Speaking temporarily and perhaps sharing more than prosecutors had anticipated, adult film star Stormy Daniels spoke to jurors at former President Donald Trump’s trial in New York on Tuesday about an alleged sexual relationship she allegedly had with Trump in 2006.
Daniels spoke in a Manhattan courtroom while Trump was seated at the defense table. He rarely reacted and avoided pursuing her as she recounted glowing descriptions of her allegations and explained why she had accepted $130,000 in exchange for her silence 10 years later. .
When she spoke with prosecutors, Daniels said she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada. She said he invited her to his hotel suite, where they talked for two hours and then had sex.
His description of the verbal exchange that turned sexual included sinister details, some of which “would not have been said,” Judge Juan Merchan said at one point.
His testimony prompted Trump’s lawyers to call for a mistrial, which the ruling promptly rejected.
Later, in combative cross-examination, one of Trump’s lawyers accused Daniels of fabricating facets of his story and questioned whether she had any monetary reason to move forward. Daniels, emotional at times, denied the defense’s claims and said it took time to move forward. for safety considerations.
At one point, Merchan warned Trump’s lawyer that his client’s habit was “contemptuous,” that Trump could be heard simply cursing and shaking his head.
In October 2016, Daniels agreed to hide her story in exchange for $130,000 from Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer at the time. Cohen made the payment just days before the presidential election.
Cohen then earned $35,000 monthly bills from Trump in 2017. Prosecutors say those bills were “hush money” refunds and that Trump concealed their true nature to hide the payment from Daniels.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records stemming from those reimbursements to Cohen. His defense attorneys argued that the money was intended to cover Cohen’s legal fees. He has pleaded not guilty to all fees and denies having sex with Daniels.
Daniels is the second witness of the day and is expected to take the stand Thursday when the trial resumes. Here’s how it went on Tuesday:
Trump arrived in the courtroom dressed in a marigold tie and dark suit shortly before 9:30 a. m. He ignored the shouted questions and read a series of quotes about the trial from TV commentators.
The former president defended the 2017 bills to Cohen, stating that they were legal fees: “We don’t count them in the costs of structure, the acquisition of drywall, the costs of electricity. Legal fees paid through us were recorded as ‘legal fees’. There’s nothing more to say. “
“It’s a very, very unfair trial. The news is, they don’t have anything,” Trump said before entering the courtroom.
Susan Necheles, Trump’s attorney, told the court that the defense team had been informed that Daniels would be the second witness on the stand. He reiterated the defense’s objection to any testimony about sexual acts.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger responded that “the main points of the meeting. . . are important,” while stating that the prosecution would ask questions about “certain main points that may be too lewd. ” She said Daniels would be asked to testify about “how she ended up having sex with him. “
“It’s going to involve any description of the genitals or anything of that nature,” Hoffinger said.
Judge Juan Merchan affirmed Necheles’ argument that Daniels had “credibility issues,” but said it helped prosecutors “get some background on the occasions that led to this meeting. “
The first prosecutor witness of the day, Sally Franklin, senior vice president and editor-in-chief of publisher Penguin Random House. He said he has published several of Trump’s books, adding “Trump: How to Get Rich” and “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire. “
Franklin read a series of excerpts from books, co-authored with Meredith McIver, a Trump Organization staffer.
Some come with references to her time on NBC’s “The Apprentice”: “Every woman on ‘The Apprentice’ has flirted with me, consciously or unconsciously. This is normal. A sexual dynamic is provided between people, unless you are asexual.
The excerpts included passages about his “savings. “
“When working with a decorator, be sure to ask to see all the invoices. Set designers are, by nature, fair people, but you still have to check that,” said one of them.
The excerpts also demonstrated Trump’s confidence in the Trump Organization’s leaders, Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney. McConney’s included an anecdote in which Trump falsely told McConney he had fired years ago, a story McConney called a “teachable moment” when he recounted it on the stand Monday. .
