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Stormy Daniels, whose alleged sexual relationship with Donald Trump sparked a hush-money scheme at the heart of a criminal case filed by the Manhattan district attorney described in harrowing detail Tuesday her meetings with the former US president.
The testimony of Daniels seemed uncomfortable with Trump, who shook his head at times and was notably freewheeling — to the point that the presiding judge endured multiple objections even as he denied a motion to mistrial on the grounds that key parts of her account were prejudicial.
Daniels received $130,000 from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen just before the 2016 election to bury her account of the affair. Prosecutors say Trump later reimbursed Cohen but concealed the nature of the money by falsifying business records and thereby violating state election laws.
Here are the main takeaways from day 13 of Trump’s criminal trial:
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1. Daniels undermines some of Trump’s defenses
On direct examination, prosecutors used Daniels to undermine some of Trump’s defense team’s attempts to distance themselves from the hush money scheme and offer jurors alternative explanations for why he insisted the affair story be buried before the 2016 election. Mr.
Trump’s team suggested, for example, that the hush money scheme was to ensure his wife Melania would not be embarrassed.
But prosecutors suggested that couldn’t be entirely true, as Daniels recalled that when she met Trump in his Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006 and said Melania was beautiful, Trump allegedly told her not to worried because “we don’t even sleep in the same room.”
Trump’s team also suggested that Trump could be considered a victim of blackmail by Daniels, as she dangled the affair story over his head in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election.
But prosecutors suggested that wasn’t true, having Daniels testify that she didn’t negotiate for more than $130,000 in the capture and killing because she “didn’t care” about the money — she just wanted it all over and her partner not found out about her alleged affair with Trump.
Daniels also appeared to cast Trump as inherently immoral, testifying that he compared her to his daughter Ivanka — shortly before they had sex — when he tried to convince her to appear on The Apprentice. “You remind me of my daughter, she’s blonde and smart and beautiful and people underestimate her too,” she recalled him saying.
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2. Trump undermined Daniels’ credibility
Daniels appeared to have extraordinary memories of the first time he met Trump in July 2006 and then again in 2007, describing in great detail in direct examination the layout of Trump’s hotel suite — down to the ornate black-and-white tiles of the floor and how Trump greeted her in silk satin pajamas.
But under cross-examination by Trump’s lawyer Susan Nechels, Daniels admitted she harbors an open hatred for Trump and suggested she hoped to get out of having to pay Trump a judgment of about $250,000 entered against her in federal district court in California.
Necheles also suggested that Daniels increasingly included details about having sex with Trump to sell her story after she first told it in 2011, then wavered between denying and confirming sex with Trump. The purpose of the interrogation was to undermine her credibility and to suggest that she had a penchant for embellishment.
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3. Trump’s request to overturn the court has been denied
Presiding Judge Juan Murchan denied Trump’s request for a mistrial, although he acknowledged that Daniels was a difficult witness to control and gave reluctant testimony involving things that would be better left unsaid.
Trump’s lawyers asked for a mistrial after arguing that Daniels gave testimony irrelevant to allegations of falsifying business records, such as an imbalance of power when they allegedly had sex, and that Trump did not use a condom.
But the judge ultimately ruled that he didn’t think that warranted a mistrial so far, and added that he was surprised Trump’s lawyers didn’t object more often, adding that at one point he had to step in to limited her own consent testimony because they had none.
Murchan separately warned Daniels to stay on topic after receiving a series of objections. “Just listen to the question and answer the question,” he told her.
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