On Thursday, Trump’s lawyers suggested Daniels was after money.
Stormy Daniels ended her marathon testimony in Donald Trump’s secret trial on Thursday, with the former president’s lawyers trying to portray her as a greedy liar who profited from her allegations.
The pornographic film actress, who claims to have had sex with Trump, who was married in 2006, denied having threatened the tycoon if he did not buy her silence.
“I wanted the truth to come out… for my story to be protected with a paper record so my family wouldn’t get hurt,” Daniels, 45, said during aggressive questioning by Trump lawyer Susan Necheles.
Trump, 77, is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, when the story could have proved politically fatal.
The confrontation between Daniels and Team Trump comes six months before the November elections, when the Republican candidate will try to defeat Democratic President Joe Biden.
‘I hated it’
During nearly eight hours of testimony over two days, Daniels walked the New York jury through the one-night stand she said she had with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament and then the financial settlement she says have occurred.
On Thursday, Trump’s lawyers suggested that Daniels was after money.
They accused her of appearing at strip club events promoted with a photo of Trump and the slogan “Making America Horny Again.”
“I never used that slogan — I hated it,” said Daniels, who wore a green dress and a long black hooded cardigan, her hair down and her cadence confident.
In her testimony on Tuesday, she described Trump’s pajamas, boxer shorts, sexual position and that he did not use a condom.
And although she “wasn’t verbally or physically threatened,” she said she “felt ashamed for not stopping it, for not saying no.”
These were details that the defense argued were irrelevant to the case – but which were reinforced and repeated frequently during cross-examination.
Trump has denied having sex with Daniels, and his lawyers on Tuesday asked the judge for a mistrial, saying her testimony was “extremely prejudicial” in what is essentially a case related to financial and election records.
Judge Juan Merchan denied the request for a mistrial, and a second one was filed on Thursday.
The jury also heard from a Harper Collins book editor — who managed Trump’s “Think Big and Kick Ass” — as well as Trump Organization accountant Rebecca Manochio and former aide Madeleine Westerhout.
Trump’s former assistant — who wrote a book about her experience working in the White House and her eventual firing for disclosing embarrassing details about the then-first family — broke down in tears when asked about losing her job.
Westerhout, who said Trump sometimes dictated tweets to her, seemed consistently loyal to the former US leader and called working for him early in his presidency “an incredible experience.”
She is a witness who clearly sympathizes with Trump – but confirmed communicating with Cohen to schedule a February 2017 meeting at the White House that could be vital to proving the charges Trump faces.
Westerhout’s interrogation will continue on Friday.
The gag order remains
Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump prohibiting him from publicly attacking witnesses and the former president – who for years traded insults with Daniels, calling her “horseface” and other crude slurs – has yet to comment directly on her testimony. .
Trump said Thursday that his side has filed an appeal against the gag order with an appeals court.
His lawyer also demanded that Trump be allowed to publicly retaliate against Daniels’ allegations about the encounter now that she was no longer a witness.
Judge Merchan denied his request to change the gag order, which Trump was fined $10,000 for violating.
During Thursday’s questioning, Daniels accused Necheles of trying to trick her into speaking badly.
“You have a lot of experience making fake sex stories seem real,” Necheles said, noting that Daniels has directed and starred in more than 150 adult films.
“If that story wasn’t true, I would have written it to be a lot better,” Daniels retorted, referring to his account of the night with Trump. “I didn’t have to write this one.”
In addition to the New York case, Trump was indicted in Washington and Georgia on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
He was also charged in Florida with allegedly handling classified documents after leaving the White House, but the case has been postponed indefinitely.
(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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