Porn star Stormy Daniels confronted a disgruntled Donald Trump in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday with sordid details about an alleged tryst, giving testimony so vulgar that the judge warned her to tone it down.
Jurors in a hush-money trial tried to remain calm as an adult film actress testified that he spoke rapidly, gestured wildly and hit her with a rolled-up magazine with the 2024 Republican presidential candidate’s face on the cover. I had a hard time.
“I took it and turned around and hit it,” Daniel, 45, testified, drawing laughter from at least two jurors and Trump, 77, telling his lawyer, “That’s bullshit.” It is reported that he uttered it.
When Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claimed that he told her, “not to worry,” about his wife, Melania, Trump appeared to silently shake his head in the defense room. That’s because the two “don’t even sleep in the same room.” ”
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Marchan then separated Trump’s lawyer, Todd Branch, and said the former president was “audibly swearing” and “visually shaking his head” and ordered the trial to continue. He warned that if he did not stop, he would be held in contempt for potentially influencing the jury.
“You need to talk to him. I won’t tolerate that,” Marchand said during an aside in the judge’s chair.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers objected throughout the graphic testimony, and Mr. Marchand ruled in their favor several times, including when Mr. Daniels gave sordid details about the alleged sex act.
The judge also said the “level of detail” was “unnecessary” when Daniels described the tiles on the floor of the hotel where she said she slept with Trump in 2006 and what they discussed. He scolded the prosecutor.
But Marchan sided with prosecutors, saying Daniels should be allowed to tell jurors about his one-night stand with the real estate mogul to establish his “credibility.”
In a “Jerry Springer Show”-like testimony, Daniels testified that she had sex with Trump “briefly” in “missionary position.”
This was opposed by Trump’s lawyers, but the objections were upheld after a judge ruled that details about the sexual acts were prohibited.
Daniels, who wears a black kimono with a hood over a tight black shirt, has messy blonde hair and glasses, speaks as a man, including how President Trump didn’t wear a condom. There was no visible reaction from jurors as she detailed the encounter, which she described as worrying. Porn actors have always done that.
Mr. Daniels appeared to occasionally glance in Mr. Trump’s direction, but the two did not appear to see eye to eye.
She recalled meeting President Trump during a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe in 2006, and the two joked around and were eventually invited to dinner, but they never ended up eating together. He testified that he did not.
Daniels testified that he went to Trump’s luxury hotel suite wearing only Hugh Hefner-like “silk and satin” pajamas and then politely changed clothes at her request. did.
He showed her some photos and she replied, “Oh, what about your wife?” Daniels talked about Melania, who married Trump the year before.
“He said, ‘Don’t worry about that, we’re not even sleeping in the same room,'” Daniels testified, scrunching up her nose as Trump lashed out at him. It is reported that he vomited.
In the end, Daniels told jurors, “I’m tired of his arrogance.”
Afterwards, she told President Trump, “Someone should spank you.”
“Where did you hit him?” Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked her.
“Right ass,” Daniels replied.
Daniels said she did not tell her then-boyfriend and former publicist about the sexual encounter because she was “embarrassed.”
She also claimed that Trump made sexual advances the year after he invited her to the Miss America beauty pageant in Los Angeles, but that she told him she was on her period and wanted to break it off. .
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Mr. Blanche, requested a mistrial over Mr. Daniels’ “prejudiced” and graphic testimony, arguing that it could influence the jury against Mr. Trump.
Machan denied making a bid, but acknowledged there were some things he would have been better off not saying. ”
Still, in fairness to prosecutors, Marchan said, “I think it was very difficult to control the witnesses.”
Daniels spoke before returning to the witness stand, where she was taken to a separate room from prosecutors to help her stay “focused,” but then spoke slowly, alternating between looking at prosecutors and jurors. Ta.
During cross-examination, Trump’s lawyer Susan Necheles quickly got Daniels to admit that he hates Trump and “want him to be held accountable.”
Ms. Necheres slammed Mr. Daniels for tweeting that President Trump was an “orange bastard” on November 9, 2022, but Mr. Daniels criticized him because “he made fun of me first.” He fired back at him for making the statement.
During a combative interrogation, Ms. Daniels appeared to become increasingly frustrated, and Ms. Necheres pressed her to make money off of her claims about her relationship with President Trump.
“You’ve been making money for over 10 years claiming you had sex with Donald Trump, right?” Necheres said at one point.
“I make money telling my story,” Daniels retorted.
Trump, who was joined in court by Thor Eric, who approached X about the case during a break, appeared to be reclining in a seat between two other lawyers during cross-examination.
Previously, Daniels revealed that Trump and his former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen spoke to her about an alleged secret meeting in October 2016, following the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape. He explained that he wanted to buy her story in a “capture and kill” plan to shut her down. It leaked.
“They were interested in paying for this article,” she recalled of her manager approaching her with their proposal.
Daniels testified that it seemed like the “best thing” for that to happen “because then I would be safe and this story wouldn’t be public.”
Trump is accused of forcing Cohen to pay Daniels back and then trying to cover it all up in an effort to “corrupt” the 2016 election. He has denied any wrongdoing and denounced the incident as politically motivated.
Daniels is scheduled to continue testifying Thursday, telling jurors how she considered selling her story to the media before being paid.
“My motive was not money,” she insisted on the stand. “It was to get the story out there.”
Trump told reporters on his way out of court that the case against him was “totally falling apart.”
“They don’t have any books or records, they don’t even have content that would have little relevance to the case,” he said of prosecutors. “This whole incident is a disaster.”
