Donald Trump hush money trial includes Hulk Hogan, Hurricane Matthew

Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.

Jurors heard a potentially pivotal piece of evidence — a 2016 recording of Trump discussing a plan to buy a Playboy model’s silence — as well as testimony about the wrestler Hulk Hogan and hurricanes, literal and figurative.

Trump may be a criminal defendant, but an element of his defense came into view this past week when one of his lawyers suggested Trump might actually have been a victim.

Attorney Emil Bove implied during a notably tense cross-examination that his client had been effectively targeted for extortion by Keith Davidson, a crucial witness and the lawyer who negotiated hush money deals for two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, claiming to have had sexual encounters with Trump. Trump denies it.

Bove name-dropped a gaggle of celebrities he suggested had been coerced over the years into paying Davidson’s clients eye-popping sums to suppress harmful videos or stories. Among them was actor Charlie Sheen, whom Bove said Davidson had “extracted sums of money from;” Davidson took issue with the word “extract” but said he had been involved in “valid settlements” with Sheen.

Davidson also acknowledge that he had faced an FBI investigation, but was never charged, for allegedly attempting to extort Hogan to head off the release of the professional wrestling star’s sex tape.

By 2016, Bove suggested, Davidson was well-versed in the concept of squeezing celebrities such as Trump.

“And you did everything that you could to get as close to that line as possible in these negotiations without crossing it, right?” Bove asked.

“I did everything I could to make sure my activities were lawful,” Davidson replied.

Hope Hicks, a onetime Trump confidant who for years was central in his orbit, described in detail a seminal moment of the 2016 campaign: The Washington Post’s disclosure of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording in which Trump boasted about grabbing women’s genitals without their permission.

“I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days,” Hicks testified. “This was a damaging development.”

The recording, made public just days before a debate with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, is relevant to the case because prosecutors believe it helps explain the frenetic efforts by Trump and allies in the campaign’s remaining weeks to try to suppress any additional harmful stories that might arise.

Regardless, the immediate impact of the “Access Hollywood” story was so intense, Hicks recalled, that it took attention away from an actual storm. Hurricane Matthew was dominating the news cycle when Hicks was contacted about the forthcoming story. That didn’t last long.

“The ‘Access Hollywood’ tape pushed the hurricane off the news?” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asked.

“Yes,” Hicks replied.

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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.