The unprecedented criminal trial of former President Trump resumes Thursday morning with continued cross-examination of adult film actress Stormy Daniels after the 2024 presumptive presidential nominee and his attorneys were denied in their motion for a mistrial amid her salacious and “unnecessary” testimony.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges stem from a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
The charges are related to alleged payments made ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence Daniels about an alleged 2006 extramarital affair with Trump.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg must convince the jury that, not only did Trump falsify business records related to alleged hush money payments, he did so in furtherance of another crime — conspiracy to promote or prevent election, which would be a felony.
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On their own, falsifying business records and conspiracy to promote or prevent election are misdemeanor charges.
The continued questioning of Daniels will come from Trump defense attorneys, who began their cross-examination of the adult film actress, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, Tuesday.
Stormy Daniels testifies in President Trump’s criminal trial in a courtroom sketch (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg)
It is unclear if prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will continue questioning with a redirect.
On Tuesday, Daniels testified she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in July 2006 in Lake Tahoe and described the meeting as a “very brief encounter.”
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked what Daniels discussed with Trump. Daniels said it wasn’t very much, and that she was introduced as a director of pornographic films.
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After that, Daniels said, someone asked her if she wanted to have dinner with Trump. She testified that she discussed the invitation to dinner with her publicist, recalling that he said she should attend, implying it would be good for her career.
Daniels then testified in detail about the alleged sexual encounter with Trump in a hotel room.
Trump has denied allegations of a sexual encounter with Daniels. Daniels, in 2018, initially denied that a sexual encounter took place but later changed her story.
During her lewd testimony, Judge Juan Merchan said “the degree of detail we’re going into is unnecessary” and asked prosecutor Hoffinger to move questioning along.
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Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche blasted Daniels’ testimony as “prejudicial” and motioned for a mistrial.
Merchan said a mistrial was not warranted but admitted he was doing everything he could to control the witness, including once objecting to Daniels’ testimony himself.
“I agree that it would have been better if some of these things had been left unsaid,” Merchan said.
Former President Trump chats with his son Eric Trump during court in this sketch. (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg)
Blanche argued that the prosecution is trying to inflame the jury with Daniels’ testimony, including with evidence that he said is irrelevant.
Blanche said it is prejudicial testimony and evidence, saying Daniels has been trying to sell her story about an alleged consensual sexual encounter since 2016.
Blanche said Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday was about “consent and danger” and that was “not the story that she was selling in 2016.”
He also said Daniels was testifying about consent and said that kind of testimony “makes it impossible to come back from.”
Blanche said the defense “objected as best we could, but she was able to say what she said.”
He also questioned how the defense could “come back from this” in a way that could be “fair” to Trump.
“We believe there should be a mistrial,” he said, “or that this witness’s testimony is excluded and extremely limited.”
Blanche said Daniels’ lurid and explosive testimony “has nothing to do with this case” and is “totally irrelevant.”
He also noted that what Daniels said was “extraordinarily prejudicial testimony” and that there is a “high risk of the jury not being able to focus on the charged conduct.”
Stormy Daniels is questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger before Justice Juan Merchan during former President Trump’s criminal trial (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg)
But Hoffinger said the defense was fully briefed on Daniels’ testimony in the motions prior to trial and argued that Daniels’ testimony was probative to Trump’s intent. Hoffinger said the defense is attacking Daniels’ credibility and argued there is “no basis for this.”
Fox News Digital first reported Tuesday that Hoffinger, the prosecutor leading Bragg’s questioning of Daniels, donated to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.
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During a break, the former president and 2024 Republican presumptive presidential nominee posted to his Truth Social account without naming Daniels.
“THE PROSECUTION, WHICH HAS NO CASE, HAS GONE TOO FAR,” he posted. “MISTRIAL!”
During the beginning of cross-examination by Trump defense attorney Susan Necheles, Daniels admitted, for the first time, that she wanted to share her allegations about an affair with Trump to “get the story out and make some money.”
She was ultimately paid $130,000 by ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen.
After hours of listening to Daniels make salacious allegations on the stand about an alleged sexual encounter, which he has denied, Trump spoke to reporters outside the courtroom.
Merchan imposed a gag order on the former president, an order he has ruled Trump to have violated at least 10 times.
Trump is barred from speaking about witnesses with regard to their potential participation or about counsel in the case – other than Bragg – or about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff.
On Monday, Trump was fined another $1,000, bringing the total to $10,000 in gag order violation fines.
A courtroom sketch shows Justice Juan Merchan presiding in Manhattan state court in New York City April 23, 2024, as prosecutor Joshua Steinglass questions David Pecker during former President Trump’s criminal trial on charges he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg )
Merchan threatened Trump with jail time if he violates the order in the future.
“The last thing I want to consider is jail,” Merchan said Monday. “You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.”
Trump, after Daniels’ testimony, followed the gag order and did not mention Stormy Daniels by name or reference her testimony.
“This was a very big day, a very revealing day as you’ll see their case is totally falling apart,” Trump said.
“They have nothing on books and records and even something that should bear very little relationship to the case is just a disaster … for the Soros-backed DA,” he continued.
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“This whole case is just a disaster,” Trump said.
Former President Trump, left, and his lawyer, Todd Blanche, at Manhattan criminal court in New York. (Sarah Yenesel/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump lamented the trial is preventing him, the presumptive GOP nominee for the 2024 presidential election, from being on the campaign trail.
“I’m stuck. I’m here instead of being in Georgia, instead of being in New Hampshire, instead of being in Wisconsin and all the different states that we wanted to be, and we’re not able to be there because we’re stuck in this trial, which everyone knows is a hoax,” he said.
