UPDATE: Stormy Daniels took the stand in Donald Trump‘s hush money trial in New York today, a star witness in the prosecution’s case against the former president.
Daniels was the second witness called today.
Prosecutors opened testimony with a survey of two books he wrote in the 2000s, Trump: How to Get Rich and Trump: Think Like a Billionaire. Trump co-wrote them with a longtime Trump Organization employee, speechwriter Meredith McIver.
A senior editor at Random House Penguin, Sally Franklin, testifying under a subpoena, read aloud excerpts from both books — which were published by Random House Penguin imprints — at the prompting of Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Mangold.
Jurors saw and heard excerpts from chapters entitled “Pay Attention to the Details,” “How to Pinch Pennies” and “Sometimes You Still Have to Screw Them.” In the latter chapter, Franklin read aloud Trump’s philosophy of payback: “For many years I’ve said when someone screws you screw them back.”
Franklin also read a passage that extolled Trump’s then-chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, “as a loyal employee and the ultimate master of playing the cards of business.” Weisselberg is currently serving five months in jail.
A passage from How To Get Rich about Trump’s experience as host of the hit reality show The Apprentice said, “All the women on the Apprentice flirted with me, consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.”
In another passage read aloud from Think Like a Billionaire, Trump wrote, “I always sign my checks so I know where my money’s going.”
In a brief cross-examination, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche noted that for both books Trump had a credited co-author, Meredith McIver, a longtime Trump Organization speechwriter. Blanche asked if McIver might have served as a ghostwriter of the book. “I’m not sure how exactly she contributed,” Franklin replied. “All I know is she helped our primary author in some way.”
That exchange prompted Mangold to lead Franklin through another set of excerpts, with details from the book’s acknowledgment pages and asides from Trump about his personal history and business philosophy. The idea was to establish that the memories, ideas and themes of the books came directly from Trump, not a ghostwriter.
PREVIOUSLY: Stormy Daniels is scheduled to testify today in Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York.
One of Trump’s attorneys, Susan Necheles, confirmed in court that Daniels will be the second witness called by prosecution. Necheles objected to Daniels testimony, “in particular to her testifying about any details about sexual acts.”
“There is really no reason for it to be coming into a case about books and records,” she argued.
Daniels, the former porn actress, claimed that she had sex with Trump in 2006, something he has denied. The trial centers on a $130,000 hush money payment to her in advance of the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors contend that Trump falsified business records to conceal the payment.
One of the prosecutors, Susan Hoffinger, said that Daniels’ testimony “completes the narrative of the story…The details are important..And it’s important for us to establish her credibllity.”
Judge Juan Merchan said that he will allow Daniels to testify, saying that the prosecution had assured him that they were “not going into detail about the sexual act itself.”
But Hoffinger clarified that they “have to elicit that they had intercourse.” Merchan agreed with the prosecution, saying that Daniels has “credibility issues” and it was important for “certain background information” to be discussed.
The first witness called was Sally Franklin, senior vice president and managing editor at Random House, publisher of Trump’s books like How to Get Rich and Think Like A Billionaire.
PREVIOUSLY: Stormy Daniels could take the stand in Donald Trump’s hush money trial as soon as today, according to multiple press reports.
The porn actress — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — was paid $130,000 by a Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen, during the 2016 presidential campaign to stay quiet about a sexual encounter with the married Trump that she claimed had happened a decade earlier.
Daniels attorney Clark Brewster told the AP that it was “likely” Daniels would take the stand today.
The deal with Daniels is the centerpiece of the Manhattan District Attorney’s case against Trump. After Cohen paid her off days before the 2016 election, prosecutors say, Trump and his allies undertook a lawbreaking scheme to repay Cohen. They falsified business records by disguising the reimbursement as taxable income for legal work Cohen never did, according to prosecutors.
Trump has denied any sexual contact with Daniels, and his lawyers have suggested that Cohen acted on his own to protect Trump from her salacious claims. Monday’s comparatively dry and detailed testimony — from a pair of Trump Organization accounting employees, once since retired — revealed the inner workings of the payments to Cohen.
Even as president, Trump made time to sign checks to Cohen that were approved by his company’s chief financial officer and overnighted to the White House, according to testimony from the Trump accounting employees.
Daniels went on to write a tell-all memoir, Full Disclosure, claiming she slept with the Celebrity Apprentice star in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in California.
Earlier today, Trump posted a message on his social media platform, Truth Social, that read, “I have just recently been told who the witness is today. This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare. No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way.” He then deleted the post. The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has threatened Trump with jail time if his continues to comment on witnesses or potential witnesses in the case, as well as jurors and other participants. The judge already has fined Trump $10,000 for violations of a partial gag order.
Merchan’s gag order does not apply to himself, and the judge remains a daily target of Trump’s free-ranging remarks to press outside the courtroom.
Trump on Monday responded to a second contempt ruling by suggesting he’s willing to risk lockup to assert his First Amendment rights. “And frankly, you know what, our Constitution is much more important than jail,” he said on his way out of court Monday. “It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day.”
