Stormy Daniels is is back on the witness stand Thursday, where she is facing more cross-examination from former President Donald Trump‘s lawyer in his New York hush money trial.
The adult film star described on Tuesday having sex with Trump after meeting him at a 2006 Lake Tahoe golf tournament and having dinner with him in his hotel suite. Trump denies that happened.
Daniels’ story of that 2006 evening formed the basis for a $130,000 hush money payment she got from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors allege that the payment violated federal campaign finance laws and that Trump falsified records to cover it up.
Keep up with USA TODAY’s live updates from inside and outside the Manhattan courtroom:
Daniels asked how she, as a porn star, could have almost ‘fainted’ from Trump in underwear
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked Daniels to confirm she has acted and had sex in over 200 porn movies. Daniels said it was about 150.
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Necheles asked Daniels to confirm that, despite that sexual history, she is now saying that seeing Trump sitting on a bed in a t-shirt and boxer shorts was “so upsetting” that she “got lightheaded” and almost “fainted.”
Daniels responded that she sees her husband naked almost everyday, but if she came out of the bathroom and saw someone who wasn’t her husband naked, it would be shaking.
Asked if the alleged incident with Trump was the first time someone made a pass at her, Daniels said it wasn’t, but it was the first time a bodyguard was nearby.
– Aysha Bagchi
Susan Necheles challenging details in Daniels’ story
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles has been asking Daniels about details across her descriptions of her history with Donald Trump. Necheles noted Daniels once described in an interview Trump approaching her to ask about having dinner, whereas in court Daniels described his bodyguard approaching her. Daniels responded that Trump and his bodyguard are a unit.
Necheles asked about details in Daniels story on whether she took a car or walked to Trump’s hotel, and whether she found Trump “all sprawled out on the couch” when she arrived at his suite.
“Details of your story keep changing, right?” Necheles asked. “No,” Daniels said.
– Aysha Bagchi
“If that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better.”
After Trump lawyer Susan Necheles suggested Daniels made up her story of having sex with Trump, Daniels shot back: “If that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better.”
“I didn’t have to write this one,” Daniels added.
– Aysha Bagchi
Stormy Daniels online store: “Stormy Daniels Political Power comic”
Necheles is continuing to ask Daniels about merchandise Daniels sells and to suggest the adult film star is motivated by money. Daniels confirmed she sells a $30 comic book titled: “Stormy Daniels Political Power comic.” An image of the comic book was shown to the jury, with a blonde female character standing boldly on the front cover.
– Aysha Bagchi
Stormy Daniels merchandise: ‘Stormy Saint of Indictments candle’
Jurors just saw a photo of a “Stormy Saint of Indictments candle,” which Daniels confirmed she sells on her website. Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked Daniels to confirm she makes $40 on those. Daniels said she actually makes about $7 per candle.
– Aysha Bagchi
Daniels confirms she tweeted she made $1 million from book and reality show
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked Daniels if she tweeted that she made $1 million from her book as well as participating on a reality TV show, “The Surreal Life.” Daniels confirmed that was true, and that she made $200,000 from appearing on the show.
Daniels 2018 book, “Full Disclosure,” was a telling of Daniels’ life story, including her experience with Trump.
– Aysha Bagchi
Daniels confirmed she signed two denials in early 2018
Daniels confirmed signing two statements in early 2018 denying having had an affair with Trump. One was dated Jan. 10, 2018 and one was dated Jan. 30, 2018.
The jury already saw these statements when Daniels’ former lawyer, Keith Davidson, testified.
– Aysha Bagchi
Stormy Daniels referred to election as ‘leverage,’ her ex-lawyer said on recording
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles played a recording for the jury in which former lawyer to Daniels Keith Davidson was talking with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Davidson said Daniels told him that if “he” – presumably Donald Trump – loses the election, “we lose all f—–g leverage,” “so settle this f—–g case.”
Necheles asked Daniels if that refreshed her recollection on what she said to Davidson. “I never yelled at Keith Davidson on the phone,” Daniels said. Daniels added that it sounds like a threat from Davidson.
