Trump hush-money trial: Stormy Daniels describes being ‘startled’ by sexual encounter | Donald Trump trials
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Donald Trump’s criminal trial entered a new phase on Tuesday with the testimony of Stormy Daniels, the adult movie star at the center of his silence-money scandal, who told jurors they had a sexual relationship in 2006 that left her nervous and embarrassed.
“My hands were shaking so bad it was hard to get dressed,” said Daniels, who told jurors she went to Trump’s Lake Tahoe hotel room believing they would have dinner after meeting there.
The two had met earlier that day at a celebrity golf match across town; Daniels was there for Wicked Pictures, the company he was working for at the time, which was a sponsor.
“The players would come, you would stay in your hole that had your company logo on it, [you’d] give them water or towels,” she said.
They didn’t discuss much, but Daniels’ boss told Trump she was also a director. Trump, she recalled, said she must be pretty smart if she was directing movies and not just acting in them. They met again in a room where event sponsors had set up tables with free merchandise.
“He does remember us from the golf course — he remembers me specifically for being the ‘smart one,’” Daniels said. At one point, one of Trump’s bodyguards came over and told Daniels he wanted her to join him for dinner. She said no.
Daniels said she didn’t reconsider the invitation until later, when there was a company dinner planned that she didn’t want to attend. Daniels’ colleague told her she should accept Trump’s invitation.
‘It’s going to make a great story, he’s a business man, what could go wrong,’ were his words to me,” Daniels recalled. She thought it might be good for her career as well.
She and Trump’s bodyguard coordinated and she was directed to his hotel across town and told to take a designated elevator to the penthouse. “He was wearing silk or satin pajamas, which I immediately made fun of and said, does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas?” Daniels said, referring to the late pornographer and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
“I told him to go change and he complied.”
Since it was still early, they decided to talk for a while before having dinner. Trump repeatedly criticized Daniels for her time in the adult industry, including: “What about the testing? Are you worried about sexually transmitted diseases?’
He asked if she was tested. “Yes, of course, and I suggested it too,” she said.
“He asked me, oh well, have you ever had a bad test, I said, ‘No, I can show you my whole record,'” Daniels recalled.
She said there was also a very brief conversation with Melania, Trump’s wife, during which he said they slept in separate rooms. Daniels said she had to use the restroom at some point as she had drunk several bottles of water. Trump had entered the bedroom of the apartment and was on the bed in boxers and a t-shirt.
“At first I was just startled, like jump scared,” Daniels said. “I just thought, Oh my God, what did I misread to get here? The intention is pretty clear if someone has stripped down to their underwear and is on the bed.
She tried to joke and walk away, but he stood between her and the door. “At any point did you end up on the bed having sex with him?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.
“Yes,” Daniels said.
During their conversation at the hotel, they discussed The Apprentice, Daniels said. She told him there was no way she would be allowed on network television because of her status in the adult industry. He dismissed that idea, then appeared to compare Daniels to his daughter Ivanka Trump: “You remind me of my daughter. She’s smart and blonde and beautiful and people underestimate her too.”
Daniels, who wore a puffy black top and black-rimmed glasses, gave her testimony in a rapid fire of words, so much so that she was asked several times to slow down, suggesting nervousness. At one point, Daniels sipped water from a plastic cup.
Hoffinger also tried to preemptively strike back at a central argument of Daniels’ defense — that she wasn’t just motivated by money, but motivated to testify because she owed Trump more than hundreds of thousands in legal fees after a failed lawsuit against him.
Daniels said this in 2011, a man approached her in a Las Vegas parking lot and threatened her vs. coming forward. Her former attorney, Michael Avenatti, posted a sketch of the man and then filed a lawsuit defamation case after Trump denied involvement.
Daniels said she thought the defamation suit was “risky” and “not worth it,” but Avenatti filed it without her permission. The case was dismissed in Trump’s favor and Daniels now owes him more than $500,000 in attorney’s fees.
Daniels answered with an emphatic no. when asked if Avenatti was still her attorney. Why? “Because I fired him and he was later found guilty of theft,” she said.
When Daniels first stood, Trump leaned back in his chair with a passive expression on his face.
Prosecutors allege that in 2015, Trump, his then-lawyer Michael Cohen and tabloid David Packer conspired to bury stories that could derail his GOP presidential bid. Cohen allegedly transferred a secret payment of $130,000 to Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election to protect her from publicity about her allegations of a sexual relationship with Trump.
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Cohen funneled money to Daniels’ attorney through a limited liability company he created specifically for the deal called Essential Consulting LLC. He allegedly used an LLC so that the payment could not be traced back to him and thus to Trump.
Trump is accused of falsifying business records in connection with the payment to Cohen. Prosecutors say Trump falsely listed those payments as legal services on business documents.
Daniels’ testimony comes one day after Judge Juan Murchan warned Trump he could face prison if he continues to violate the gag order.
Monday’s proceedings — which included testimony from Deborah Tarasoff, the Trump Organization’s chief of staff, and Jeffrey McConney, the company’s former controller — were overshadowed by Murchan’s finding that Trump was charged with criminal contempt for the 10th way before they even get into position.
Murchan’s decision comes just days after he found Trump in criminal contempt and slapped him with a $9,000 fine over other comments that defied an order barring him from debating witnesses or jurors.
“So as much as I don’t want to impose a prison sentence, I want you to understand that I will if necessary and appropriate,” Murchan said.
McConney and Tarasoff’s testimony sought to put Trump at the center of his company and personal finances — to undermine any defense argument that he wasn’t in charge of paying the bills.
Daniels’ testimony after McConey and Tarasov’s court appearance and Murchan’s warning marked a difficult week for the defense. Before Daniels’ testimony resumed after the lunch break, one of Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche, asked Murchan to dismiss the case because of extraneous details in her comments.
“We’re moving for a mistrial based on the testimony this morning,” Blanche said. “We don’t think there’s any way to remove the bell.”
He noted how Daniels described feeling “blacked out” and noted that Trump did not use a condom.
“Besides sheer embarrassment,” Blanche told Murchan, these details did nothing but “inflame the jury.”
“I agree that there are probably some things that would be [left] better left unsaid,” Murchan said. “To be honest with people, I think your witness was a little difficult to control,” but still, he said, details emerged that shouldn’t have.
Murchan said, “I don’t believe we’ve reached the point” where a repeal is warranted.
Defense attorney Susan Nechels came out floundering in her cross-examination, trying again and again to portray Daniels as a money-hungry frontiersman and nothing more. Did she not engage in pornography because she wanted money? Did he hate Trump? (To this question, Daniels answered, “Yes.”)
Necheles continued with his suggestion that Daniels was trying to shake Trump by coming forward in 2016.
“You wanted to extort money from President Trump, didn’t you?”
“Wrong,” Daniels said.
“Well, that’s what you did, didn’t you?”
“False!”
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