Prosecutors called Daniels to the stand to testify after either of them finished questioning Franklin.
“People are calling Stormy Daniels,” Hoffinger said, as all the jurors seemed to move in their seats.
Daniels began his testimony by recounting his beginnings in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Born Stephanie Clifford, she said her parents separated when she was four years old and that she was raised primarily through her mother. He said his family had “very low incomes. “
In high school, she danced ballet and had an affinity for horses. He said he gave riding lessons and worked in a solid in exchange for housing his horse. At the age of 17, she moved and soon danced exotically. He said the club won’t ask him to see his ID.
“I started dancing on the weekends, which was pretty good, because I didn’t want to miss categories and I could still earn more in two nights than shoveling manure 8 hours a day,” Daniels testified.
She said she modeled nude at age 21. He explained that clubs could only invite “guest stars,” but they had to have “references or credits” to be invited. She explained that this meant posing for magazines, participating in contests, or starring in adult films. Film(n.
Daniels’ arrival in adult film was an opportunity to earn more, she testified. At 23, she said she was an addition to a friend’s set when the director saw her and “thought she was already an adult actress. “Her friend told her that doing just one shot would increase her “salary. “
About six months later, he began writing and directing adult films. “I’m one of the youngest adult feature film directors, if not the youngest, and definitely the youngest adult feature film director,” she said.
Daniels said she met Trump in 2006, when she was 27 and he was 60. Both were attending a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Daniels said she was there under contract with Wicked, an adult film company.
“Wicked sponsors one of the holes on the golf course, which, yes, I know, is a lot of fun,” he said on the stand.
Her duties were to greet golfers as they played in the space where she parked. He said it when he met Trump for the first time, and that it was a “very brief encounter. “She introduced herself as a director, which caught Trump’s attention.
After his turn, Trump looked at Daniels again and reminded her of the course. She testified, “He in particular remembered me, that I’m ‘the smartest. ‘He asked for a DVD. “
Prosecutors released a photo of Trump and Daniels together at the tournament:
Later, Trump’s bodyguard asked her if she wanted to have dinner with him, Daniels testified. She first said no, but she and the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, exchanged numbers, she said.
Daniels testified that her friend encouraged her to accept Trump’s dinner offer, telling her, “What could in all likelihood go wrong?
He said he agreed to meet with Trump at the hotel where he is staying.
“I went in and up the stairs. Keith had given me very express orders to take a safe elevator to the attic,” Daniels testified. She said the bodyguard told her Trump was waiting for her inside. He walked in and waited in a hallway with a “big, beautiful wooden table” with flowers. That’s where he met Trump, he said.
“He was dressed in silk or satin pajamas, like two-piece pajamas, so I immediately laughed at him and said, ‘Does Mr. Hefner know he stole your pajamas?'””I told him to pass on the replacement and he accepted very politely. “
Trump returned in a blouse and dress pants, he testified. The hotel suite is “three times the size of my apartment,” Daniels said, describing the room in detail.
Finally, they sat down at the table in the living room.
“It’s not even dark outside yet. [There’s] still a little bit of light coming in through the windows. And he said, ‘You know, it’s a little early, you’d mind talking a little bit and getting it. ‘getting to know each other,” he recalls, saying that they had talked about their formative years and topics of “getting to know you. “
They also talked about his work, according to Daniels: “He was very interested in how I would go from being a porn star to writing and directing. . . I was interested in a lot of business aspects, which I found very interesting. He asked me questions like: Are there unions?How do others get paid?
Daniels also said they had a “very brief” conversation about his wife, Melania. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, in fact, we don’t even sleep in the same room,'” she told the court.