– Aysha Bagchi
Daniels says hush money deal created ‘paper trail,’ was ‘perfect solution’
Necheles has continued to press Daniels on whether she wanted to publicize her story in 2016 or was instead after money. Necheles asked Daniels about conversing with a reporter at Slate Magazine about potentially going public. Necheles suggested Daniels wanted money from that reporter, when she could have just had him publish the story.
The better alternative was to protect my story with a “paper trail,” Daniels said. “It was a perfect solution.”
– Aysha Bagchi
Barron Trump selected as Republican National Convention delegate
Donald Trump’s youngest son Barron Trump is making his big political debut as an at-large delegate at the Republican National Convention this year.
Barron, now 18 years old, was still a kid during Donald Trump’s presidency. But now he appears to be joining Trump’s other family members on the political scene. Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner have all been intimately involved in Donald Trump’s campaigns and administration.
The hush money trial is on a break on May 17 so Donald Trump can attend Barron Trump’s high school graduation.
– Kinsey Crowley
Necheles challenges Stormy Daniels claim that she wanted to share story in 2016
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles has begun cross-examining Daniels again. Necheles is focusing her opening questions today on Daniels’ claim that she wanted to share her story about Trump in 2016, before she took a hush money deal to keep quiet.
Daniels explained she took the deal because she chose to be “safe.”
“You chose to make money, right?” Necheles shot back.
“I chose to take the non-disclosure,” Daniels replied.
– Aysha Bagchi
Trump decries security outside courthouse ‘like Fort Knox’
Former President Donald Trump complained again about the security outside the New York courthouse for his hush money trial, arguing police were needed more for protests at Columbia and New York universities.
“Outside of this building it’s closed down like Fort Knox,” Trump told reporters in a hallway statement outside the courtroom. “This is like an armed camp down here.”
Trump argued that college protests were organized by people on the left side of the political spectrum rather than the right, and that those protests were a bigger threat to the country than China or Russia.
“You have nothing to worry about. The problem is from the left, not the right,” Trump said. “In my opinion, it’s a bigger danger than China or Russia.”
– Bart Jansen
Trump predicts ‘revealing’ testimony from Stormy Daniels
Former President Donald Trump predicted “some very revealing things” as his New York hush money trial continues Thursday with testimony from porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Daniels testified Tuesday about having sex with Trump in 2006 while he was married, which he has denied. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 to silence her claim before the 2016 election, which prosecutors contend was election interference.
Under cross-examination, Daniels acknowledged hating Trump and refusing to pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees from an unsuccessful defamation suit against him.
“I think you’ll see some very revealing things today,” Trump said in the hallway Thursday.
Trump entered the courtroom after reading a series of statements from lawyers, academics and Republican lawmakers criticizing the case.
“No evidence of any crime,” Trump said.
– Bart Jansen
Stormy Daniels arrives for more cross-examination
Porn star Stormy Daniels was brought into the courtroom at 9:32 a.m. EDT to continue testifying in the hush money case. The judge has now asked for the jury to be brought in.
– Aysha Bagchi
Judge arrives for Day 14 of trial
Judge Juan Merchan entered the courtroom at about 9:30 a.m. EDT.
– Aysha Bagchi
Trump team arrives in the courtroom
Former President Donald Trump entered the courtroom at 9:24 a.m. EDT, flanked by his legal team. He is wearing a blue tie.
Alina Habba, who represented Trump in his recent E. Jean Carroll and civil fraud trials and is a big personality defending him on television shows, is here again today in one of the benches behind the defense trial team’s table. I haven’t seen Eric Trump, the former president’s middle son, who was present for Stormy Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday.
– Aysha Bagchi
Prosecution arrives in the courtroom
The prosecution team began arriving in the courtroom at 9:16 a.m. EDT and is getting set up. So far, prosecutors Joshua Steinglass, Matthew Colangelo, Rebecca Mangold, Christopher Conroy, and Susan Hoffinger are here. Hoffinger is handling the prosecution’s questioning of Stormy Daniels.
– Aysha Bagchi
When does the Trump trial resume?
Trump’s criminal trial starts back up at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday, after having a day off on Wednesday.
