Former President Donald Trump gestures to reporters as he returns to the courtroom after a break in his trial while Stormy Daniels exits the courthouse in New York, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. Porn actor Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, took the stand mid-morning Tuesday and testified about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, among other things. PHOTO: AP Photo/Seth Wenig/Mary Altaffer, Pool
New York, United States — Stormy Daniels, the porn star at the heart of Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial, testified Tuesday -– in sometimes explicit detail –- about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with the former president in a hotel penthouse suite.
Trump, 77, is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels on the eve of his 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, when the lurid story of marital infidelity could have sunk his campaign.
“The people call Stormy Daniels,” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said as Trump, who is seeking to recapture the White House in November, sat at the defense table in the Manhattan courtroom flanked by his lawyers.
READ: Ex-porn star Stormy Daniels ‘proud’ over Trump charges – UK media
What followed was detailed testimony about the sexual encounter Daniels said she had with Trump -– his boxer shorts, the sexual position, that he did not wear a condom -– all while the former president stared on in silence, stony faced.
Trump has denied having sex with Daniels, and his defense team tried — unsuccessfully — to have a mistrial declared.
Speaking to reporters after a day of riveting testimony from Daniels, Trump called the case a “disgrace” and said he “should be out campaigning right now.”
Judge Juan Merchan has imposed a gag order on Trump prohibiting him from publicly attacking witnesses and the ex-president did not comment directly on Daniels’s testimony.
The extraordinary courtroom face-off comes six months before election day, when Trump will try to defeat Democratic President Joe Biden.
Daniels, 45, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe where she was employed as a greeter by X-rated movie company Wicked Entertainment.
READ: New York judge threatens Trump with jail for gag order violations
She was 27 at the time and Trump was “probably older than my father,” she said.
Daniels said she reluctantly agreed to have dinner with the real estate tycoon after discussing it with her publicist.
When she arrived at Trump’s penthouse he emerged wearing “silk or satin pajamas which I immediately made fun of,” Daniels told the jury.
“I said ‘Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas?'” she said in a reference to the outfit favored by the late Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner.
Trump changed clothes and they talked about adult movies, Daniels said, adding that he “was very interested in a lot of the business stuff.”
Trump, who was married at the time to his wife, Melania, suggested Daniels be on his hit reality television show, “The Apprentice,” she said.
‘Startled me’
Daniels said she went to the bathroom at one point and when she emerged Trump was on the bed in boxer shorts and a T-shirt.
“It startled me,” she said. “The intention was pretty clear.
“I was not threatened verbally or physically.”
She said they had brief sex on the bed “in missionary position” and Trump did not wear a condom.
“I felt ashamed I didn’t stop it, didn’t say no.”
She met Trump on several other occasions but cut off contact once it became clear she would not appear on “The Apprentice.”
After Trump announced his candidacy for president, Daniels said her publicist put her in touch with Keith Davidson, a Hollywood lawyer, to sell her story.
“My motivation wasn’t money, it was to get the story out,” Daniels said.
Davidson ended up negotiating a non-disclosure agreement with Cohen, Trump’s fixer, in October 2016, on the eve of the presidential election, for which she was paid the $130,000.
Daniels said her life became “chaos” in 2018 when The Wall Street Journal published a report about her 2006 tryst with Trump.
Mistrial motion
During a tense cross-examination, Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles sought to damage Daniels’s credibility, accusing her of seeking to “extort” money from Trump.
“False,” Daniels said.
“You have been making money by claiming to have had sex with Donald Trump?” Necheles said.
“No,” Daniels replied, “I have made money by telling the story of what happened to me.”
Before cross-examination, another Trump attorney, Todd Blanche, filed a motion for a mistrial, objecting to some of Daniels’s “explicit” testimony and her claim to have been threatened in 2011 by a man in a Las Vegas parking garage who allegedly warned her not to talk about Trump.
“It’s extremely prejudicial to insert safety concerns into a trial about business records,” Blanche told the judge.
Merchan denied the motion.
In addition to the New York case, Trump has been indicted in Washington and Georgia on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
He also faces charges of taking top-secret documents from the White House to his home in Florida and refusing to return them.
The trial is to resume on Thursday after a one-day break with Daniels back on the witness stand.