Throughout the conversation, Daniels recalled, Trump “would ask me questions and let me end up answering. ”
“He kept interrupting me. It was almost like he wanted to get over myself, talk about himself. “
Finally, she said she was “tired of his arrogance, of interrupting me and not giving me dinner. “She testified that she asked him, “Are you still so rude, arrogant, and pompous?”And he said, “Someone whipped you. “
Trump gave him a magazine, Daniels testified. ” I don’t think he thought I would,” she said. “So, I picked him up and said, ‘Turn around,’ and I hit him. . . directly on the buttocks. “
Trump told her to run, to which she responded, “NBC would never allow an adult actress to appear on television. ”
“He said, ‘You remind me of my daughter because she’s wise and blonde and lovely, and other people underestimate her, too,'” Daniels said. He added that Trump had come forward to tell him ahead of time what the show’s demanding situations were: “I can’t make you win. . . But I can give you credit to make sure you at least give a wise performance. “
Daniels, she and Trump spoke afterward for “nearly two hours. ”
That said, the court paused. Trump did not look at Daniels in his testimony.
After the break, Merchan told Hoffinger that Daniels’ testimony didn’t want to be so detailed to move forward.
“Mrs. Hoffinger, the point of detail we are addressing here is simply unnecessary,” he said. “We don’t want to know the main points of the verbal exchanges, what the rest of the verbal exchange looks like or anything like that. “
Back on the stand, Daniels picked up where he left off. He said he left the dining room of Trump’s suite and made his way to “what I assume is the master bathroom. “He said he saw a toiletry bag on the counter.
“Miré. No I’m proud of it. I wondered what was here,” he recalls. “The pieces were Old Spice and Pert Plus. I found it funny and weird. And a golden game. Gold tweezers and all things gold. “.
Daniels said Trump was in bed in boxers and a T-shirt when he came out. She said she was surprised. ” I didn’t expect anyone to be there, especially without a lot of clothes,” she said.
“I felt blood draining from my hands and feet, almost like when you get up too quickly and everything changes,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Oh my God, what did I read to get here?'”
Trump “poses” on the bed, lifting his head with one hand, Daniels said, protesting to the jury.
“I said, ‘I’ve got to go,'” he testified. And he said, ‘I thought we were going somewhere, we were talking, and you were serious about what you wanted. ‘”
Daniels said she didn’t feel physically threatened and was happy to be “in an arcade, moving in slow motion” by comparison. He said he didn’t know what happened next: “I just think I lost consciousness. I wasn’t in I wasn’t drunk. I just don’t.
She said she remembers being on the other side of the bed, without clothes or shoes, still dressed in her bra. She said she and Trump had sex in bed: “I hunted on the roof. I didn’t know how I was. ” I took notes, as if I wanted to think about something other than what was happening there. “
Daniels testified that Trump did use a condom.
‘Was that worrisome?'” Hoffinger, the prosecutor.
“Yes,” Daniels said.
“You said about that?
“No. ”
“Why?”
“I didn’t say anything at all,” Daniels responded.
She said they hadn’t had dinner and took a taxi back to her hotel.
“I told very few people that we had sex because I was ashamed that I didn’t stop him, that I didn’t say no,” Daniels testified. “A lot of other people would assume that. They would make jokes. “I didn’t think it was fun. “
Daniels said she saw Trump later that weekend at a nightclub at the hotel where he was staying. Her bodyguard approached her and asked if Trump could reach her, she recalled. She accepted because she “did it in public. “
She said Trump was with Ben Roethlisberger, the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and convinced him to let her see his Super Bowl ring: “Obviously because . . . Two of my hands are compatible with it. ” Trump left and asked Roethlisberger to accompany Daniels to her room, he said.
After that weekend, Daniels said Trump would call him about once a week. He said he put it on the speaker so others could hear it: “We thought it was fun. . . Dozens and dozens of people listened to me on the phone with him. It wasn’t a secret. “
He said he told “dozens” of people that he had gone upstairs to his hotel room, but that only a handful of friends knew they had had sex.
Daniels said she continues to take her calls because “my publicist thought it was OK to continue my conversations with him about the TV show. “
She said she attended Trump’s vodka logo launch in 2007 at Trump’s invitation: “I spent most of my time talking to my friend, but every time I went, I wondered if I was going to be back with him that night. “She turned him down.
