Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial enters its 11th day following raucous testimony about his increasingly unhinged underling and the tawdry business of celebrity sex scandals.

Keith Davidson, the attorney representing Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, returned to the witness stand on Thursday. Davidson was grilled on his communications with former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard around the 2016 election and Michael Cohen, Trump’s then fixer.

As it grew more and more apparent on election night 2016 that Trump would become the president, Davidson texted Howard: “What have we done?”

Related: Text shows Stormy Daniels lawyer’s shock at Trump win in 2016: ‘What have we done?’

“Oh my God,” Howard replied, with Davidson walking jurors’ through the texts as they were displayed in court.

Davidson told the jury that his phrasing amounted to gallows humor. When pressed by prosecutor Joshua Steinglass to explain, Davidson said he meant that “our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump”.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office contends that Cohen bought Daniels’ silence about an alleged sexual affair with Trump for $130,000, and coordinated National Enquirer parent company AMI’s payoff to McDougal. They contend that Cohen did so to prevent damaging information from thwarting Trump’s chances in the election.

Trump is charged with falsifying business records for making repayments to Cohen as legal expenses on company documents. Prosecutors allege that Trump, Cohen, and former AMI head David Pecker hatched their catch-and-kill scheme during a summer 2015 meeting at Trump Tower.

Pecker’s testimony last week described this meeting and his agreement to serve as the Trump campaign’s eyes-and-ears for unsavory intel. Pecker instructed Howard to reach out if anything crossed his desk.

As Howard had long known Davidson, several items did in fact catch his attention. Davidson repped McDougal and Daniels; neither wanted their stories out there and both were willing to keep quiet.

While they were quiet following financial agreements – with Cohen himself footing the bill for Daniels initially – the Trump loyalist grew disillusioned. Davidson said they kept talking after the election, and recalled one late 2016 phone call in which Cohen seemed to be spiraling.

“Jesus Christ, can you fucking believe I’m not going to Washington?” Davidson recalled Cohen saying. “After everything I’ve done for that fucking guy, I can’t believe I’m not going to Washington.”

“I’ve saved that guy’s ass so many times, you don’t even know,” Davidson further remembered of Cohen’s call. “He said I never even got paid. That fucking guy is not even paying me the $130,000 back.”

On cross, Trump attorney Emil Bove tried using Davidson’s account of Cohen to create cracks in the expected star witness’s testimony. Cohen was so upset over not landing a gig in the Trump administration, Davidson said, “I thought he was gonna kill himself.”

He also tried to slime Davidson by placing him at the center of scandal with celebrities of varying import, noting that his other work had involved legal issues relating to Charlie Sheen, Hulk Hogan, and a Playboy model turned born-again Christian – who had allegedly associated with white nationalists.