Keith Davidson

Keith Davidson
Born	Brockton, Massachusetts,U.S.
Education	Boston College(BS) Whittier College(JD)
Occupation	Trial attorney
Years active	2000–present
Known for	Cases involving celebrity sex tapes; formerly representingStormy Daniels
Website	kmdlaw

Keith M. Davidsonis an attorney in Beverly Hills, California.Davidson has represented clients who soughtnondisclosure agreementsettlements from notable individuals, includingDonald Trump,Charlie Sheen,andHulk Hogan.He has alsomanagedprofessional boxersManny PacquiaoandJames Toney.

In the mid-2010s, adult film actressStormy DanielsandPlayboyPlaymateKaren McDougalretained Davidson to negotiate payments in exchange for refraining from publicly discussing their sexual encounters with then-presidential candidateDonald Trump.These settlements drew Davidson into the Trump campaign expense controversy. He has since cooperated withspecial prosecutorRobert Mueller's investigation.

Early life

Davidson was born and raised inBrockton,Massachusetts.Davidson graduated fromBoston Collegewith aB.S.in economics in 1993.For the next two years, Davidson worked in government with thestate legislatureand at thePlymouth Countydistrict attorney's office. He then attendedWhittier Law SchoolinCosta Mesa, California,graduated in May 2000, and sworn in to the bar on December 5, 2000.

Career

Davidson has settled cases for sums up to $1.6 million.He has represented clients in criminal and civil matters, includingpersonal injury cases,contract disputes,andentertainment law.In 2003 and again in 2012, Davidson represented children abused by a kindergarten teacher.

In the mid-2010s, adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal retained Davidson to negotiate payments in exchange for not publicly discussing their sexual encounters with Donald Trump; Daniels accepted $130,000 in November 2016, shortly before Trump was elected U.S. president, in return for signing an NDA. In 2016, Davidson negotiated a settlement of $1.6 million forPlayboyPlaymateShera Bechardfrom an unnamed Republican Party official.

In additional to practicing law, Davidson managed boxersJames ToneyandManny Pacquiao,often visible at the latter's side when he went out in public.

Paris Hilton

In January 2007, the website ParisExposed launched, offering unrestricted access to digitized copies ofParis Hilton's diaries, nude photos, videos, and medical and financial records for a fee.The materials were originally acquired in a 2005Public Storageauction, after Hilton had failed to pay. Hilton's lawyers sued in federal court; a month later, the court granted aninjunctionbarring further publication and dissemination of the material.ParisExposed reappeared four months later. Hilton's attorney's sued again, naming as the defendant theSt. Kitts-basedshell companywho registered the domain. As the attorney for the shell company, Davidson toldThe Smoking Gunthat, while he represented the content owner, that was the extent of his involvement with the site.

Tila Tequila

In 2010,Tila Tequilaalleged that Davidson threatened to market asex tapeof her and her former boyfriend, claiming that she would receive a share of the proceeds if she consented to its release. However, Tequila had no interest in the videos distribution.

Davidson quickly settled with her and offered to give her the tape as long as the settlement absolved him of professional wrongdoing. While he was vague about how he had acquired the copyright, he defended his actions inTheSmoking Gunarticle. "... [I] was willing to give it back to her for nothing... I thought that it was probably an admirable thing to do and a way to get rid of the whole case."

Charlie Sheen

In 2010,Capri Andersonalleged that she was assaulted byCharlie Sheenand retained Davidson as counsel. Despite his90-day suspension,Davidson contacted Sheen's attorney to negotiate a settlement of at least a million dollars. Sheen later sued Anderson, arguing she was attempting to extort him. Davidson arranged for Anderson to appear onGood Morning Americato discuss her case and appeared with her on the broadcast interview.

The following year Davidson represented Kira Montgomery, another adult-film actress who claimed potential injury from Sheen. In 2011, Sheen disclosed to Montgomery that he wasHIV-positive (she would later test negative). Montgomery was referred to Davidson.

During their first meeting, Montgomery's partner claimed Kira was under the influence of themethamphetamineswhen she signed her contract with Davidson, thus voiding it. Davidson disputed the account. Davidson arranged for Montgomery to enter arehabilitationfacility, and eventually negotiated a $2 million settlement with Sheen, payable in installments, provided that she keep the actor's HIV status to herself.Sheen finally went public with his HIV status in 2015, potentially ending his settlement obligations. The day before, Davidson registered the domain charliesheenlawsuit.

Hulk Hogan

In early 2012,TMZreported the discovery of a sex tape featuring former professional wrestlerHulk Hoganand radio personalityTodd Clem's wife. The videos had been given toTMZby Matt Loyd, a formerinternfor Clem's radio show. Loyd claimed he had found the tapes inside abox setof DVDs during agarage salefundraiser Clem had held. Law enforcement later believed the DVDs had been stolen, but never pressed charges.

