UPDATED 1:41 P.M.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal trial denied on Tuesday a mistrial request by Trump’s lawyer, who argued the day’s testimony by porn star Stormy Daniels about a 2006 encounter was irrelevant and would only inflame the jury.
“How can we come back from this in a way that’s fair to President Trump?” Blanche said.
Justice Juan Merchan said he agreed there were some elements of Daniels’ testimony that would have been better left unsaid.
“I think the witness was a little bit difficult to control,” he said. “I don’t think we’re at the point where a mistrial is warranted.”
The motion came after several hours of riveting testimony by Daniels, who told the jury about the alleged sexual encounter with Trump and a $130,000 hush money payment she secured when he ran for president in 2016.
Daniels testified that she was eager to collect on the deal that bought her silence because she was worried he would not pay her if he won the election.
Daniels told the New York jury she was determined to keep the incident private after being threatened in a parking lot in 2011 but changed her mind during Trump’s 2016 presidential bid when he faced multiple accusations of sexual misbehavior.
“My motivation wasn’t money, it was to get the story out,” she said.
Daniels, 45, spoke in detail about the encounter, which ultimately led to the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up the hush-money payment to Daniels.
Trump, 77, and the Republican candidate for president again this year, did not react as he watched her testimony from the witness stand.
He has denied ever having sex with Daniels and his legal team has suggested that Daniels made up the story, as she was angling for a spot on “The Apprentice,” a popular reality TV show then hosted by Trump, a New York real estate mogul.
Daniels confirmed that she hoped he would cast her on the show following their encounter.
‘ONLY WAY YOU’RE GETTING OUT OF THE TRAILER PARK’
Daniels said Trump made sexual advances after inviting her to his hotel suite at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. She said he told her “this is the only way you’re getting out of the trailer park.” Daniels testified she grew up as the daughter of a low-income single mother.
Daniels said she “blacked out” despite consuming no drugs or alcohol after Trump prevented her from leaving the room by blocking the door. She said she woke up on the bed with her clothes off.
“I was staring at the ceiling and didn’t know how I got there, I was trying to think about anything other than what was happening there,” Daniels testified.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she did not tell Trump to stop. “I didn’t say anything at all,” she said. She said she left the hotel room quickly afterward.
The Republican politician, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, says the trial is an attempt to hobble his attempt to win back the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Wearing a black outfit and black glasses, Daniels testified that she worked in strip clubs and pornography after a childhood in which her single mother was often gone for days at a time.
SATIN PAJAMAS AND A SPANKING
She said Trump greeted her at his hotel suite wearing satin pajamas. She said she grew annoyed by Trump’s frequent interruptions and asked him: “Are you always this arrogant and pompous?”
Trump then dared Daniels to spank him with a magazine and she obliged. “He was much more polite after that,” she said.
“That’s bullshit,” Trump appeared to say as he watched from the defendant’s table.
The alleged encounter took place while Trump was married to his current wife, Melania.
Daniels said she confided in only a few people about the sex. She said she saw Trump at public events on several occasions in the years that followed, but then fell out of touch with him after he did not put her on the show.
She said she was approached in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 by a man who warned her not to speak about the encounter. “I was scared and I didn’t want anything else about the story to come out,” she said.
She said she changed her mind during Trump’s 2016 bid and ultimately negotiated a $130,000 payment with Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen.
Prosecutors say Trump falsified business records to obscure the fact that he reimbursed Cohen for the payment. They say that amounts to an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election by buying the silence of people with potentially damaging information.
The case is widely seen as less consequential than three other criminal prosecutions Trump faces, but it is the only one certain to go to trial before the election.
The other cases charge Trump with trying to overturn his 2020 presidential defeat and mishandling classified documents after leaving office. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all three.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Luc Cohen in New York and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)
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UPDATE 9:42 A.M.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Stormy Daniels testified at Donald Trump’s criminal trial on Tuesday, setting up a long-awaited showdown between the former U.S. president and the porn star who says they had sex.
Daniels is at the center of the first criminal trial of a former president. Prosecutors say Trump covered up a $130,000 hush money payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Cohen has previously said Trump directed him to pay Daniels to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, took the stand wearing all black, with black-framed glasses. She began her testimony describing her upbringing as a child of a single mother who would sometimes disappear for days at a time.
She said she began dancing in a club at age 17.
“I started dancing on the weekend, which was actually kind of cool because I didn’t have to miss classes,” Daniels said, adding that the pay was better than “shoveling manure.”
Trump leaned back in his chair, slightly slouched, as he watched her.
