Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press before his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments related to extramarital affairs at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on May 9, 2024.
Angela Weiss | Reuters
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Porn star Stormy Daniels said Thursday that public discussion of her sex history with former President Donald Trump has affected her life.
“Negative,” Daniels testified when a prosecutor asked whether telling the truth about Trump had been a “net positive” or “net negative” for her.
Daniels gave the blunt answer shortly before she was dismissed from Trump’s hush money trial after two days on the witness stand in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Daniels’ second-day testimony turned combative at times under cross-examination by Trump lawyer Susan Necheles, who questioned the adult film star about her alleged 2006 one-night stand with the then-married businessman.
The lawsuit is central to District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case involving a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels by Trump’s then-personal attorney Michael Cohen shortly before the 2016 presidential election.
Daniels once scoffed at Necheles’ suggestion that she ever wanted to tell the world that she had sex with the former president.
“Even though you had agreed not to discuss this alleged story and had received a lot of money for this agreement, you then decided to say publicly that you had sex with Donald Trump,” Necheles said.
Daniels retorted: “No one would ever want to say that publicly.”
At another point, Necheles told Daniels, “You have a lot of experience telling false stories about sex.”
Daniels replied: “Wow. I wouldn’t put it that way. The sex in the films is very real, just like what happened to me in this room.”
She added that if her claim of sleeping with Trump were untrue, “I would have written it a lot better.”
Before the jury arrived Thursday morning, Judge Juan Merchan told Necheles that she could not bring up Daniels’ arrest record in 2009 after her then-husband accused her of assault. The charges were reportedly dismissed without conviction or plea.
The Republican senator condemns the judge’s daughter and the prosecutor’s wife in court
While the trial was underway, Senator Rick Scott showed up at the courthouse to beat up the judge’s daughter and Bragg’s wife.
“Let’s look at who is involved,” said the Florida Republican, who entered the courtroom alongside Trump on Thursday morning.
“The lead accuser was a No. 3 person at Biden — the Biden Justice Department. The judge’s daughter is a political activist and raises money for the Democrats. You have the lead prosecutor’s wife, who is a major donor to the Democrats, and I think that’s Biden,” he said.
Trump is barred by a gag order from speaking about all three of these people, as well as witnesses and jurors, court staff and their families. The gag order also prohibits Trump from “directing others to make public statements” about these parties.
“So this is just a bunch of Democrats saying, ‘We want to make sure Donald Trump can’t talk,'” Scott said.
Asked whether Scott appeared at the trial because of Trump’s gag order, the senator replied: “No, I’m fed up.”
Merchan has charged Trump with contempt of court 10 times for violating his confidentiality agreement. On Monday, the judge warned Trump that he would be sent to prison if he continued to violate court orders.
Trump gets mad at Daniels
Daniels’ first day of testimony sparked an angry reaction from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
On Tuesday, Merchan warned Trump’s lawyers that the former president needed to stop swearing and shaking his head during Daniel’s testimony because he could intimidate them or influence the jury.
Stormy Daniels arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 9, 2024 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
“I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is audibly cursing and visually shaking his head, and that is contemptible,” Merchan said during a break in Daniels’ testimony.
“It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that,” Merchan said, according to court transcripts released Tuesday night. “You have to talk to him. I won’t tolerate that.”
The judge gave the warning at the bench, out of earshot of reporters in the courtroom, because he said he didn’t want to “embarrass” Trump.
Read more about Trump’s hush money trial
The former president’s outbursts came as Daniels testified – in graphic detail – about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, shortly after she met him at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
Trump is accused of falsifying business records in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels. Prosecutors allege the money was part of an unlawful scheme to benefit Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Cohen paid Daniels for her silence about the alleged sex less than two weeks before this election. Trump compensated Cohen after he became president.
Although the hush money case is often viewed as the least serious of the four criminal charges against Trump, it is increasingly likely that it will be the only case to go to trial before the Nov. 5 presidential election.
On Wednesday, a Georgia appeals court potentially delayed a state-level trial of Trump on election interference charges by agreeing to grant his request to disqualify his prosecutor, District Attorney Fani Willis.
On Tuesday evening, federal judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed Trump’s trial amid allegations that he illegally obtained classified documents and then tried to hide them from authorities.
A federal election interference case against Trump in Washington, DC, meanwhile, is on hold while the Supreme Court considers whether Trump is immune from charges because he was president at the time of the alleged crimes.
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2024-05-09 16:55:14
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