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NEW YORK — Adult film actor Stormy Daniels took the witness stand Thursday morning for the second day of the criminal trial against Donald Trump, sparring with her lawyer over her motives for signing a settlement and non-disclosure agreement at the center of the trial. .
Cross-examination by President Trump's lawyer Susan Necheles became heated with questions aimed at discrediting Daniels.
For example, Mr. Necheres pressed Mr. Daniels about his role as an adult film director and screenwriter: “So you have a lot of experience making false stories about sex seem real?”
“Sex is real,” Daniels retorted. “That's why it's porn.”
Mr. Necheres' questioning covered Daniels' strip club tours and interview series, her beliefs in the paranormal, and the filmmaker's experiences with sex. Ms. Necheres asked Ms. Daniels about her strip club tour, called “Make America Horny Again,” a play on President Trump's familiar campaign slogan, and suggested that Ms. Daniels had profited from her allegations and her association with Trump. I asked if he was there.
Daniels said the name was given against her wishes and that how the club is promoted is out of her control.
Additionally, she asked questions designed to undermine her sanity. That included whether she believed the old house she lived in was haunted. Ms. Daniels said there was “unexplained activity” at the home she lived in in New Orleans, which she said many mistakenly blamed on a possum that lived under the house. It is said that it was exposed.
The series of questions drew laughs from the dozens of members of the public in the overflow room who had lined up early outside the courthouse to watch the testimony.
During the heated moment, Mr. Trump leaned over the defense table to listen to testimony, whispering to his lawyers while jurors looked back and forth from Mr. Daniels to Mr. Necheres. Some took notes.
Her testimony came after a graphic day on the stand Tuesday, in which she accused Trump of having an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in a hotel suite in 2006, as well as other contacts between 2006 and 2008. I explained in detail. Trump has denied the affair.
Necheres' interrogation eventually traced back to that night at the hotel in 2006. Daniels testified about the time she was invited to dinner with President Trump but did not eat. If she had, she said, she would have talked about food.
“I'm very interested in food,” Daniels joked.
Ms. Necheres pushed for details, including whether there was food that night and whether Ms. Daniels felt uncomfortable seeing President Trump in his underwear, aiming to find inconsistencies with her recollection.
Daniels said some discrepancies between her testimony and published work may be due to the authors' lack of fact-checking ability and her lack of editorial control over journalists, and that He testified that some details were omitted as a result.
Ms. Necheres repeatedly pressed Ms. Daniels to admit that she had changed her story, insisting that the sexual contact allegations were fabricated. This resulted in Daniels' denial and the prosecution's objections.
Stormy Daniels' testimony is central to the charges
Daniels, also known as Stephanie Clifford, is one of two women prosecutors allege were paid to protect President Trump's chances during his first bid for the White House. be.
The former president faces 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying New York business records to conceal harmful information to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump, who has maintained his innocence, has argued that the trial itself constitutes “election interference” because it interferes with the 2024 presidential election. Since he has to appear in court every day, he cannot campaign when he is in court.
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Prosecutors said the details Daniels gave in testimony so far were meant to establish her credibility, and that Trump had signed a non-disclosure agreement and a $130,000 settlement from her then-attorney, Michael Cohen. He also claimed it would help explain what he was trying to silence with the money. The defense argued that this was a case about her books and records and did not want her to talk about sex at all and asked for a mistrial for her, but the judge refused. On Tuesday, Judge Juan Melchan asked prosecutors to give their answers more concisely, without going into unnecessary detail.
The former president sat in court to testify, as required by New York criminal law, and was accompanied by one of his sons, Eric Trump, who was not present when testimony began Thursday. Florida Sen. Rick Scott also heard testimony in court along with the former president.
Andrea Bernstein contributed to this report.