Later, she visited him at Trump Tower in New York City. He said he was very busy and the interaction was brief.
In July 2007, Daniels said Trump called her and told her he was running for her to participate in the “Celebrity Apprentice” spinoff. She said he asked her to meet him at his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. to talk more about the matter. She asked her boyfriend at the time to take her to the hotel. She said she and Trump had talked but had not had sex.
When asked if Trump wanted her to keep their interactions confidential, Daniels replied, “Of course not. “
The last time she saw him was at the convention in Los Angeles. She said he called her several weeks later to tell her that he had been “rejected” and might not include her in the program.
Daniels said he moved on with his life. She said the next 3 years were “pretty amazing. “
In 2011, Daniels agreed to an interview with the gossip magazine In Touch about her experience with Trump. He intended to receive $15,000. Gina Rodriguez, his agent, settled the matter.
On the stand, Daniels said she agreed to the interview because she wanted to “control the narrative” and that she would “make more money than someone else with me. ”
He said the interview lasted 10 or 15 minutes. The magazine did not publish the story. (After all, In Touch will publish it in 2018, after Daniels’ allegations were revealed. )
Two workers later told CBS News that the interview never aired because Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, threatened to sue when the publication asked Trump to comment. Daniels never paid.
Several weeks later, Daniels said she was approached through a man in a parking lot while she was with her daughter. “He threatened me that I wouldn’t continue to tell my story” about Trump, Daniels testified. She said she didn’t go to the police because she scared.
In 2016, Daniels said she focused on promoting the story because she initially thought making it public would make it safer.
“It was motivated by fear, not money,” he said.
Before the “Access Hollywood” tape was revealed in early October, Daniels’ agent, Gina Rodriguez, couldn’t sell the story. After the recording was released, Daniels said she temporarily learned that Trump was seeking the rights.
Daniels said she liked this address because her husband wouldn’t know about the alleged sexual relationship. He said he was “happy we’re taking care of it. “His monetary outlook is “the most productive ever,” Daniels testified.
He said he was looking to conclude the deal by Oct. 14. “I’m afraid that if it’s not done before the [election], I wouldn’t be sure, or he would never pay and there would be no other solution. be a clue to ensure my safety,” Daniels told the court.
He said he understood that accepting the $130,000 deal meant “I couldn’t tell my story and he couldn’t tell it either. “
Daniels said Trump’s side “continues to make excuses” as the weeks went by and no deal was reached. “I was even more worried that something bad could happen and that if it wasn’t done before the election, it would never take place because they gave him what he wanted,” she testified.
Then they paused for lunch.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead defense attorney, asked for a verdict declaring the mistrial as the court returned from lunch.
“The court put safeguards in place for this testimony, and the safeguards, through the witness who answered the government’s questions, were simply thrown out,” Blanche argued, before the jury returned to the courtroom. “And there’s no way to ring the doorbell. “
Blanche said her story was “very different from what she was selling in 2016. “
He cited testimony that he had “passed out” and that Trump was not wearing a condom, as well as Daniels’ description of Trump’s hotel suite and the force dynamics in the room.
“This has nothing to do with this case and is incredibly damaging,” Blanche said.
He said the testimony was aimed at “misleading the jury, not the evidence that matters. “
He protested her repeated claims that he would meet Trump in public after their alleged sexual encounter.
“What does the jury think?” asked Blanche. I noticed that Merchan had supported her objections, the jury had listened to Daniels’ answers anyway.
Merchan said he agreed with Blanche that there were “some things that would be more productive not to say” in Daniels’ testimony and that she was “a little hard to control. “
But he added that there were still “safeguards,” referring to limits to the questions that prosecutors can simply ask questions about.
“I don’t think we’re at the point where a mistrial is warranted,” Merchan said. “I will note that where there have been objections, those objections have been accepted for the maximum component . . . I will also point out that I was surprised that there were no further objections. “
Merchan noted that he personally objected at one point because “there is no objection from the defense,” and told them to take some responsibility.
