Trump's attorney challenged Stormy Daniels' narrative of a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, aiming to highlight inconsistencies in her various accounts. The effort was to discredit her as a witness in the first-ever criminal trial involving a sitting or former U.S. president.
Daniels' detailed description of the encounter, which occurred in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite while Trump was married to Melania, captivated jurors and stirred memories of the more sensational aspects of his presidency from 2017 to 2021, as he vies to regain the White House this year.
Under questioning by defense lawyer Susan Necheles in a Manhattan courtroom, Daniels maintained her version of events, rebuffing attempts to suggest changes in her narrative.
At 77 years old, Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with his former lawyer Michael Cohen's $130,000 payment to Daniels, who was 45 at the time, for her silence prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election about the alleged encounter. Trump vehemently denies any sexual involvement with Daniels.
Trump, running as the Republican candidate against Democratic President Joe Biden in the upcoming election, has dismissed the trial as a politically motivated ploy to undermine his campaign.
Prosecutors argue that Trump's actions to conceal the payment to Daniels tainted the 2016 election, in which he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton, by preventing voters from learning about a potentially influential story.
Following Daniels' testimony, Trump's attorney Todd Blanche once again requested Justice Juan Merchan to declare a mistrial, citing Daniels' detailed testimony about the alleged sexual encounter, including her assertion that Trump did not use a condom, as irrelevant and potentially prejudicial to Trump.
However, Merchan denied the request, stating that since Blanche had argued in his opening statement that the encounter never happened, prosecutors were entitled to attempt to rehabilitate Daniels' credibility.
Blanche also sought to loosen the gag order restricting Trump's public comments about jurors and witnesses, but Merchan rejected this request, fearing that other witnesses might be influenced by Trump's remarks.
A prosecutor, Christopher Conroy, suggested that if Trump wanted to respond to Daniels' claims, he should testify in his own defense, although it remains uncertain whether Trump will do so.
Trump has been fined $10,000 for violating the gag order 10 times, with the judge warning that further infractions could result in jail time.
During cross-examination, Necheles questioned stormy Daniels trump sex about inconsistencies between her previous testimony, a book she authored, and interviews she gave over the years. Daniels was asked, for instance, why she did not mention Trump's bodyguard being present in a 2018 interview with Vogue magazine when she had testified earlier that the bodyguard's presence contributed to a power imbalance with Trump.
After completing her testimony, which spanned seven hours over two days, Daniels stepped down from the witness stand.
Former Trump White House aide Madeline Westerhout also testified about checks signed by Trump while in office and is expected to return to the witness stand on Friday.
This trial marks the first of four criminal cases against Trump, and he maintains his innocence in all of them.
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