NEW YORK — Porn actress Stormy Daniels took the stand Tuesday in the silent case against Donald Trump, who watched as she detailed her alleged sexual encounter and the payment she received to keep it secret.
Prosecutors allege that Trump paid Daniels to keep silent about the allegations while he was running for president in 2016. Her testimony conveyed them publicly as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee tries to win the White House again.
Trump denies having sex with Daniels, and his lawyers unsuccessfully pushed for a mistrial midway through her testimony.
It is the biggest spectacle ever recorded in the first criminal trial of a former American president, now in its third week of testimony in Manhattan.
Here are some takeaways from Daniels’ testimony:
The case centers on a $130,000 payment to Daniels by Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign. Prosecutors say it was part of a scheme to illegally influence the campaign by burying stories negative about him.
His lawyers sought to show that Trump was trying to protect his reputation and his family – not his campaign – by shielding them from embarrassing stories about his personal life.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told jurors she began exotic dancing in high school and appearing in adult films at age 23, eventually directing more than 150 films and winning a list of porn industry awards.
Daniels testified that he met and spoke with Trump on a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in 2006, where his studio was a sponsor.
He referred to her as “the smart one” and asked if she wanted dinner, she said. Daniels testified that she accepted Trump’s invitation because she wanted to avoid dinner with her co-workers and thought it might help her career. Trump asked his bodyguard to get her number, she said.
Later, when they met at his penthouse, she noticed that he seemed interested in the business aspects of the industry rather than the “sexy stuff.” He also suggested casting her on his TV show, “The Apprentice,” a possibility she hoped could happen. help establish her as a writer and director.
She left to use the bathroom and was surprised to find Trump in his underwear when she returned, she said. She did not feel physically or verbally threatened, but noticed he was “bigger and blocking the way,” she testified.
“The next thing I knew, I was in bed” and they were having sex, Daniels recalled. The encounter was brief but left her “shaking,” she said. “I just wanted to leave,” she testified.
Daniels was asked if Trump ever told her to keep things between them confidential and said, “Absolutely not.” She said she learned in 2011 that a magazine had heard the story of their encounter and agreed to do an interview for $15,000 to make money and “control the narrative.” The story was never published.
In 2016, when Trump ran for president, Daniels said he authorized his manager to break the story but initially received no interest from the media. She said that changed in October with the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump bragged about sexually grabbing women without asking permission. She said she learned Cohen wanted to buy her silence.
In the middle of his testimony, Trump’s lawyers called for a mistrial.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche argued that Daniels’ testimony about the alleged encounter and other encounters with him “had nothing to do with this case” and would unfairly prejudice the jury.
The judge rejected the ruling and faulted the defense attorneys for not raising further objections while she was testifying.
Before Daniels took the stand, Trump’s lawyers tried to block her from testifying about the details of the meeting, saying they were irrelevant in a “case about books and records.”
Prosecutors responded that Daniels’ testimony reveals what Trump was trying to hide and they were “very careful” not to draw too many graphic details. Before Daniels took the stand, they told the judge that the testimony would be “very basic” and would not “involve any details of genitalia.”
While the judge did not side with Trump’s lawyers, he acknowledged that some details were excessive. The objections could potentially be used by Trump’s lawyers if he is convicted and they file an appeal.
Trump’s lawyers tried to attack Daniels’ credibility, suggesting she was motivated by money and that her account had changed over the years.
“Am I sure you hate President Trump?” defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Daniels at one point. Daniels acknowledged that he did.
“And you want him to go to jail?” the lawyer asked.
“I want him to be held accountable,” Daniels said. Pressed again if that meant going to prison, she said, “If he’s convicted.”
The defense pressed Daniels about the fact that she owed Trump hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees stemming from an unsuccessful defamation lawsuit and about a 2022 tweet in which she said she “will go to prison before I pay a dime ”. Daniels sometimes balked when faced with pointed questions, vehemently denying the idea that she had tried to extort Trump.
Trump whispered frequently to his lawyer during Daniels’ testimony, and her expression seemed pained as she recounted details about the dinner she says they shared. He shook his head and appeared to say something under his breath as Daniels testified that Trump told her he did not sleep in the same room as his wife.
As he left the courtroom, Trump called it “a very revealing day.” He did not explicitly address Daniels’ testimony, but said prosecutors’ case was “totally falling apart.”
Trump’s court appearance on Tuesday, like every other day he has been stuck in court, means he cannot participate in the campaign while running for president for the third time. It’s a frequent source of his complaints, but Daniels’ testimony, in particular, may underscore how much of a distraction the trial is in the matter of running for president.
While Trump was imprisoned in a Manhattan courtroom, far from voters and unable to speak for much of the day, his rival, Democratic President Joe Biden, participated in a Holocaust memorial ceremony and condemned anti-Semitism.
It’s an issue that Trump sought to use against Biden in the campaign, taking advantage of protests on college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war.
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Whitehurst reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Michael Sisak, Jennifer Peltz, Jake Offenhartz and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this story.
