Stormy Daniels recounts Trump sexual encounter in hotel room during hush money case testimony

Grownup movie actor Stormy Daniels took the witness stand at Donald Trump’s New York felony trial Tuesday, testifying below oath concerning the sexual encounter she says she had with him in 2006 and the $130,000 deal for her silence that was struck through the closing days of the 2016 presidential marketing campaign.

In a exceptional day of testimony with the previous president sitting roughly 10 ft away from her, Daniels recounted the tryst intimately. She additionally talked about Trump’s supposed efforts to get her on his TV present and her determination to come back ahead together with her story, in addition to the payoff and the fallout from doing so.

Throughout cross-examination, which at instances grew to become heated, Daniels tangled with one in all Trump’s attorneys, Susan Necheles, who accused her of creating up a collection of false claims to “extort” Trump, then a presidential candidate.

Trump’s legal professionals additionally argued that a few of Daniels’ account of the 2006 encounter “was unduly and inappropriately prejudicial.” They then requested a mistrial.

Trump lawyer Todd Blanche informed the decide that Daniels’ unfair claims included her testimony that Trump didn’t use a condom and that she thinks she “blacked out” for part of it.

“There’s no option to unring the bell, in our view,” Blanche mentioned throughout a dramatic change with prosecutors.

Choose Juan Merchan shot down the mistrial movement however acknowledged that “there have been issues that might have been higher left unsaid,” including that he would strike a few of Daniels’ testimony from the document.

Courtroom isn’t in session Wednesday. Cross-examination of Daniels will resume Thursday morning.

Trump is headed to Florida on Tuesday night, with plans to spend Wednesday at Mar-a-Lago, marketing campaign nationwide press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned.

Daniels testified that she first met Trump at a celeb golf match in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in July 2006. Describing their first assembly as a “very transient encounter” on a golf course, Daniels mentioned she was 27 and remembered Trump being as outdated as her father — round 60.

The jury — which appeared targeted intently on Daniels and her testimony — was proven an image of them collectively from that journey.

Daniels mentioned that they later bumped into one another on the membership and {that a} man she later discovered was Trump’s bodyguard informed her Trump needed to have dinner together with her. She mentioned she replied, “No, with an expletive in entrance.”

She did, nonetheless, get the bodyguard’s quantity, and he or she mentioned that later that day her publicist satisfied her she ought to settle for the invitation, telling her: “It’ll make an awesome story. He’s a enterprise man. Like, what may probably go unsuitable?”

She mentioned she went as much as Trump’s penthouse resort suite and was informed they’d be going to dinner at one of many eating places downstairs. When she entered the room, which she described as “3 times the dimensions of my condo,” he was carrying “silk or satin” pajamas, she mentioned. She mentioned she quipped, “Does Hugh Hefner know you stole his pajamas?” and requested him to alter, which he did.

They then sat at a eating desk within the suite, the place, she mentioned, Trump requested her quite a few questions on her grownup movie writing and directing. He then requested her about sexually transmitted ailments, and he or she mentioned she was examined continuously and “I’ve by no means had a foul take a look at.”

She mentioned that she grew pissed off with him as a result of he saved reducing off her solutions and that when he pulled out {a magazine} with him on the duvet, she mentioned, “Somebody ought to spank you with that.” She mentioned she then rolled it up and “swatted” him with it. Whereas jurors principally appeared poker-faced by means of her testimony, one started rubbing her face and gave the impression to be holding again laughter.

After that, she mentioned, Trump was “way more well mannered” and urged she ought to come on his TV present, “The Apprentice.” Daniels testified that “he mentioned, ‘You remind me of my daughter,'” and that showing on the present would reveal she should not be underestimated.

In all, they chatted for about two hours, Daniels mentioned. She mentioned that she went to the lavatory and that when she walked out, Trump was mendacity on the mattress “in boxer shorts and T-shirt.” She mentioned she was “startled, like a soar scare. Wasn’t anticipating somebody to be there, particularly minus a number of clothes.”

She mentioned Trump informed her, “I assumed you had been severe about what you needed.” She mentioned she felt “there was an imbalance of energy, for certain. He was greater and blocking the way in which, however I used to be not threatened both verbally or bodily.” Requested in court docket whether or not she ended up having intercourse with him on the mattress, she mentioned, “Sure.”

She described the intercourse as transient and mentioned Trump informed her “it was nice. Let’s get collectively once more, honey bunch.” She mentioned he hadn’t used a condom and hadn’t expressed any concern about his spouse’s discovering out what had occurred. She mentioned he additionally didn’t give her his cellphone quantity.

Trump’s bodyguard reached out to her the subsequent day to ask her to satisfy Trump at a bar in her resort, she mentioned. When she received there, she mentioned, he was with then-Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Trump left about 10 minutes later however continued to name her properly after the encounter, she mentioned, “with an replace — or a non-update if he didn’t have one — for ‘Apprentice.’”

“He all the time known as me honey bunch,” she mentioned.

She mentioned they noticed one another once more in January 2007, when he invited her to the launch of his Trump vodka model. Whereas she was there, she mentioned, he launched her to his pal “Karen,” who she later discovered was Karen McDougal, a former Playboy mannequin who mentioned she was having a monthslong affair with Trump throughout that interval. Former Nationwide Enquirer writer David Pecker testified earlier within the trial that he paid McDougal $150,000 to maintain her quiet concerning the declare through the 2016 presidential marketing campaign. Trump has denied each Daniels’ and McDougal’s claims.

Daniels mentioned Trump additionally invited her to Trump Tower round that point and guaranteed her, “I am nonetheless engaged on the ‘Apprentice’ factor.”

