this trial began. It is his second son, eric trump, who we saw getting the motorcade with them. Hes been entering and exiting the courtroom. Donald trump, weve not seen any members of the trump family i tend court with trump until today, wolff . Yeah, its very significant. Indeed lawyers, Defense Lawyers are always suggesting Family Members show up during these kinds of criminal trials. House caitlin will get back to you in a few moments, we have an expert panel here with me right now, laura coates, elie honig, gloria borger, and David Xiaolei and and laura. Lets start off with you. Explain where Keith Davidson fits into all of this, why the prosecution wanted him to testify. Well, he is the person who negotiated more than one nda. One involves karam, a google and one ultimately Stormy Daniels. Now of course he was the attorney would a former attorney, which may give you pause thinking, well, how are you able to communicate at all about the nature of your represents . With your client . Its the client who owned the privilege and the client who put that muzzle on his or her attorney. But theres likely having here that theres already immunity given to them because in new york, new york has a peculiar law where if you testify in front of a grand jury, you have immunity and they likely have a carveout where he could and talk about the nature of communications outside of the specific combination with him and his client, and instead about what was communicated by the outside. The outside is being dylan howard, the righthand man, david pecker, and david pecker ultimately this important to not only corroborate the testimony, david pecker talks about a catchandkill but also give us maybe a little more flavor and color as to what was the motivation behind the reason to enter in the agreement . Very significant, indeed, davidson, elie elie honig is with this testified there when it came to some of the dealings with Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen was working, quote, on trumps behalf. Has the prosecution effectively already established that trump was tied to Stormy Daniels while theyre trying to do it with that and thats a helpful piece of testimony for the prosecutors because a central theme is emerging in the defense its here which is this. Michael collin, whatever he was doing, he was off the reservation here. He was acting on his own. He was doing things that he was not running by donald trump. He was doing things that donald trump did not know about and did not approve. And so it helps if the prosecution gets evidenced that well, i understood Michael Cohen was acting on behalf of donald trump. Now, watch what happens on cross though. The cross is going to be how do you know that . How do you know Michael Cohen was acting on behalf of donald trump and ill bet you the answer is because Michael Cohen said, i was acting on behalf of donald trump, which sort of undermines a little bit of that claim that it was trump himself. But this is going to be a theme that weve seen already. Well see throughout the trial was cohen acting for donald trump . Was cohen acting on his own as a sort free agent . I think the question is, why else would Michael Cohen viewing this . Yeah, well, hes doing it for would be the motivation. Otherwise, its about his director or on his on his behalf or for trump. Thats gonna be the parsing. Or or or all of the above, right . I think at the defense, to your point, and i think we are making if the point if the defense is going to say hold on, you were doing a clique, thought it would help trump. But the defendant is trump and they have to prove that he had he intended for the behavior to actually occur direct correspondence that time Michael Cohen was still trumps fixer and lawyer. He was. But was he the fixer who make sure that you dont have to deal with the problem before it actually begins, are the one that took directly shouldnt because michael, heres the problem. Go solve it and just remember the timing that were talking about. Im looking at these dates of these texts in july of 2016, were talking about as the Republican National convention in cleveland, where donald trump is being voted as the nominee for the Republican Party for president. That happens on july 21 and july 22 is one of these texts the day after that huge moment of coronation for him. And its dylan howard trying to get a hold of Michael Cohen because the heat is being put on him to be able to move the story forward. And it just makes me think as a political reporter, how much is happening with the paddling under the water, right . That you will know nothing about while were all covering the convention. This is happening behind the scenes to try to prevent a total implosion and explosion of the candidates if you have time, trumps thinking what was going on. At those moments clearly, that was the top of his mind well, who knows if it was at the top of his mind, but it was its clear that it was at the top of Michael Cohens mind. And what he was trying to do was make sure that none of this got out, none of this got out and hes the one dealing with Keith Davidson. And on both Karen Mcdougal in Stormy Daniels because he represented both of them. And i think its its i mean, im waiting to hear from Michael Cohen to hear whether he got direct or porters now, you know, they always say about donald trump that he never gives direct orders that he kind of into mates. This is what you ought to do. And the question is, is that the case . And would that be good enough . To prove that in fact, donald trump asked him and wanted him to do what he did. Notice that that many times publicly, he said thats how trump operandi never calvary. For example when Michael Cohen pled guilty to lying to congress about the trump tower moscow, he testified trump never sat me down and said, i need you to lie for me, but we all understood what he wanted to be clear were on the attack on Michael Cohen. Its not going to be the Michael Cohen was doing this for the benefit financial or otherwise of Michael Cohen. Its Michael Cohen was the fixer. He wanted to ingratiation himself to trump. You want it to be someone who is useful and valuable to trump. And so he went off on his own and work things out. And then the big question, as laura was saying, is how much of that planning to donald trump know about to what extent was he involved in the nuances and to what extent was he sort of arms distance and just just tell me what i need to know. The prosecutor is going to have to prove, even even point of whether trump has intimated or not. You got to look for the attaboy at the ends, right . Thats the part were seeing a lot of Text Messages already coming in to confirm and what we all interpret the deal to be. You hear it from this manner testifying right now, we hear rather people. So if at the end of this, donald trump has only intimated and at the end hes black like, good job. Remember weve already heard david pecker write that donald trump said thank you, thank you for handling the mcdougal and daniels situations. And then how to the white house right, yeah. Theres your everybody stand by our Kara Scannell has been inside the courtroom all morning. She just got out. Karatay color viewers. What you saw, what you heard well, if we saw the day begin with a continued testimony of Michael Cohens banker at the time, who helped set up the bank account that cohen used to transfer . The 130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, attorney Keith Davidson. We just ended the morning session with Keith Davidson on the stand and he is talking now about the arrangement involving Karen Mcdougal. She was the woman who said that she had a years long affair with donald trump. And so what the jury is seeing now our Text Message Judges that were exchanged between Keith Davidson and dylan howard from the National Enquirer as they were working around this deal, and davidson is testifying as hes testifying, these little thank at the jury to in an explanatory way to explain things to them and one thing that noted that stood out to me was that he kept referencing this personal interaction that mcdougal had with donald trump, the prosecutor then asked him, what do you mean by that . It was that point that davidson said, well, she alleged she had a romantic relationship with him. The prosecutors peter asked sexual and he said, yes. I mean, theyre also saw a text. Were dylan howard was asking for information about it and he asked if this was, if this meant that donald trump had cheated on the line . Omnia and davidson said at the time he didnt tell him what he knew because he wanted to try to create some drama and create some interest in the story. And ultimately we see from these Text Messages that Karen Mcdougal had a competing offer from abc news where she would tell her story. And then he began negotiating with the National Enquirer about how much money she would get et for this. And in one of these texts, exchanges keeps davidson is saying, throw in an ambassadorship for me im thinking isle of man. He then explained to the jury then what he meant by that was that if he had this made this Karen Mcdougal deal happen, it would help Donald Trumps campaign. So prosecutors, again, trying to use him to tie this back to the campaign because Karen Mcdougal and according to david pecker and according now with pete dav