NEW YORK — The third week of testimony in Donald Trump’s secret trial comes to a close on Friday, after jurors heard porn star Stormy Daniels’ dramatic, if not downright sordid, account as prosecutors prepare for their most important witness: Michael Cohen, former Trump lawyer. .
Daniels’ story about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump was a crucial building block for prosecutors, who are seeking to show that the Republican and his allies buried unflattering stories in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election in an effort to illegally influence the race.
Trump, who denies the sexual encounter took place, stormed out of court on Thursday, angrily telling reporters: “I’m innocent.” His lawyers pushed for a mistrial due to the level of tawdry details Daniels presented on the witness stand, but Judge Juan M. Merchan denied the request.
Over the course of more than 7 1/2 hours of testimony, Daniels recounted in detail what she says happened after the two met at a celebrity golf game in Lake Tahoe, where sponsors included the adult film studio where she worked. Daniels explained how she felt surprise, fear and discomfort even as she consented to sex with Trump.
During the combative interrogation, Trump’s lawyers tried to portray Daniels as a liar and extortionist who is trying to bring down the former president after gaining money and fame from his claims. Trump lawyer Susan Necheles pressed Daniels about why she accepted payment to keep quiet rather than go public, and the two women traded barbs about what Necheles said were inconsistencies in Daniels’ story over the years.
“You made this all up, right?” Necheles asked Daniels.
“No,” Daniels replied.
The defense sought to show that the hush payments made in his name were an effort to protect his reputation and family – not his campaign – by shielding them from embarrassing stories about his personal life.
After Daniels left the stand on Thursday, Trump’s lawyers pressed the judge to change the gag order that prevents him from talking about witnesses in the case so that he could respond publicly to what she told jurors. The judge also denied the request.
All this before Trump and the jurors faced Cohen, who arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels. It’s unclear when prosecutors will testify as her star witness, who pleaded guilty to federal charges and was arrested for her role in the hush money scheme.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying the Trump Organization’s internal business records. The charges arise from documents such as invoices and checks that were considered legal expenses in the company’s records. Prosecutors say those payments were largely reimbursements to Cohen for Daniels’ hush money payments.
Back on the witness stand Friday morning is Madeleine Westerhout, a Trump aide who worked at the Republican National Committee when Trump’s infamous “Access Hollywood” tape was leaked just before the 2016 election. Prosecutors say the political firestorm it caused accelerated the payment to Daniels.
Westerhout, who went on to serve as Trump’s personal secretary, told jurors on Thursday that the tape so shook the RNC leadership that “there were conversations about how it would be possible to replace him as the candidate, if that were the case.”
Witnesses in the case ranged from accountants to bankers, with often dry testimony to Daniels and others with salacious and unflattering stories about Trump and the machinations of the tabloid world designed to keep them secret. Despite all the drama, in the end, this is a trial about the changing hands of money – commercial transactions – and whether these payments were made to illegally influence the 2016 elections.
This criminal case could be the only one of four against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to go to trial before voters decide in November whether to send him back to the White House. Trump has pleaded not guilty and cast himself as the victim of a politically tainted justice system that is working to deny him another term.
Meanwhile, as the threat of arrest looms over Trump following repeated violations of the gag order, his lawyers are fighting the judge’s order and seeking a quick ruling in an appeals court. If that court refuses to lift the gag order, Trump’s lawyers want permission to take his appeal to the state’s highest court.
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Richer reported from Washington.
