Tuesday was quite tense in the Manhattan Court where the trial of former President Donald Trump for payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels is taking place. Without warning, the adult entertainment star arrived in court and testified for hours. Her testimony was loaded with intimate details that have no relation to the alleged crime of falsification of accounting records and even triggered the Trump team's request for a mistrial. The motion was denied by Judge Juan Merchan, but he acknowledged that Daniels' testimony was inappropriate.
Stormy Daniels' embarrassing testimony
Porn actress Stormy Daniels received the sum of $130,000 in 2016 in exchange for not leaking to the media her story of an alleged love affair with Donald Trump in 2006. The former president has denied that accusation, but eight years after signing the confidentiality agreement, Daniels testified at the trial in which Trump is accused of falsifying business records related to payments to the actress, to allegedly commit a felony related to trying to influence the 2016 election.
Daniels went into details that at some point even made the judge so uncomfortable that he had to intervene in the statements . The actress gave intimate details about the night she supposedly shared with the former president, and even mentioned Trump's wife, ensuring that the Republican told her on that occasion that he did not even sleep in the same room as Melania Trump.
Trump's team called for a mistrial
After the porn actress' embarrassing testimony, the former president's lawyers requested a mistrial, but the judge denied the motion. "I don’t believe we’re at the point where a mistrial is warranted," Merchan said.
Donald Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, argued that Daniels had gone into detailed allegations that were completely unnecessary and detrimental to the case. “This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from,” said Blanche, referring to the fact that the jury had already heard details and accusations that could contaminate the final decision.
Merchan agreed that the testimony had gone too far. “I agree there are some things that would’ve been better left unsaid,” in fact on a couple of occasions the judge interrupted the prosecutors and asked that the statement be focused on the important points. However, he denied the motion for a mistrial and told the defense that they should have raised more objections at the time of the testimony.
Extortion of Trump?
In the afternoon, after the scandalous questions from the prosecutors and the intimate details exposed by Daniels, it was the turn of defense attorney Susan Necheles, who had a heated conversation with the porn actress in which she asked the witness about her years making money off the Trump story and about her open hatred of the former president.
Necheles began the interrogation by asking Daniels if she hates Trump, the porn actress answered "yes." She also asked her if she wants to see him in jail, to which Daniels responded that she wants him to “held accountable.” Then, the lawyer emphasized the witness' motivations.
"Do you recall testifying you started acting in pornography because you wanted to make more money?" Necheles asked.
"Don’t we want to all make more money in our jobs?” Daniels responded.
"That motivates you a lot in life, right?” Necheles asked again.
“That’s what we do here,” Daniels said.
Necheles also delved into all the money the porn actress has received over the years from her history with Trump.
"You’ve been making money by claiming that you had sex with Donald Trump for more than a decade?” the defense lawyer asked.
"I was making money by telling my story about what happened to me," Daniels responded.
"That story has made you a lot of money, right?" Necheles asked again.
“It has also cost me a lot of money,” Daniels said.
Finally, Necheles asked Daniels if she had tried to extort Trump in 2016.
"You were trying to extort money from President Trump, right?”
“False,” Daniels responded.
“That’s what you did, right?” Necheles asked again.
“False,” Daniels responded.
"This whole case is just a disaster"
Trump ended the day giving a brief speech outside the court in which he did not even mention Daniels. The porn star is protected by the gag order imposed on Trump by Judge Merchan. On Tuesday, Merchan threatened the former president with sending him to jail if he broke the gag law again and spoke about any of the witnesses. On this occasion, even after Daniels' annoying statements, the former president held back and did not make any mention of it.
"This was a very big day, a very revealing day as you'll see their case is totally falling apart," Trump said.
He also referred to what his legal team has pointed out on different occasions about the inappropriateness and unnecessaryness of hearing from Daniels at trial: "They have nothing on books and records and even something that should bear very little relationship to the case is just a disaster for the Soros-backed District Attorney."