She mentioned they final noticed one another in the summertime of 2007, when he invited her to see him at a bungalow he was staying at in Los Angeles. She mentioned that he “saved attempting to make sexual advances” however that she shot him down. “I informed him I used to be on my interval,” she mentioned. He mentioned he later known as her and informed her he hadn’t been in a position to get her on his present.

Funds made to Daniels by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen on the finish of the 2016 marketing campaign are on the coronary heart of the case, the primary felony trial of a former president. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in return for her protecting quiet about her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump.

Daniels mentioned Tuesday that Gina Rodriguez, her supervisor, spoke to her about going public together with her story for cash in 2015 after Trump introduced he was operating for president. Rodriguez didn’t have a lot success purchasing the story till after the discharge in October 2016 of the “Entry Hollywood” tape, through which Trump was recorded in 2005 bragging that he may grope girls with out their consent.

She mentioned that Rodriguez then informed her that Trump and Cohen had been “occupied with paying” for the story and that she agreed, as a result of it meant the story — which her husband didn’t find out about — wouldn’t change into public. “I did not care concerning the quantities. It was simply, ‘Get it performed,'” she mentioned.

Prosecutors say Trump reimbursed Cohen the cash in funds that had been falsely described as authorized bills. They’ve charged him with 34 counts of falsifying enterprise information. Trump has pleaded not responsible.

Daniels’ take care of Cohen was revealed in a January 2018 story in The Wall Avenue Journal. Requested concerning the affect the story had on her life, Daniels mentioned, “Chaos.”

“My husband asking questions, my pals asking questions,” she mentioned, with folks displaying up on her entrance garden.

She mentioned that Cohen began to speak about her allegations publicly however that she couldn’t due to the NDA and the $1 million penalty it included if she violated it. She mentioned she later employed lawyer Michael Avenatti “in order that I may rise up for myself.”

He helped her get out of the NDA but in addition filed an unsuccessful defamation go well with towards Trump on her behalf and towards her needs, she mentioned. Daniels misplaced the case and was ordered to pay Trump’s authorized charges. She ultimately fired Avenatti, who was convicted of a number of crimes, together with stealing from Daniels.

Daniels had vowed on Twitter, now X, by no means to pay the authorized charges, which she acknowledged on cross-examination totaled over $660,000.

“You mentioned, ‘I’ll go to jail earlier than I pay a penny’?” Necheles requested Daniels. “Appropriate,” she responded.

Daniels additionally acknowledged that she hates Trump and has known as him imply names on-line, together with having referred to him as an “orange turd,” however she mentioned Trump, who has repeatedly referred to her as “horseface,” made enjoyable of her first.

Necheles additionally pressed Daniels about earlier accounts of her story. Daniels testified she agreed to do an interview with In Contact journal in 2011 after it informed her it was writing concerning the alleged encounter with Trump. Daniels mentioned that it had agreed to pay her $15,000 for the interview however that the deal was scrapped after Cohen received the story killed. She mentioned she was threatened weeks later by a person in a Las Vegas parking zone who informed her to “depart Trump alone.”

Necheles repeatedly urged the parking zone incident was made up, which Daniels disputed. Daniels mentioned that she was frightened by the encounter and that she stayed quiet till Trump declared his candidacy for president, at which level she gave her supervisor the inexperienced mild to buy her story round.

“You weren’t actually scared, had been you?” Necheles mentioned.

“I used to be terrified, however the ballgame modified,” Daniels replied, implying that by telling her story when Trump was a candidate, she felt she may guarantee her security.

“You had been seeking to extort cash from President Trump, proper?” Necheles mentioned.

“False,” Daniels replied.

Earlier than Daniels first took the stand, Merchan informed prosecutors she may testify that she and Trump had sexual relations however that she ought to depart particulars out. As soon as she was on the stand, Daniels usually elaborated on her claims with out being requested, and Merchan repeatedly informed her simply to reply the questions that had been posed to her.

When Blanche made his mistrial movement, Merchan additionally faulted the legal professionals for not having spoken up throughout her testimony, saying he was shocked there weren’t extra objections.

“I believe that I signaled to you and to the prosecution that we had been going into manner an excessive amount of element,” Merchan mentioned.

Trump, whom Merchan has fined for repeatedly violating a gag order by attacking Daniels and Cohen, took to his social media platform earlier than Tuesday’s court docket proceedings to complain he had “only in the near past been informed who the witness is at the moment.”

“That is unprecedented, no time for legal professionals to organize. No Choose has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan manner,” he wrote in a publish that was taken down a short while later.

The Reality Social publish went up shortly earlier than The Related Press first reported that Daniels was anticipated to testify. It is unclear when Trump and his legal professionals had been informed she’d be testifying — prosecutors have sometimes not been telling them who would take the stand till the day earlier than, citing Trump’s document of witness commentary.

That Daniels would testify wasn’t a shock, nonetheless. Trump’s authorized workforce had argued unsuccessfully that she needs to be barred from taking the stand, a request Merchan rejected earlier than the trial began. Cohen can also be anticipated to testify.

Earlier than Daniels, prosecutors known as a longtime publishing government to authenticate and skim excerpts from a few of Trump’s books.

Sally Franklin, an government at Penguin Random Home, learn one from “Trump: Suppose Like a Billionaire” that talked about how carefully Trump tracks his cash — which prosecutors are seemingly to make use of to point out he was properly conscious of what he was paying Cohen again for.

“I all the time signal my checks so I do know the place my cash goes,” he mentioned within the excerpt.