Inside court where Trump was forced to listen to Stormy Daniels
Porn actor Stormy Daniels has described meeting Donald Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in the former president’s hush money trial. Jennifer Peltz, Michael R Sisak and Jake Offenhartz of the Associated Press report
DONALD Trump squirmed and scowled, shook his head and muttered as Stormy Daniels described the unexpected sex she says they had nearly two decades ago, saying she remembered “trying to think of anything other than what was happening”.
It was a story Daniels has told before. This time, Trump had no choice but to sit and listen.
Years in the making, the in-person showdown between the former president and the porn actor who has become one of his nemeses happened on Tuesday in a New York courtroom that has become the plainspoken stage for the historic spectacle of Trump’s hush money trial, where the gravitas of the firstever criminal trial of a former US commander-in-chief butts up against a crass and splashy tale of sex, tabloids and payoffs.
It’s often said that actual trials are not like the TV drama versions, and in that way, this one is no exception – a methodical and sometimes static proceeding of questions, answers and rules. But if Tuesday’s testimony wasn’t an electric scene of outbursts and tears, it was no less stunning for its sheer improbability.
Daniels’ testimony had been speculated about for as long as Trump has been under indictment. But when it would happen was still a mystery until Tuesday morning, when her lawyer, Clark Brewster, confirmed in an email to an Associated Press reporter that it was “likely today”.
But even after the trial resumed, Daniels still had to wait.
The first witness of the day was a publishing executive who read passages from some of Trump’s business books. Then, when the judge asked for the prosecution’s next witness, Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger matter-of-factly declared: “The people call Stormy Daniels.”
Daniels strode briskly to the stand, not looking at Trump, her shoes clunking on the floor. The former president stared straight ahead until the moment she had passed his spot at the defence table, then tilted his head slightly in her direction.
As is standard in court proceedings, Daniels was asked if she saw Trump in the courtroom and to identify him. Before answering, Daniels, wearing glasses, shuffled in her seat for a moment, looking around the courtroom. She then pointed toward him, describing his navy suit coat and gold tie, and said he was sitting at the defence table. Trump looked straight forward, lips pursed.
Dozens of reporters and a handful of public observers packed the courtroom gallery.
In one row alone: CNN anchor Erin Burnett, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell and Andrew Giuliani, the son of Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who wore a media credential from WABC Radio, where he and his dad host shows. Trump’s son, Eric, sat elsewhere in the courtroom.
As she testified, Daniels spoke confidently and at a rapid clip, the sound of reporters typing reaching a frenetic tempo.
She spoke so quickly that at least six times during her testimony she was asked to slow down so a court stenographer could keep pace.
Jurors seemed as attentive as they’ve been all trial as Daniels recounted her path from aspiring veterinary student to porn actor.
One juror smiled when Daniels mentioned one of the ways into the industry was by winning a contest, like “Ms. Nude North America”. Another juror’s eyes widened as he read along on the monitor displaying a Truth Social post in which Trump said he “did NOTHING wrong” and used an insulting nickname to disparage Daniels’ looks.
Trump denies her claims and has pleaded not guilty in the case, in which he’s charged with falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to Daniels to keep quiet.
Many of the jurors jotted notes throughout her testimony, peering up from notepads and alternating their gaze from Daniels in the witness box to the lawyers questioning her from a lectern.
Guided by prosecutors, Daniels drew a detailed scene of her alleged evening with Trump at a hotel suite in Lake Tahoe in 2006, delving frankly into details that Judge Juan M Merchan would later concede “should probably have been left unsaid”.
She recalled entering the sprawling suite to find Trump in a pair of silk pyjamas. She sheepishly admitted to snooping through his toiletries in the bathroom, finding a pair of golden tweezers.
Daniels even acted out part of her interaction with Trump, reclining back in the witness box to demonstrate how she said he was positioned on the bed of his hotel suite when she emerged from the restroom.
