Stormy Daniels testified Thursday that she had no direct knowledge of former President Donald Trump’s involvement in a $130,000 payment to keep her quiet about allegations of an affair in 2016. This is at the heart of the case against him.
Daniels’ detailed testimony about her alleged affair with Trump in 2006 prompted the defense to file two motions for a mistrial on Tuesday and Thursday, but Judge Juan Marchand denied both motions. . Still, her admission that she didn’t know about Trump’s role in the deal makes it difficult to talk about the core charge: that Trump falsified business records when repaying payments to his former lawyer Michael Cohen. He emphasized that the evidence suggests that she participated in the testimony, even though she was unable to do so. There is another reason for being on the witness stand.
“Her testimony had no relevance at all,” defense attorney and legal analyst Philip Holloway told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “She had no information to share about the Trump Organization’s bookkeeping. All she added was sleaze to make Trump look like a womanizer and manipulator.” In the legal world, she would have caused a miscarriage of justice.”
Trump’s lawyers argued Tuesday that prosecutors only asked Daniel specific questions to “stimulate the jury.”
Proving Mr. Trump’s payments and Mr. Cohen’s involvement in the redemptions will be key to the prosecution’s case. Daniels’ admission that he never spoke directly to Trump about the $130,000 payment comes after defense attorney Susan Necheres told him on stage one morning how he met Trump. This came at the end of the cross-examination after trying to clarify the contradictions between the two. She has spoken about this before, including in a 2011 interview with In Touch magazine.
Ms. Necheres sought to prove that Ms. Daniels was motivated by two motives: money and hatred of Trump. She said Daniels promoted her store’s products on Twitter, highlighting in-store items such as “Stormy Saint of Indictment” candles and “Stormy Daniels Political Power” comics, and that Trump He pointed out that the government was taking advantage of the indictment.
Asked about the core charges in the case, Daniels said she is not a lawyer and does not understand what Trump is being charged with. “There are a lot of indictments,” she told Necheres. (Related: Judge again denies mistrial motion over Stormy Daniels testimony)
Necheres: Have you ever spoken to President Trump regarding the $130,000 payment? Do you have any personal knowledge that he was involved in that transaction?
Daniels: Not directly, no.
— Katelyn Richardson (@katesrichardson) May 9, 2024
Necheres pointed out that even after the nondisclosure agreement, Daniels continued to profit from her story through a strip club tour and a documentary about her titled “Make America Horny Again.” “Do you have a lot of experience making false stories about sex seem real?” Necheres asked.
“Wow,” Daniels said. “That’s not what I wanted to say.” Daniels said that if the story with Trump had been false, “I would have written it better.”
In one bizarre moment, Ms. Necheres revealed that Ms. Daniels was making money using her ability to speak to ghosts and the dead, and that she lived in a house in New Orleans that was said to be haunted, and that there were ghosts there. asked about “attacking” her boyfriend.
“We brought in experts,” Daniels said of the house, explaining that they brought in religious experts and people to measure the electromagnetic fields. “It was completely uncovered that much of the activity was that the giant possum was under the house.”
Daniels’ time in the stands drew a lot of attention, with press and public access lines stretching much longer than usual Thursday morning. But other witnesses who testified Thursday had knowledge of Trump’s bookkeeping and habits.
Rebecca Manosio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization and former executive assistant to Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, signed a contract while Trump was in the White House in 2017. testified as to how the check requesting the same was sent. The checks were first sent to Trump’s personal address, she explained. former bodyguard Keith Schiller, and later Trump’s former aide Johnny McEntee.
Another witness called Thursday, Trump’s former White House chief of staff Madeleine Westerhout, testified that Trump called Weisselberg several times to ask for clarification about the checks he had questions about. did.
Mr. Westerhout also testified about his family relationships and work practices, noting in particular his relationship with his wife, Melania Trump, as one of “mutual respect.”
“I thought their relationship was really special,” she said, adding that he often laughed when she came to the Oval Office and that he sometimes told her to call Melania if he was running late. Told. “He was my boss, but she was definitely in charge,” Westerhout said. The defense is seeking proof that previous payments to suppress reporting were motivated by family considerations for his campaign.
Marchan dismissed the jury Thursday to allow the defense to argue two motions. One is an amendment to the gag order that would allow President Trump to comply with Daniels, and the other is a new motion for a mistrial. He denied both.
Marchand said his concern about the gag order was to “protect the integrity” of the entire process, noting that not only Daniels but other witnesses would see Trump’s comments. “I remain concerned that witnesses are using gag orders as a sword rather than a shield,” Marchan said.
Regarding the mistrial motion, Marchan said Daniels’ testimony is meaningful because the defense denied the allegations of sexual contact in their opening statements and the jury is in a position where they have to choose who to believe. insisted. That means prosecutors need a chance to “restore” Daniels’ credibility as a witness and corroborate his story, he said.
“This is not a case about sex,” defense attorney Todd Blanche told the judge during arguments. He argued that many of the prosecutors’ questions were irrelevant, highlighting questions such as the relative height difference and whether Trump used a condom.
As on Tuesday, Machan again questioned why the defense did not raise further objections during Daniels’ testimony.
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