Court hears that lawyers argued over paying Stormy Daniels

It was a long day in court, but prosecutors used their time to question four different witnesses.

Here's what happened in case you missed it:

• Justice Merchan found Trump had violated the court's gag order in 9 of the 10 contempt charges levelled against him by prosecutors
• Trump was fined $9,000 (£7204) for the violations, and the judge threatened jail time if the former president violated the gag order further

• The court finished with the testimony of Gary Farro, a banker at First Republic Bank who helped Cohen pull together the $130,000 needed to allegedly pay off Stormy Daniels
• We heard brief testimony from two witnesses - a public television archivist and then an individual who takes depositions - to confirm statements made by Trump
• Prosecutors then called Keith Davidson, the ex-lawyer of Stormy Daniels, to the stand
• Davidson advised Playboy model Karen McDougal on how to sell her alleged "romantic affair" with Trump to the National Enquirer
• He also made the alleged hush-money deal for Stormy Daniels' story about her tryst with Trump
• Those negotiations were shown to the court via a series of sordid text messages between Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen and Davidson
• The messages also appeared to make clear that Davidson and others knew Daniels' story would hurt Trump's efforts to win the presidential election in 2016

Court will resume at 9:30 local time (14:30 BST) on Thursday, with a contempt of court hearing regarding Trump's gag order violations.

Trump was ordered to pay a $9,000 fine, but prosecutors will likely want to discuss his continued abuse of the gag order. It requires him to refrain from attacking witnesses, members of the jury and others involved in the case.

Jurors are scheduled to be seated at 10:00, which is when Davidson's testimony will continue.

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Court closed for the day, and the former president seemed angry and frustrated when he spoke to the press outside.

"This is a trial that is nonsense," he said.

He claimed that Justice Merchan was "totally conflicted" and "rushing this case" - and he also took shots at the judges involved in cases he recently lost. .

The presumptive Republican nominee also expressed his outrage that he wasn't able to be out on the campaign trail.

"It’s a joke. I’m sitting here and that’s what they want," he said.

Before court wrapped for the day, it was clear that getting the Stormy Daniels hush-money cash from Michael Cohen was a drama for Keith Davidson.

The court was shown an email from Davidson to Cohen on 26 October 2016 that included wiring instructions.

He sent this because of "Cohen's repeated assertion that he didn't have my wiring instructions", despite Davidson saying that he did.

"Michael Cohen had called me and said, 'hey everything is a-ok'. We got everything that we need. And you know, we are sending you the money.'"

"I told him that I didn't believe him. And he forwarded this email to me."

The court is shown an email from First Republic Bank that showed Cohen had the funds available.

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just held an impromptu press conference in the park.

He said he wanted to be here to support Donald Trump. He said he can relate to the former president, since Paxton faced his own "sham" trial earlier this year.

The Texas politician faced impeachment after he requested $3.3 million in taxpayer money to settle a lawsuit with whistleblowers from his office.

Paxton also settled a felony securities fraud case last month. He agreed to pay $300,000 in restitution for misleading investors, and he committed to completing 100 hours of community service and 15 hours of legal ethics traning.

When asked if he would be attending the trial further, Paxton replied he has a day job to get back to.

He said he was most surprised that the Trump legal team was not objecting more to hearsay, and he spoke to them about it.

We've hit a snag here with several objections from Trump's legal team.

They don't like the way the prosecution is asking questions to Keith Davidson about who paid the hush-money.

The judge agrees, and sustains several objections.

We have also had two sidebars with the judge and both legal teams, where they've gathered at the front of the courtroom and talked at length.

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The close relationship between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump is now being discussed.

"It was part of his identity, and he let you know it every opportunity he could that he was working for Donald Trump," Keith Davidson says of Cohen.

Cohen was once Trump's personal lawyer and adviser, one of his closest allies. T

hat relationship later imploded, and the two men have a history of verbal attacks on one another since their falling out.

Court is back from the afternoon break.

Donald Trump is sitting between two of his lawyers, glancing at two screens that are once again showing text messages.

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Trump has his son Eric in the audience, but he also is joined by a few other friends as well.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seated in the front row, a few seats to the left of Eric Trump.

The younger Trump is seated next to Susie Wiles, a Republican operative who is reportedly acting as a politicial guide through the former president's multiple trials.

Keith Davidson says he did not believe Michael Cohen’s excuses for failure to fork over the payment.

“I thought he was trying to kick the can down the road until after the election,” Davidson tells the court.

And on that note, the court will go on an afternoon break.

We now see an email from Keith Davidson to Michael Cohen that says his client deemed the agreement “cancelled”.

The email also says he will no longer represent Daniels.

Davidson tells the court he wrote this so Cohen would no longer call him.

He says this email is where “push came to shove” and that “this deal is over”.

”I said to both Cohen and my client, I’m out.”

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We’re now hearing how there was conflict between Cohen and Donald Trump about getting the cash paid to Stormy Daniels.

“I called him and said Michael.. this is a very bad situation. I don’t believe, really, a word that you’re saying,” Davidson says.

Cohen then responded: “He said ‘my guy is in (expletive) five states today,’” inferring it’s been hard to get hold of his boss to make the payment.

Davidson says his impression was Cohen did not have the authority to “fund the deal” without Trump.

Cohen also demanded that only he retained a copy of the $130,000 agreement with Stormy Daniels, Davidson tells the court.

He says that is very unusual.

David Dennison is the name used for Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush-money deal.

Keith Davidson says he came up with the name for Trump to ensure confidentiality.

And how did he come up with the name?

It turns out David Dennison was on a high school hockey team with Davidson.

He’s not too happy with Davidson either, the court hears.

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AMI “washed their hands of the deal” with Stormy Daniels and “handed it off to Michael Cohen”, according to Keith Davidson.

Davidson tells the court he was approached by a colleague that told him she had the “easiest deal” he would ever see, and he just had to deal with that “asshole” (meaning Michael Cohen).

He snorts with a bit of a laugh as he tells the court that it would be the easiest deal of his life.

Clearly it’s not looking so easy from the witness stand.

Keith Davidson says the moral of the story with the latest series of text messages just shown to court is “no-one wanted to talk to Cohen”.

It’s been a rough day for Michael Cohen today, despite him not even being here.

Multiple witnesses have described him as being someone they hated dealing with. He was even referenced as “some jerk” in evidence shown to the jury.

Cohen will be a key witness in this trial, but we don’t yet know when he will testify.

In a message that contained an expletive, Keith Davidson told tabloid editor Dylan Howard that Trump was ruined after the release of the Access Hollywood tape.

“Wave the white flag,” Howard responded.

Davidson says the pair talked about how it could get a lot worse for Trump if Stormy Daniels talked.

This line of questioning from the prosecution is attempting to push the narrative that the Stormy Daniels story could have seriously harmed Trump’s political ambitions if it was made public so close to the Access Hollywood tape.

This is a fascinating but sordid display of how these tabloid stories are shopped and sold.

Keith Davidson says the appetite for Stormy Daniels’ story had died off, but resurfaced around the time of the Access Hollywood tape.

Davidson explains the tape as a hot mic moment that recorded statements from Donald Trump and Billy Bush that were “troublesome”.

“Before Access Hollywood tape there was very little interest” in the Stormy Daniels story, he says.

He said interest “reached a crescendo” after the Access Hollywood tape.