TMZwas not planning to air any excerpts from the tapes. However, in October 2012, the websiteGawkerpublished a short excerpt of the tape and a description of the rest. At that time,TMZrecommended that Loyd retain Davidson.Davidson quickly approached Hogan's attorney, David Houston, to negotiate an agreement to return the tapes to Hogan.Davidson characterized theGawkerpost as a "shot across the bow" from his clients, saying that there was more where that had come from, and made what Houston characterized as less discreet threats.

Hogan, Houston, and Davidson met in a Florida hotel room to finalize the agreement. Davidson brought the videos, and the other two brought $150,000 in cash. FBI agents in the next room listened in and prepared to make an arrest. During the meeting, Davidson admitted to Houston that the tapes had initially come from a disgruntled former employee of Clem's and that he did not know whether they had been stolen nor was he interested in knowing.

During the meeting, Lori Burbridge (a friend of Loyd's)admitted to Hogan and Houston that she had leaked the tape toGawker.She and Hogan signed multiple copies of the agreement. While Houston and Hogan were authenticating them, Burbridge submitted to alie detectortest as the contract required. Davidson prepared to hand over the DVDs, and Houston readied a check for $150,000 when the FBI agents entered the room.

After being detained and questioned, Burbridge and Davidson were released, pending further investigation. Davidson texted Loyd and advised him to retain separate counsel since he now had aconflict of interestas a target of the same investigation.Davidson hired A. Brian Albritton, formerUnited States Attorney for the Middle District of Floridato represent him. Seven months later, federal prosecutors closed the case without charging anyone.

In 2015, a portion of the video in which Hogan had used racist language was made public byThe National Enquirer.Hogan suedGawker,with the help of tech billionairePeter Thiel.The lawsuit forcedGawkerintobankruptcy,and they subsequently had to shut down. Hogan also sued Davidson, Loyd, Burbridge, and several others connected toGawker,alleging they conspired withGawkerto persuade Hogan to drop his suitand conspired to leak and financially benefit from illegally recorded video.

Karen McDougal

From 2006 to 2007,Karen McDougal,Playboy's 1998Playmate of the Year,had anaffairwithDonald Trump.A decade later, just after Trump won the 2016Republicannomination for president, another former Playmate,Carrie Stevensnamed McDougal and several other Playmates who had had affairs withDonald Trump,on herTwitterfeed. McDougal had no intention of publicly sharing the details of the affair; however, a friend urged her to, "get out in front of it," so she hired Davidson to negotiate her story with interested media outlets.

McDougal retained Davidson in June 2016, agreeing that he would get 45 percent of any monies she received in connection with the story. Davidson began negotiating withAmerican Media, Inc.(AMI), the parent company ofThe National Enquirer.AMI, executiveDylan Howardhad McDougal explain the details of the affair. Afterward Davidson told her that the company was not interested. McDougal later learned that Davidson had calledMichael Cohen,one of Trump's lawyers, about her conversation with AMI;Davidson called it "a professional courtesy."

McDougal looked for other media outlets to tell the story first;ABC Newsexpressed interest. She shared documents with them, but AMI contacted her with renewed interest. They offered to pay her for the lifetime rights to the story but stated they would not publish it since the company's CEODavid J. Peckerwas a personal friend of Trump.The offer included a cash payment of $150,000, two years of columns on women's health and wellness, and two cover appearances on their magazines. McDougal claims she made it clear that she did not fully understand the contract; however, Davidson allegedly recommended that she sign and return the agreement within hours of receipt. Upon later review, McDougal discovered that the deal only gave AMI theoptionto run columns under her name and likeness, a detail she claims Davidson did not adequately communicate with her. Davidson said he had, "fulfilled his obligations and zealously advocated for Ms. McDougal to accomplish her stated goals at that time."

Shortly before the election, at the beginning of November,The Wall Street Journalreported on the deal between AMI and McDougal and the alleged affair. AMI contacted McDougal again, saying that their goal had always been to make sure the story was never published. McDougal fired Davidson and hired another attorney to void the AMI contract;in April 2018, she was successful.

Stormy Daniels

Further information:Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal

Around the same time that Davidson was finalizing the deal between McDougal and AMI, he was representing another woman who alleged a contemporaneous affair with Trump: adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, known onscreen asStormy Daniels.In that case, thecounterpartywas Trump himself, represented by Cohen.Davidson toldCNNhe had first represented Clifford in this matter when gossip siteTheDirtyreported rumors of the relationship in 2011.Ultimately Daniels received $130,000 for her silence.

