Trump lawyer and porn actress trade barbs over alleged sexual encounter
Donald Trump’s defence lawyer on Thursday accused Stormy Daniels of slowly altering the details of an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, trying to persuade jurors that a key prosecution witness in the former U.S. president’s hush-money trial cannot be believed.
As the jury looked on, the two women traded barbs over what lawyer Susan Necheles said were inconsistencies in Daniels’ description of the encounter with Trump in a hotel room. He denies the whole story.
“You made all this up, right?” Necheles asked.
“No,” Daniels shot back. Despite all the talk over what may have happened in that hotel room, despite discomfiting testimony by the adult film actress that she consented to sex in part because of a “power imbalance,” the case against Trump doesn’t rise or fall on whether her account is true or even believable.
It’s a trial about money changing hands — business transactions — and whether those payments were made to illegally influence the 2016 election.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. The charges stem from paperwork such as invoices and checks that were deemed legal expenses in company records. Prosecutors say those payments largely were reimbursements to Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000 US to keep quiet.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and casts himself as the victim of a politically tainted justice system working to deny him another term. His lawyers have sought to paint Daniels as a liar and extortionist who is trying to take down Trump after drawing money and fame from her story about him. And they say the hush money payments were an effort to protect his reputation and family — not his campaign — by shielding them from embarrassing stories about his personal life.
Meanwhile, as the threat of jail looms over Trump following his repeated gag order violations, his lawyers are fighting Judge Juan Merchan’s order and seeking a fast decision in an appeals court. If the court refuses to lift the gag order, Trump’s lawyers want permission to take their appeal to the state’s high court.
They also asked Merchan to modify the order so that Trump could publicly respond to Daniels’ testimony. Merchan denied the request, as well as two requests for a mistrial.
“My concern is not just with protecting Ms. Daniels or a witness who has already testified. My concern is with protecting the integrity of these proceedings as a whole,” Merchan said.