“Whether it’s new stories or not, the lies in cross-examination,” Merchan added.
He also proposed restricting what the jury can do in relation to Daniels’ story that he was threatened in a parking lot.
“The court went all out on both sides,” Merchan said.
Back on the stand, Daniels resumed his testimony about the October 2016 nondisclosure agreement. He read aloud an email from his attorney Keith Davidson to Cohen on Oct. 17, in which Davidson told him the agreement had not been honored.
A week later, Davidson told Cohen, David Pecker and Dylan Howard that Daniels was preparing to tell her story to some other media outlet. On the stand, Daniels said she spoke to the news site Slate before the deal with Cohen was finally closed. . Slate didn’t offer to pay him.
Cohen handed over $130,000 to Davidson on Oct. 27. On Nov. 1, Cohen won a signed copy of the agreement, with Daniels’ signature next to the pseudonym “Peggy Peterson. “
Daniels said he ended up with about $96,000 after his attorney and agent’s fees. She said the Wall Street Journal contacted her on Nov. 4, the same day the newspaper made the first “silent money” payment to design Karen McDougal. McDougal also claimed that she had sex with Trump and won $150,000 from the National Enquirer’s parent company for the rights to her story in August 2016. Trump denies his story.
Daniels declined to comment to the Journal, citing the nondisclosure agreement she signed a few days earlier.
Prosecutors date back to January 2018. Daniels said he had just experienced “probably the most productive year of his life,” marked by several professional accolades. “My neighbors in my community didn’t know they lived next door to Stormy Daniels. “she said.
The Wall Street Journal was preparing an article about the “silence” payment and asked for his comment on Jan. 10, Daniels said.
Davidson, her lawyer, sent her a signal, denying any sexual intercourse. He said he didn’t need to point it out because it was false and because “I was told that saying anything, anything, was a violation of the NDA. “
Once the Journal article was published, Daniels said his life was in “chaos. “
“All of a sudden, I was in the foreground everywhere. People in the countryside. My husband was asking questions, my friends were asking questions,” she said. “I guess it blew the blanket off me, for lack of a better way to do it, all the people I traveled with, everyone in my neighborhood, all of my daughter’s friends. “
In late January, Daniels appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!. “He said Gina Rodriguez, his agent, had arranged everything. He said he asked not to talk about the NDA.
Before appearing on the show, she signed some other smart one through Davidson, her lawyer, denying having an affair with Trump.
“I singled him out as ‘Stormy Daniels,’ but I didn’t tell him what my sign looks like every time I pointed him out,” she testified in court. “As a piece of advice for Jimmy Kimmel. “
On the show, Kimmel asked him if he had signed the statement. She replied, “That doesn’t look like my signature, does it?”
The prosecution ended its review with a series of quick questions about Daniels’ interviews and appearances once she left her NOA.
In February 2018, Daniels hired a new attorney: Michael Avenatti. He filed a lawsuit against Trump and the LLC Cohen used to make the $130,000 payment. The lawsuit sought to cancel the nondisclosure agreement since Trump never signed it. In the fall of 2018, Cohen and Trump agreed not to put the deal into effect.
Avenatti would later be convicted of stealing clients, which would add up to $300,000 Daniels owed for a book deal. He is currently in prison.
Daniels testified that she wrote her book “so that my daughter can tell, in her mother’s own words, what I went through and why I did the things I did. “He also appeared on Cohen’s podcast in 2021 and 2022 and won. About $100,000 from documentary producers for the rights to his book.
During a sideways observation, Daniels leaned forward and asked the court reporter if his speed had been better. Daniels had been asked to slow down on several earlier issues in his testimony.
Trump’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, almost immediately began to question Daniels’ motives, wondering in the first place if her motivation was money.
“Don’t we all want to make more money from our work?” replied Daniels.
Necheles Daniels did hate Trump.
“Yes,” Daniels said.
“And you need me to go to jail?” Necheles asked a while later.
