– Defense tapes from 2018 phone calls between lawyers were posted to SoundCloud by Law360
– The tapes suggest an alternate reality where Trump is more victim than mastermind
– Stormy Daniels’ lawyer testifies about phone calls with Cohen and defense narrative of extortion by media attorney is presented in court
Law360 posted recordings of phone calls played in court on Thursday between two lawyers involved in a hush-money deal in 2016, suggesting an alternate reality in which Trump is portrayed as more of a victim than a mastermind according to the District Attorney. Stormy Daniels’ lawyer testified in court that he could tell when Michael Cohen was recording their calls based on his structured tone, indicating that Cohen was likely taping him during those conversations. The tapes from March 2018 include conversations between Trump’s lawyer and a former lawyer for a porn star discussing the hush-money deal and potential extortion efforts before the 2016 election.
Daniels has portrayed herself as signing the hush-money deal out of fear for her life in a documentary, wanting to create a paper trail linking her to Trump for safety. The defense is pushing an extortion theory, suggesting that Daniels’ agent and her lawyer may have leveraged her story to gain money in the waning days of the election. Despite whether Trump was a victim or mastermind, prosecutors allege that Trump falsified business records in 2017 to hide an election-influencing conspiracy involving hush-money payments, which are felonies. The prosecution argues that the case is about a criminal conspiracy and cover-up, and not necessarily about who was playing whom in the hush-money deal.