– Aysha Bagchi
‘A bad experience’: Donald Trump threatened with jail if he violates gag order again
After Judge Juan Merchan threatened Donald Trump on Monday with possible jail if he violates a gag order in his New York hush money trial again, experts said the detention could range from a holding cell behind the courtroom to infamous Rikers Island.
Ronald Kuby, a veteran New York defense lawyer who has visited clients in city jails and also spent time in them for various acts of protest, said Trump is unlikely to enjoy any detention because the cells can be tiny, the metal doors loud and the food unappetizing.
“It’s a bad experience,” Kuby told USA TODAY. “Trust me. I’ve been there.”
For overnight detention, Rikers Island is an option, although experts called it unlikely. City jails on Rikers Island have been criticized for decades for violence and unsanitary conditions.
James Oleson, an associate professor of criminology at the University of Auckland’s school of social sciences, who previously served as a staffer on the U.S. Judicial Conference’s committee on criminal law, said the theater of putting Trump behind bars for a few hours might not be more effective than fines in curbing Trump’s comments. Merchan has fined Trump $10,000 for 10 violations of the gag order, for commenting on witnesses and jurors participating in the trial.
“It is terra incognita: unknown land, off the existing maps,” Oleson said of potentially jailing a former president.
– Bart Jansen and Josh Meyer
What has the Stormy Daniels cross-examination focused on?
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles began cross-examining Stormy Daniels on Tuesday. Necheles focused on challenging Daniels’ credibility and suggesting Daniels is a person motivated by money.
Necheles noted that Daniels publicly denied she had sex with Trump before she said they did have sex. The jury has already seen evidence of that. Daniels’ former lawyer Keith Davidson testified to his own involvement in preparing a denial by Daniels in early 2018.
Necheles also painted Daniels’ hush money deal in 2016 as extortion. “False,” Daniels shot back emphatically.
– Aysha Bagchi
2 House GOP chairmen urge DOJ to charge Michael Cohen – again
Two House Republican chairmen urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to consider criminal charges against Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for allegedly lying to Congress.
Cohen, a key witness in Trump’s New York hush money trial, has already pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about a Trump real estate project in Russia. But Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., urged Garland to consider more charges against Cohen because he is a key witness in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal trial against Trump, where his credibility will be at stake.
The lawmakers accused Cohen of lying at least six times, including by denying he committed fraudulent acts that he’d already pleaded guilty to and by testifying he didn’t seek a job in Trump’s White House.
The accusations are based on Cohen’s testimony to Comer’s committee in February 2019, which outlined the current criminal case against Trump. Trump is charged with falsifying business records to hide his reimbursement to Cohen, who paid porn actress Stormy Daniels to remain silent before the 2016 election about her claim she had sex with Trump while he was married.
Trump denied having sex and said he was paying Cohen for legal expenses, not to pay off Daniels.
“In short, to prosecute President Trump, Bragg has revived this ‘zombie’ case relying on a known – and convicted – liar and his testimony at a congressional hearing in which he lied at least six times,” the lawmakers wrote.
– Bart Jansen
What is Trump on trial for?
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors allege Trump falsified records to cover up unlawfully interfering in the 2016 presidential election through a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. The payment was made by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen less than two weeks before Election Day.
– Aysha Bagchi
Why wasn’t there testimony on Wednesday?
The trial is generally off on Wednesdays. Judge Juan Merchan designated those days to preside over special court programs for criminal defendants who have mental health issues or are veterans, according to the Associated Press.
– Aysha Bagchi
Donald Trump caught cursing as Stormy Daniels testified
Judge Juan Merchan said in a private conversation at his bench Tuesday that he heard Trump cursing during Daniels’ testimony and he “won’t tolerate that.”
“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,” Merchan said, according to a transcript that has now been released. “It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that.”
Merchan said he saw Trump shake his head and look down when Daniels described lightly spanking him with a magazine at dinner before their alleged sexual encounter.
When there was discussion about The Apprentice, Trump “again uttered a vulgarity,” the judge said, according to the transcript.
“I am speaking to you here at the bench because I don’t want to embarrass him,” Merchan told Blanche, who said he would talk to his client and later confirmed having done so.
– Aysha Bagchi
