STORMY DANIELS DEFENDS HER STORY
Trump's lawyer asks judge for mistrial
• Stormy Daniels sparred with a lawyer for Donald Trump on Thursday during a cross-examination that accused her of trying to extort the former president and changing her story over the years.
Jurors at times whipped their heads from side to side, from lawyer to witness, as if watching a tennis match from courtside.
The adult-film actress often had sarcastic responses. Her expressions and body language indicated she was strongly offended over repeated suggestions by Susan Necheles that she is an opportunist and a liar who is making up aspects of her story for profit.
“Your story has completely changed, hasn't it?” Necheles asked Daniels.
“No, not at all. You're trying to make me say it's changed, but it hasn't changed,” Daniels said angrily.
Necheles also asked Daniels whether she really was so upset when she saw Trump sitting in his hotel room in 2006 that she became lightheaded and nearly fainted.
“When you are not expecting a man twice your age in his underwear, absolutely,” she responded.
Necheles was referring to Daniels' testimony from Tuesday, when she told prosecutors her one-night stand with Trump in 2006 was so upsetting that she blacked out and could not remember many of the details.
His lawyers said her testimony suggesting nonconsensual sex would bias the jury against him and asked for a mistrial, which New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan denied.
Trump, who denies they had sex, reacted so angrily to her testimony on Tuesday that the judge was alarmed and asked his lawyers to make sure this behaviour stopped.
Daniels said Thursday that she was not drinking that night — nor had she been given any drugs. She said that Trump did not force himself on her.
“He did not put his hands on me, he did not give me any sort of drugs or alcohol, and he did not hold me, threaten me,” she said. “My own insecurities in that moment kept me from saying no.”
As part of her cross-examination, the defence lawyer noted that Daniels had worked in sex-related industries to support herself since she was 17 and has been involved in many pornographic films, suggesting to the jury that it seemed implausible she would be so frightened at the purported encounter with Trump.
“This was not the first time in your life that someone made a pass at you?” Necheles asked.
“No,” Daniels said. But she told jurors it was the first time someone so much older and larger than her, with a bodyguard standing outside, had hit on her.
Necheles also hammered Daniels for using her claimed one-night stand with Trump and her public attacks on him to sell souvenirs online, and that she and Trump were engaged in a battle of their brands.
She pulled in more than $1 million from book sales and participation in a recently released documentary titled Stormy on the streaming service Peacock.
“Much of the merchandise is you bragging about how you got President Trump indicted,” Necheles said.
Holding her hand to her chest in what looked like mock surprise, Daniels replied, “I got President Trump indicted?”
Necheles then showed an image of a Stormy Saint of Indictments candle for sale, and asked if that didn't show she was bragging about getting the former president charged with crimes.
“No, I'm not bragging,” Daniels said. “I think it's funny that a store made those for me to sell.”
Necheles pointed out the candle sells for $40, but Daniels noted that she only makes $7 on each candle.
Trump appeared engaged as he looked at a screen in front of him during the cross-examination. Earlier, as he entered the courtroom, he gave a thumbs-up to conservative journalist Greg Kelly, son of former New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Daniels' 7.5 hours of testimony, which concluded on Thursday, is a buildup to the prosecution's star witness, Michael Cohen, who arranged the $130,000 payment to Daniels and later went to prison for orchestrating the payments.
Trump is accused of falsifying internal business records to cover up the hush money payments and instead recording them as legal expenses. He has pleaded not guilty.