'What have we done?' Hush money lawyer explains apparent horror at helping Trump 2016 win
Keith Davidson, the attorney who worked with Michael Cohen to arrange hush-money payments to one-time Donald Trump mistresses Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, testified on Thursday about his seemingly horrified realization that he may have helped the now-former president get elected in 2016.
In an exchange flagged by legal reporter Adam Klasfeld, Davidson was asked by prosecutors about an email he sent to National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard on election night in 2016 where he asked, "What have we done?"
"Oh my God," Howard replied.
"This was sort of gallows humor," Davidson said of the exchange. "It was on election night as the results were coming in... There was a growing sense that people were about to call Trump's election."
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The prosecution then pressed Davidson to elaborate more on his reasons for believing that he and Howard had contributed to Trump's victory.
Davidson said that "there was an understanding" between the two men that their efforts to keep Daniels and McDougal quiet were done for the explicit benefit of Trump's presidential campaign.
Shortly after this, Davidson recalled former Trump "fixer" Michael Cohen reacting angrily when it turned out that Trump was not going to give him a job in his White House.
"Jesus Christ, can you f---ing believe that I’m not going to Washington?" Cohen said, according to Davidson's recollection. "After everything I’ve done for that f---ing guy... I've saved that guy’s ass so many times, you don’t f---ing know."
On top of this, Cohen also said at the time that "you know that f---ing guy’s not even paying me the $130,000 back," a reference to the money Cohen personally forked over as part of the hush-money agreement.
The Daniels and McDougal payments were part of a "catch-and-kill" scheme the National Enquirer ran on Trump's behalf to track down, pay for, and bury stories that could potentially damage his reputation during the 2016 presidential election.