Stormy Daniels called to the stand
The prosecution calls its next witness: Stormy Daniels.
Daniels, an adult film star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she met Donald Trump in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament. Daniels was 27 at the time and Trump was 60 and Daniels has always said the sex was consensual.
Just before the 2016 election, Daniels said she was approached by Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer at the time, and offered $130,000 not to disclose the alleged affair. She accepted the money. “The story was coming out again. I was concerned for my family and their safety,” Daniels told 60 Minutes in 2018.
After the Wall Street Journal broke the story of the payment, Daniels sued Trump to release her from the non-disclosure agreement. She said it was void because it had not been signed by Trump.
Key events
“I’d like to now direct your attention to July 2006,” Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger says.
Stormy Daniels says she was in Lake Tahoe with Wicked Entertainment, an adult company.
“What were you and others from wicked entertainment doing in Lake Tahoe in July in 2006?” She said that Wicked was there to promote the company.
The players would come around, you’d stay at your hole that had your company’s logo, give them water or towels…
Did you meet Donald Trump on the golf course at that celebrity golf tournament?” Daniels said: “Yes, I did.”
She later said “it was a very brief encounter on the course.” What was discussed? “It wasn’t very much …”
As Stormy Daniels responds to prosecutor Susan Hoffinger’s questions, she is looking both toward Hoffinger and addressing jurors directly.
At one point, she took a sip of water from a plastic cup.
Daniels testifies about her personal biography as prosecutors paint sympathetic portrait
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, in asking Stormy Daniels about her background, is making her a sympathetic character.
Hoffinger knows that Donald Trump’s team is going to try chipping away at Daniels’ credibility, so she is showing that the adult actress is a dynamic, kind, intelligent woman.
Daniels testified that she had received a full scholarship for veterinary medicine but didn’t attend, because of the cost. She got into the adult industry in high school, when Daniels met someone at a horse stable where she worked, who turned out to be an exotic dancer.
I started dancing on the weekends, which was actually kind of cool because I didn’t have to miss any classes, and I could make more in two nights than I did shoveling manure eight hours a day.
Hoffinger also prompted Daniels to discuss how she left home early, at age 17. “My mother was very neglectful, she would disappear for days at the time,” Daniels recalled.
I wish I could say she was some kind of addict, because that would be some sort of excuse…
Hoffigner asked Daniels whether she’d supported herself since leaving home as a teen. “Yes,” Daniels said.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is questioning Stormy Daniels, who has been speaking very quickly, about her background.
While Daniels, wearing black and a matching pair of glasses, walked into the courtroom with confidence, the fast progression of her words does indicate nervousness.
Hugo Lowell
Donald Trump is leaning back in his chair with a passive look on his face as Stormy Daniels takes the stand in his criminal trial.
In the rows behind Trump, his attorney Alina Habba is sitting with her arms crossed, Eric Trump is looking at the wall, and Trump aide Boris Epshteyn is on his phone.
Stormy Daniels has taken the witness stand. She said that she is testifying pursuant to a subpoeana.
Stormy Daniels called to the stand
The prosecution calls its next witness: Stormy Daniels.
Daniels, an adult film star whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, says she met Donald Trump in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament. Daniels was 27 at the time and Trump was 60 and Daniels has always said the sex was consensual.
Just before the 2016 election, Daniels said she was approached by Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer at the time, and offered $130,000 not to disclose the alleged affair. She accepted the money. “The story was coming out again. I was concerned for my family and their safety,” Daniels told 60 Minutes in 2018.
After the Wall Street Journal broke the story of the payment, Daniels sued Trump to release her from the non-disclosure agreement. She said it was void because it had not been signed by Trump.
Hugo Lowell
Prosecutors have Sally Franklin read another excerpt from the book “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire” that strikes exactly at Trump’s awareness of his finances:
There’s nothing worse than a computer signing checks… when you sign a check yourself, you’re seeing what’s really going on.
Recall that Donald Trump personally signed the $35,000 huh-money reimbursement checks to Michael Cohen, in part because the money was being drawn from his personal account, according to testimony from the ex Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney yesterday.