Her willingness to provide extra details prompted an unusual moment: Trump’s lawyers consented to allowing a prosecutor to meet Daniels in a side room, during a break in testimony, to give her some instructions to – as Judge Merchan put it – “make sure the witness stays focused on the question, gives the answer and does not give any unnecessary narrative”.
Out of earshot of the jury, or the reporters in the room, Merchan also asked Trump’s lawyers to stop him cursing as Daniels spoke.
“I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually and that’s contemptuous. It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that,” the judge said. “I am speaking to you here at the bench because I don’t want to embarrass him,” Merchan added.
“I will talk to him,” said one of Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche.
Peppy and loquacious when she was being questioned by prosecutors, Daniels was feistier on cross-examination, digging in when defence lawyer Susan Necheles questioned her credibility and motives.
Daniels forcefully denied Necheles’ suggestion that she had tried to extort Trump, answering the lawyer’s contention: “False.”
Daniels left the witness stand just before 4.30pm. She didn’t look at Trump as she walked past.
He didn’t look at her, either, instead leaning over to whisper to Necheles.
Moments later, Merchan adjourned court until today.
Trump left the courtroom with his entourage of lawyers and aides.
“This was a very revealing day in court. Any honest reporter would say that,” Trump said to journalists outside the courtroom. He is limited by court order from saying much more about Daniels to the media.
Inside, the witnesses to history reconciled their thoughts, gathered their belongings and waited for Trump to leave the building, so they could, too.
WHILE Donald Trump is off the campaign trail listening to porn star Stormy Daniels give evidence in his hush money criminal trial, much attention has turned to who he will pick as his election running mate.
The businessman fed his former Vice President, Mike Pence, to the MAGA mob’s raging wolves following his defeat in 2020, so now it’s open season to see who will become his number two ahead of the November election.
The list of qualities the election result denier will be looking for is long: mastery of the art of ego massage, a willingness to sacrifice dignity for loyalty, perfect proficiency in alternative facts, a thick skin with a Teflon coating, experience in walking back statements and unquestioning devotion to the Cult of Trump.
Someone who fits the bill perfectly is South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
This week, Noem began promoting her memoir, touting her VP credentials while massaging her potential boss’s colossal ego.
“This is really a book that talks about how we’re not going back,” she said. “We’re not going back to the days before Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump broke politics. And I think that’s a good thing.”
Noem is undoubtedly right about his breaking politics, but perhaps not in the way she meant.
Her game attempt to proceed with a media tour promoting her book despite alleged inaccuracies, and a story about killing her pet dog is a testament to her Trumpian impulse to push on through while avoiding facts.
Already Noem has sparked huge backlash after telling in her book how she shot dead her 14-monthold puppy.
I was among the millions of people sickened on learning she executed her pooch, Cricket, in a gravel pit, apparently for being puppy-like.
She describes shooting dead the pup after he killed a neighbour’s chickens.
She also boasts how she dragged her pet goat to the killing field and shot it simply for being rambunctious and “rancid.” Endearing right?
Then there is the meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un she claims to have had, as well as cancelling on French President Emmanuel Macron and having a threatening conversation with former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley.
Both Macron and Haley denied such things ever happened. Kim Jong Un could not be reached.
Through it all, Noem and her office have offered shifting accounts. Her stories are all apparently intended to show her guts, grit and gunplay as she auditions to be Trump’s running mate, but instead, it has had the rare effect of bringing Americans of all political persuasions together – in revulsion at her.
So, while old Donnie has been forced to listen to adult actress Daniels telling jurors how he likened her to his daughter before they allegedly became intimate, Noem has done something no one else has.
She has managed to unify the left and right, the woke and Q-anon, the far right and Antifa, unanimously around the proposition that she is someone not worthy of the White House.
Noem may have killed her dog, but it seems that in her attempt to gain the love of Trump she may have shot dead her own political career too.
Good riddance.