'I want him to be held accountable': Daniels says she 'hates' Trump
Then came Trump attorney Susan Necheles’ questions on Stormy Daniels’ view on Trump.
“Am I correct in that you hate President Trump?” Yes.
“And you want him to go to jail?”
I want him to be held accountable.
“Part of the reason you hate him is because he won a legal case against you, and you owe him today, over half a million dollars, right?” Necheles said.
“He didn’t win the case – he won attorneys fees.
“So you agree with me, he won the case and he was awarded over half a million dollars in legal fees?” Correct.
Donald Trump’s criminal trial entered a new stage on Tuesday with testimony from Stormy Daniels, the adult film star at the center of his hush-money scandal. Daniels testified for nearly four hours today, and is expected to return to the stand on Thursday.
Here’s a recap of what happened today:
Daniels testified that she and Trump had a sexual liaison in 2006 that left her nervous and ashamed. Prosecutors allege that in 2015, Trump, his then lawyer Michael Cohen and tabloid honcho David Pecker plotted to bury stories that could thwart his Republican presidential bid. Cohen allegedly shuttled a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, to keep her from going public about her claimed sexual liaison with Trump.
Daniels said she had met Trump at a celebrity golf match in Lake Tahoe, and that she had gone to his hotel room under the belief that they would be getting dinner after meeting there. Per instructions from Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, she arrived at his penthouse to find Trump wearing “silk or satin pyjamas” and she asked him to change.
Daniels said Trump repeatedly grilled Daniels on her time in the adult industry, including: “What about testing? Do you worry about STDs?” He asked whether she had been tested. She later testified that Trump did not use a condom during their sexual encounter.
Daniels said there was abrief discussion of Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, during which he said they slept in separate rooms. She also said he compared her to his daughter, Ivanka Trump: “You remind me of my daughter. She is smart and blonde and beautiful and people underestimate her as well.” She said that during their conversation, Trump dangled the idea of putting her on his TV show The Apprentice.
Daniels said she used the restroom and when she exited, she saw Trump on the bed in his boxers and a T-shirt. “I just thought: oh my God, what did I misread to get here?” She said, comparing it to a “jump scare”. “The intention is pretty clear if someone’s stripped down to their underwear and on the bed.” She said it suddenly felt like the room was spinning, like blood was draining from her hands and feet.
Daniels said that she tried to make a joke and leave, but Trump stood up between her and the door. She testified that Trump told her “I thought you were serious about what you wanted, if you want to get out of that trailer park.”
Daniels said she “blacked out” during her “brief” sexual encounter with Trump. “I was not drunk I was not drugged … I just don’t remember,” she told the jury. She said she “was staring up at the ceiling and didn’t know how I got there”. She testified that she remembered her hands were “shaking so hard that I was having a hard time getting dressed” afterwards, and that Trump told her: “Let’s get together again, honey bunch!”
After a lunch break, Trump’s team demanded a mistrial over what they said were prejudicial and irrelevant comments. “There’s no way to unring that bell, in our view,” defense lawyer Todd Blanche said. “Aside from pure embarrassment,” Blanche told Merchan, these details did nothing but “inflame the jury”. The judge rejected the request and said defense lawyers should have raised more objections during the testimony.
Daniels said that in 2011, a man approached her at a Las Vegas car park and threatened her against coming forward. Her former attorney, Michael Avenatti, publicized a sketch of the man, and then filed a defamation suit after Trump denied involvement. Daniels said she thought a defamation claim was “risky” and “not worth it”, but that Avenatti filed it without her permission. The case was thrown out, in Trump’s favor.
Under cross examination, Daniels acknowledged that she “hates” Trump. “I want him to be held accountable,” she told the jury. Daniels also admitted she has chosen not to pay about $560,000 in legal fees that she owes to Trump after she filed and lost a defamation suit against him.
The jury heard from another witness in the morning: Sally Franklin,an executive at Penguin Random House. The prosecution asked her to read excerpts from Trump’s books including Trump: How to Get Rich and Trump: Think Like a Billionaire.
Judge indefinitely postpones Trump's classified documents trial date
The US district judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely postponed Donald Trump’s trial date in Florida in the case where the former president is charged with retaining national security documents.
From Politico’s Kyle Cheney:
BREAKING: Judge CANNON has indefinitely postponed Donald Trump's trial date in Florida.
Donald Trump, speaking to the media after court adjourned for the day, described today’s court proceedings as a “very big day”.
Trump, standing next to his attorney Todd Blanche, said:
So this was a very big day, a very revealing day as you see their case is totally falling apart. They have nothing on books and records and even something that should bear very little relationship to the case. It’s just a disaster for the DA, the Soros-backed disaster. This whole case is a disaster.
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking about the alleged 2011 threat to keep quiet about the former president, once again to insist that it didn’t actually happen.
So you decided in 2016, well, I’m going to sell my story, you weren’t afraid?
Stormy Daniels told Necheles that she was “very different” and more brave, in 2016 than in 2011.
Necheles pressed on with her suggestion that Daniels was trying to shake down Trump.
You were looking to extort money from President Trump, right?
“False”, Daniels said. “Well, that’s what you did, right?” “False!”
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is grilling Stormy Daniels on why she didn’t come forward with the sex claim for 10 years.
Daniels shot back that she told multiple people – including friends – and had effectively told the story during a radio show interview around 2007.
Necheles asked if she thought that Michael Cohen had sent a man to threaten Daniels in 2011; Daniels previously believed that Cohen was responsible for the threat.
Daniels earlier told the jury about being approached by a man in the parking lot of a shopping center in Las Vegas in June 2011 who she said “threatened me not to continue to tell my story”.
The prosecution asked: “But now you and Michael Cohen are buddies, right?” Daniels replied:
I wouldn’t say buddies.
But you’ve been on his podcast a couple of times? “For him to apologize.”
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels about whether she considered getting high-profile women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred to represent her in 2011.
You told Gloria Allred that you did not have sex with President Trump, didn’t you?
Daniels denied this. “I told her I did.”
Necheles’ line of questioning stems from Daniels’ book, Full Disclosure, where she describes speaking with Allred on the phone – but not telling her about sex with Trump. Daniels said:
I did not tell her all these sex details, I did not trust her.
“You’re making this up as you sit there, right?” Necheles pressed. “No.”
Daniels asked about tweet calling Trump an 'orange turd'
On cross, Trump attorney Susan Necheles is doggedly trying to convey that Stormy Daniels’ presence in court is a financially motivated personal vendetta.
'I want him to be held accountable': Daniels says she 'hates' Trump
Then came Trump attorney Susan Necheles’ questions on Stormy Daniels’ view on Trump.
“Am I correct in that you hate President Trump?” Yes.
“And you want him to go to jail?”
I want him to be held accountable.
“Part of the reason you hate him is because he won a legal case against you, and you owe him today, over half a million dollars, right?” Necheles said.
“He didn’t win the case – he won attorneys fees.
“So you agree with me, he won the case and he was awarded over half a million dollars in legal fees?” Correct.