Prosecutors are suggesting those checks showed Trump had direct knowledge of the illicit repayment scheme, even as Trump’s lawyers say he just automatically signed off without understanding precise details.
Sally Franklin has finished testifying and left the witness stand.
Judge Juan Merchan is chatting with both sides at the bench right now.
On re-direct, Sally Franklin was asked to read Donald Trump’s acknowledgments page from “How to Get Rich”, to show that Trump’s words reflected his real-life speech and behavior, and were not a ghostwriter’s artful turn of phrase.
“She’s done a remarkable job helping me put my experiences on paper,” Trump said, in reference to secondary author Meredith McIver.
By saying “helping me put my experiences on paper,” Trump is attributing things he described doing in his book to himself.
Hugo Lowell
Prosecutors are having Sally Franklin, a Penguin Random House executive, read through a series of passages from some of Trump’s books bragging about his cheapness and how he watched his outflows closely.
The thrust here is that Trump, in his own words, paid close attention to his finances – casting doubt on the Trump defense claim that he merely signed the checks to reimburse Michael Cohen for paying the hush money without knowing what it was for.
Right now, on direct-examination, the prosecution is asking Sally Franklin, of Random House, about books by Donald Trump that the company has published. Among them is “How to Get Rich.”
Franklin was asked to read excerpts from Trump’s texts. “For many years, I’ve said that if someone screws you, screw them back,” one passage read by Franklin said.
Like it says in the Bible, an eye for an eye.
She was also asked about a portion of text that read, “All the women on the apprentice flirted with me” and claimed “a sexual dynamic is always present between two people unless [one] is asexual.”
One passage also undermines any defense claim that Trump didn’t pay attention to payments as he wrote in his own words:
I always sign my checks, so I know where my money is going … I always read my bills, so I know I’m not overcharged.
Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold ask Sally Franklin to read a line from Donald Trump’s book, “Trump: How to Get Rich”, in which Trump wrote that:
I am the chairman and president of the Trump Organization. I like saying that because it means a great deal to me.
Another excerpt with the chapter title “Pay attention to the details” reads:
If you don’t know every aspect of what you’re doing, down to the paperclips, you’re setting yourself up for some unwelcome surprises.
Sally Franklin, the first witness called to the stand today, is testifying as a records custodian.
Her testimony allows prosecutors to enter into evidence copies of some of Donald Trump’s previous books, including Trump: How to Get Rich.
First witness called
The prosecution has called its first witness of the day: Sally Franklin, the senior vice-president and executive managing editor for Penguin Random House publishing group.
Judge allows prosecutors to call Stormy Daniels as witness
Hugo Lowell
Juan Merchan allows – over Donald Trump’s objections – the Manhattan district attorney’s office to call Stormy Daniels as the second witness today.
Trump, wearing a lemon-yellow tie today, appears unimpressed.
Prosecutors said that they don’t plan on going into any salacious details about the sexual act.
“The details of the encounter are important,” Susan Hoffinger argued, saying they provided “reasons for why she did what she did” with signing the NDA.
The details will be how she ended up having a sexual encounter with him.
”It’s not going to involve any descriptions of genitalia or anything of that nature,” Hoffinger said later.
Merchan said he didn’t have an issue so long as there wouldn’t be details about the alleged sex act. Hoffinger interjected:
Your honor, there will be some details very briefly, very briefly.
Merchan agreed that some discussion of the sexual encounter was admissible, citing that Daniels has “got credibility issues,” which necessitated including some information.
Donald Trump appeared to delete a Truth Social post complaining that his legal team did not have enough time to prepare for the next witness in the hush money criminal trial.
The statement posted at 7.30am this morning said:
I have just recently been told who the witness is today. This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare.
He did not name the identify the witness, but Trump attorney Susan Necheles has just said that Stormy Daniels is expected to take the stand today.
The former president went on to attack the judge, Juan Merchan, for running the trial in a “biased and partisan way” and for being “crooked” and “highly conflicted”.
Trump deleted the Truth Social post shortly after posting it, likely because it violates a court-imposed gag order that prevents him from intimidating people closely connected to the case, including witnesses. Merchan has made it clear that he would jail Trump if the violations continued.
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