In early 2018, Daniels broke her silence and recounted the affair toAnderson Cooperon60 Minutes.By then, she had fired Davidson; her new lawyer,Michael Avenatti,charged that Davidson had colluded with Cohen both in Daniels' and McDougal's cases to protect Trump. In June, Daniels sued Davidson for malpractice; two days later, Davidsoncountersuedher and Avenatti allegingdefamation.He said that her claims were inaccurate and that he looked forward to correcting them, "in an appropriate forum."

Davidson's involvement with Daniels' settlement interestedspecial prosecutorRobert Mueller,who was investigating the payment. Cohen made the payment personally through alimited liability corporation;however, it was suggested he was to be reimbursed by Trump personally or by his campaign, a payment which was not reported as a campaign expense. After the FBI searched Cohen's office in mid-April 2018, prosecutors asked Davidson to turn over, "certain electronic records" from his interactions with Cohen.

In a March 11, 2019 interview on CNN'sCuomo Prime Time,Davidson stated that he had cooperated with federal prosecutors at theSouthern District of New York.They were investigating a potential Campaign Finance Violation by Donald Trump over the payment. Davidson sat for roughly 20 hours of interviews with the DOJ. In response to this disclosure,Asha Rangappastated that Davidson was an essential independent corroborating witness for the prosecution because he verified that Stormy Daniels was paid for political purposes, at least in part.

Shera Bechard

In May 2018,The Wall Street Journalreported thatShera Bechard,another former Playmate, had retained Davidson to negotiate for her a $1.6 million payment from an unnamed Republican Party official. According to anondisclosure agreementfound among documents seized in the raid on Michael Cohen's office the previous month, the money was for an affair that had led to anabortion.The agreement had been signed "David Dennison," for Cohen's client, the samepseudonymthat Trump had used to sign his agreement with Daniels while Davidson had represented her. TheJournallater identified the official asElliott Broidy,the Republican party's deputy finance chairman, a financier convicted of bribery in 2009.According to theJournal's account, after Bechard retained Davidson, he contacted Cohen.

New Yorkmagazine columnistPaul Campossuspected that, based on the timing of the arrangement, Broidy may have accepted responsibility for Trump. Campos believed it was much more plausible that it was Trump who had impregnated Bechard and paid to keep the abortion from becoming public knowledge. Campos noted that the first of eight $200,000 installments had been paid to Davidson in early December 2017, just before Bechard fired Davidson, believing he was putting the opposing client's interest above hers.

In July 2018, Broidy announced he was ceasing payments, claiming that the agreement was no longer valid because Davidson had leaked the information to Michael Avenatti, a claim Davidson denied. Campos said this, too, makes no sense as the unauthorized disclosure of the information would not be legal grounds to void the entire agreement; if that had happened, Broidy should have sued Davidson, since he had not represented Bechard since the agreement was signed.

Controversies

In 2010 Davidson was suspended from theCalifornia barafter clients complained he had not paid sufficient attention to their cases, with adverse effects to their resolution.Initially the suspension was for two years, but after he completed required ethics classes it was reduced to 90 days and three years probation.He told CNN the discipline was the result of his practice being "spread a little too thin" at the time.

Davidson has been sued by three individuals allegingextortion.During negotiations overHulk Hogan's sex tape in 2012, he was detained byFBIagents conducting asting operation,although no charges were filed.

In April 2024, it waspointed out in courtthat the hush money payments made toStormy DanielsandKaren McDougalin exchange for their silence about sexual or romantic relationships they had withDonald Trumpwere wired to Davidson, who, at the time of the payments, represented both women.Davidson was also revealed to have drafted the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels, using the pseudonyms "Peggy Peterson" for Daniels and "David Dennison" for Trump.According to former First Republic Bank executive Gary Farro,Michael Cohenwired the hush money payment to Davidson through an account Cohen had set up at First Republic Bank.However, Davidson testified that he believed Trump was the one behind the hush money talks.Texts between Davidson and Cohen from October 2016 also showed how Davidson provided wiring instructions for the $130,000 hush money payment, and how Davidson also believed that AMI would resurrect the proposed deal to buy the Stormy Daniels story after it was turned down by Dylan Howard and David Pecker.Together with Daniels and her managerGina Rodriguez,Davidson would also receive part of the settlement payment.Davidson was acknowledged to have had a role in the $150,000 with American Media Inc. for his former clientKaren McDougal's story about an affair with Trump as well.

Personal life

Davidson's wife, Kristi, is a registered nurse. Davidson and his wife own a house inStudio City,and a vacation home inScottsdale, Arizona.They have two sons and live inVentura County,north of Los Angeles.

See also

• 2017–18 United States political sexual scandals
• List of Boston College people
• Personal and business legal affairs of Donald Trump

External links

• Keith M. Davidson & Associates website