How prosecutors are using evidence of Trump's 'penny-pinching' to prove the ... trends now
It was October 18th, 2016, less than a month before Election Day, and billionaire celebrity presidential candidate Donald Trump had a major 's*** show' on his hands.
A porn star who says she once playfully smacked him on the backside with a rolled up magazine during a 2006 photo shoot had demanded a substantial sum to silence her claims of a sexual affair.
The electorate might not like it. Melania might not like it either. Incredibly, a team of lawyers and advocates had hammered out a way to make the problem go away.
It was all set up – on a 'silver platter' as one party put it. But it nearly blew up, because the billionaire candidate was 'tight' with his cash.
It was one of many occasions when the billionaire with expensive tastes was loathe to part with money – only to face daunting repercussions.
The terms of the deal had been hashed out over a series of frantic texts and phone calls, many involving the harried former Trump fixer Michael Cohen.
The porn star who claimed she had sex with Trump in 2016 would sign away her rights to the alleged hookup for $130,000 just weeks before Election Day 2016.
Penny-wise: A deal to make Stormy Daniels' allegations of a sexual affair with Trump nearly blew up weeks before Election Day in 2016, because Trump was 'tight' with money, a lawyer for Daniels testified.
But then on the 18th, Daniels lawyer Keith Davidson suddenly cancelled the deal. Payment hadn't gone through.
He told National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard it was going to be a 's*** show' and that Daniels would take her claims public. That could be catastrophic for Trump's presidential campaign, which was in its final weeks.
'I just felt like it was going to be more than a flurry of activity. I felt it would be a tornado,' he testified in court in Manhattan Tuesday during the Trump trial.
It would be a 'full on blitz,' Davidson texted.
'I bet. All because Trump is tight,' Howard wrote back.
Davidson explained what he meant in court when prosecutors asked him about it.
'That Mr Trump was frugal. They had this deal there on a silver platter. It was there for the taking. The only reason it doesn't close is because it didn’t fund. The only reason it didn't fund is because they didn’t want to spend the money,' he said.
Stormy Daniels' former attorney Keith Davidson spoke about a critical period in October when the Stormy Daniels payoff fell apart and came back together. He testified Trump's 'frugality' was the reason
Trump might have saved himself thousands of dollars had he simply paid Daniels out of his own funds to suppress her claims of a sexual affair, which he denies
It is one of the most curious questions of the entire Stormy Daniels matter. Why didn't the billionaire candidate simply pay off the accuser himself? If he had, he might not be facing 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Instead, Cohen put up the money himself, in order to 'hush' talk of affair allegations that
