After a dramatic few weeks in the courtroom, testimony in the landmark trial of Donald Trump for allegedly paying a porn star is over.
The jury will then decide whether this will result in a mistrial, acquittal, or the first felony conviction against a former U. S. president. Jurors, over the course of a month, heard a dramatic diversity of testimony riddled with explosive revelations about the alleged crimes, but also about the inner workings of the Trump team in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Trump has been charged with 34 counts of tampering with records in the case. The court heard from former tabloid bosses, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen and adult film actress Stormy Daniels herself.
Read more: Donald Trump suffers a 30-second ‘freeze’ midway through his speech, prompting accusations of ‘senile problem’
In her explosive testimony at the trial, she revealed the main points of the first lewd meeting with the former US president.
Ms. Daniel told the court that after going out in silk pajamas, Trump pulled out a magazine. Daniels said at the time he wanted to eat the dinner he had been promised, rather than sit in the hotel and listen to Trump, so he left. Daniels asked Trump if he had been “so rude. “She told the jury that she was going after the millionaire heir to the property.
“Are you still so arrogant and pompous? You don’t even know how to hold a conversation,” he recalled as he told Trump. He testified that he slapped her with the magazine rolled up “directly on the buttocks. “
“I’m tired of their arrogance, of interrupting me and still not being able to eat,” Daniels said. “Somebody whipped you up with that,” Daniels recalled of the magazine to Trump. Daniels said Trump had rolled up the magazine and “looked at me” as a kind of challenge.
“So I grabbed him and told him to turn around, and I hit him” directly in the buttocks, he testified. “And he was much more polite. “
Recounting meetings and conversations with his then-boss about the cover-up of negative stories in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, Cohen connected Trump to the secret cash program. Speaking of the $130,000 (£103,000) payment to Ms Daniels, who threatened to approve in public with her allegations of having sex with Mr Trump a decade earlier, Mr Cohen said: “He said, ‘Do it. ‘Trump denies ever having sex.
Less than two weeks before the election, Mr. Cohen finalized bills to buy Mrs. Daniels’ silence. Immediately, he went to Trump’s space to tell him the deal was done, Cohen said.
“The homework he gave me is done, done and done,” Cohen testified, before giving a brief explanation of why he reported it to his boss: “To give me credit so he knows I did it and finished it, because it’s important. “
Speaking of another story of an alleged affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, Cohen said Trump told him, “Make sure this doesn’t get published. “Cohen testified that he personally had no interest in obtaining the rights to McDougal’s story and told the jury, “I do it under the direction and I get advantages from Mr. Trump. “Trump also denies having an affair with McDougal.
Cohen testified that Trump feared Daniels’ story would be a “disaster” for his presidential campaign, which was already rocked at the time since the release of the famous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women without their permission.
That testimony may be critical for prosecutors, who are seeking to prove that Trump conspired to illegally influence the 2016 race by burying unflattering stories that could hurt his crusade. The defense sought to show that the former president seeks to protect his circle of relatives and reputation — not his crusade — by shielding them from embarrassing stories about his private life.
Cohen testified that Trump became angry when he heard about Ms. Daniels’ story and told her, “I thought you had taken care of that. “Trump told Cohen: “It’s a crisis, a general crisis. Women will hate me. ” Women will hate me. Guys, you think it’s great, but it’s going to be a crisis for the campaign,” Cohen said.
Cohen said he asked Trump what effect the story might have on his marriage to his wife, Melania. Cohen said Trump told him, “Don’t worry,” adding, “How long do you think I’ll be in the market?Not for long. ” Cohen said the comment led him to conclude that “it’s about campaigning. “
Trump’s former lawyer and organiser Michael Cohen has admitted to stealing around £30,000 (£23,600) from the former president’s company in an effort to rig online polls in his favour. The cash was delivered through Cohen to John Gauger, who runs RedFinch Solutions. LLC, in 2015, in an effort to make Trump hornier by winning online polls that asked who the electorate would need to be president. In 2019, Cohen reportedly gave Gauger the money in cash and returned it to a Walmart bag. Gauger was owed $50,000 (£39,000), but never got full pay.
With Cohen on the stand, jurors listened to the audio recording he had secretly made during a meeting with Trump in September 2016, in which they discussed the plan to buy McDougal’s silence. In the recording, Trump can be heard saying, “What do we have?”Pay for this? An hour and fifty?
Cohen said it the only time he recorded a verbal exchange with Trump. He said he made the recording so that David Pecker, the editor of the National Enquirer, could hear the verbal exchange and be sure Trump would pay him back.
Cohen said the recording was stopped because he gained an incoming call on his phone, a claim supported by the phone operator’s recordings filed with the court. Cohen said the number in the operator’s records belonged to a bank official seeking to succeed him.
Originally, Daniels says she turned down Trump’s dinner invitation with an enthusiastic “Fuck no,” but her bodyguard Keith Schiller took her cellphone number and then messaged her. Daniels says the “Keith Trump” touch because she didn’t know Schiller’s last call at the time and he worked for Trump. She explained that she had some other dinner party she would have liked to attend, however her publicist encouraged her to stop by for dinner with Triunfo.
“Which in all likelihood can go wrong,” Ms. Daniels recalled, laughing for a moment as she spoke on the stand. “So I got there and went upstairs. Keith (Schiller) had given me very express orders to take some of the elevators up to the attic floor. So I did and went up to this level. That’s when I met Keith, who was waiting for me outside the door,” Daniels said in her testimony.
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Trump greeted her dressed in satin pajamas, prompting Daniels to quip, “Does Mr. Hefner know he stole his pajamas?”jokingly comparing him to former Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner. Daniels asked Trump to change his clothes before having dinner with him. He reappeared dressed in a blouse and pants.
“I had taken off my clothes and shoes. I took off my bra. We were in the position of missionaries,” Daniels told the court. He said he didn’t take his clothes off, but he did. “The next thing I knew, I was in bed,” he told the court. He added a few main points, while Trump nudged his lawyer and the lawyer objected. The ruling upheld the objection.
Daniels had made it clear that he was looking to leave when the act occurred. She told the court that she “looked at the ceiling and didn’t know how they had put me there. “The prosecutor asked Daniels if Trump “used a condom,” to which Daniels replied, “No. “He added that he didn’t mention his fear of the condom. To cut to the chase and end the testimony about the encounter, the prosecution asked, “Was it brief?”Stormy replied, “Yes. “
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