“I have to hold him accountable,” Daniels said.
Necheles reiterated his question: “You need me to go to jail, don’t you?
“If he’s convicted, absolutely,” Daniels said.
Last year, Daniels ordered $121,000 in legal payments to Trump following a defamation lawsuit that she dismissed. Necheles asked him if it was true that he had no intention of paying the payment and if he said he would “go to prison before I pay him a penny. “”, referring to a 2022 tweet via Daniels.
“Yes,” Daniels said.
Trump, who had not looked at Daniels during his questioning of prosecutors, turned to Necheles’ questions.
Daniels showed a money statement form she had to file as part of Trump’s attempt to collect debts. Necheles said she overlooked many key issues and tried to ask Daniels about the flaws, but he interrupted her due to several objections.
Trump’s lawyer then questioned Daniels about a “million-dollar” ranch she had purchased. “Isn’t it true that he hid his assets because he doesn’t need to pay the judgment that was imposed on him?”
“No,” Daniels said.
Necheles asked if Daniels hoped she wouldn’t have to pay Trump if he was convicted and jailed.
“I hope I don’t have to pay for it no matter what,” Daniels said, combatively.
Necheles asked if Daniels “made money by claiming to have had sex with President Trump. “
“I do that by telling my story,” Daniels said.
“This story made you a lot of money, didn’t it?” Necheles asked.
“It also gives me a lot of money,” Daniels replied.
After a series of contentious questions, Necheles asked Daniels about her claim that she threatened through a stranger in a parking lot in 2011, after she gave an interview to In Touch about Trump. She first told the story in an interview with Anderson Cooper on “60 Minutes” in 2018.
“For seven years you claim to have concealed this story from your husband, don’t you?” asked Necheles.
“It’s all a secret to my husband,” Daniels replied.
Necheles pointed out what she said were inconsistencies in her account. In his book, Daniels wrote that he went to a workout gym after the alleged threat. On the stand, he said he’d gone to the outdoor bathroom, but he still could just don’t take the elegance itself.
Trump’s lawyer told Daniels that he took the risk in 2018 as to why she didn’t speak out sooner about the alleged sexual dates with Trump.
“The explanation you told this story in 2018 is because you used it as an excuse for why you’ve never said publicly before that you had sex with President Trump; right?” said Necheles. You used this supposed risk that happened to you as an excuse to tell people, ‘That’s why I didn’t speak publicly, I was afraid. ‘”
She says the guy Daniels said threatened her “never existed. “
Necheles ended the day by asking questions about when Daniels made the decision to sell her story. The tension in the courtroom was palpable during Necheles’ cross-examination.
“You were looking to extort President Trump, weren’t you?” he asked.
“False,” Daniels replied.
“Well, that’s what you did,” Necheles said.
“Wrong,” Daniels repeated. I was terrified, so I replaced the tactics. “
Necheles showed text messages between Daniels’ agent, Gina Rodriguez, and Dylan Howard, editor of the National Enquirer, dating back to 2016. Daniels said she allowed Rodriguez to sell her story to the media “so I can go public. ”
Rodriguez told Howard, “They gave it to me,” referring to Daniels. He said Daniels was willing to tell her story if she turned to a source and asked for $100,000.
That said, the court adjourned for the day. Daniels will return to the stand Thursday when the trial resumes.
Merchan, the judge, warned Blanche that Trump’s habit was to “disregard” Daniels’ testimony. He said in a box that the former president was “audibly cursing” and “visually shaking his head,” as Daniels testified, according to a transcript of the conversation.
The exchange came just after Daniels described a two-hour verbal exchange she says she had with Trump in a hotel suite before they had sex. She had still described the alleged sexual relationship.
“I sense the consumer is disappointed at this point, but they swear loudly and visually shake their head with disdain,” Merchan said. “It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that. “
Merchan told Blanche, “I’m talking to you here at the bank because I don’t need to embarrass you. “
“I’ll get back to him,” Blanche replied.