Before her testimony, Justice Juan Merchan said Daniels would be allowed to testify about the basic details of the encounter. Trump defense lawyer Susan Necheles objected, arguing that testimony was peripheral to a case centered on financial records.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said the testimony was needed to complete the story and establish Daniels’ credibility.
“In terms of the sexual act, it will be just very basic. It’s not going to involve descriptions of genitalia or anything of that nature,” Hoffinger said.
As he entered the courtroom, Trump repeated complaints about the merits of the case but did not mention Daniels. Trump has been fined $10,000 so far for violating a gag order that prevents him from talking about witnesses.
Before Daniels took the stand, jurors were shown passages from several of Trump’s books, including one that read: “A sexual dynamic is always present between people, unless you are asexual.”
Other passages advised readers to keep a close eye on their business operations. “I always sign my checks, so I know where my money’s going,” one excerpt read.
Prosecutors have shown the former president’s signature was on payments at the heart of the case. They say Trump falsely labeled his reimbursement payments to Cohen in 2017 as legal expenses in his real estate company’s books to cover up what they call an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election by buying the silence of people with potentially damaging information.
Cohen in 2018 pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law through the payment to Daniels. He testified that Trump directed him to make the payment.
Trump, running again for president in the Nov. 5 election, has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and denies any sexual encounter with Daniels.
Trump’s defense lawyers have told the 12 jurors and six alternates that Daniels’ testimony will not be relevant to the paperwork violations at the heart of prosecutors’ case.
Daniels, 45, said she had sex with Trump, 77, at a Lake Tahoe hotel while he was married to his wife Melania Trump.
Trump’s lawyers have suggested she was seeking a role on Trump’s reality TV show, The Apprentice.
Daniels has been at the receiving end of some of Trump’s vitriolic attacks on social media.
Merchan, who is hearing the case, has said some of those posts violated a gag order restricting Trump from speaking about witnesses, jurors, and others involved in the case if those statements are meant to influence the proceedings.
Merchan has warned Trump could be jailed if he keeps up his attacks.
Trump, the Republican candidate for president, has called the gag order a violation of his free speech rights and says the trial is an attempt to hobble his attempt to win back the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden.
The case is widely seen as less consequential than three other criminal prosecutions Trump faces, but it is the only one certain to go to trial before the election.
The other cases charge Trump with trying to overturn his 2020 presidential defeat and mishandling classified documents after leaving office. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all three.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Luc Cohen in New York and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Howard Goller and Chizu Nomiyama)
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Stormy Daniels will be called as a witness at Donald Trump’s criminal trial on Tuesday, lawyers in the case said, setting up a long-awaited showdown between the former U.S. president and the porn star who says they had sex.
Daniels is at the center of the first criminal trial of a former president. Prosecutors say Trump covered up a $130,000 hush money payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Cohen has previously said Trump directed him to pay Daniels to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006.
Lawyers said Daniels would be the second witness to testify on Tuesday, the 13th day of the trial.
Justice Juan Merchan said Daniels would be allowed to testify about the basic details of the encounter. Trump defense lawyer Susan Necheles objected, arguing that testimony was peripheral to a case centered on financial records.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said the testimony was needed to complete the story and establish Daniels’ credibility.
“In terms of the sexual act, it will be just very basic. It’s not going to involve descriptions of genitalia or anything of that nature,” Hoffinger said.
As he entered the courtroom, Trump repeated complaints about the merits of the case but did not mention Daniels. Trump has been fined $10,000 so far for violating a gag order that prevents him from talking about witnesses.
Before Daniels took the stand, jurors were shown passages from several of Trump’s books, including one that read: “A sexual dynamic is always present between people, unless you are asexual.”
Other passages advised readers to keep a close eye on their business operations. “I always sign my checks, so I know where my money’s going,” one excerpt read.
Prosecutors have shown the former president’s signature was on payments at the heart of the case. They say Trump falsely labeled his reimbursement payments to Cohen in 2017 as legal expenses in his real estate company’s books to cover up what they call an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election by buying the silence of people with potentially damaging information.
Cohen in 2018 pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law through the payment to Daniels. He testified that Trump directed him to make the payment.
Trump, running again for president in the Nov. 5 election, has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and denies any sexual encounter with Daniels.
Trump’s defense lawyers have told the 12 jurors and six alternates that Daniels’ testimony will not be relevant to the paperwork violations at the heart of prosecutors’ case.
Daniels, 45, said she had sex with Trump, 77, at a Lake Tahoe hotel while he was married to his wife Melania Trump.
Trump’s lawyers have suggested she was seeking a role on Trump’s reality TV show, The Apprentice.
Daniels has been at the receiving end of some of Trump’s vitriolic attacks on social media.
Merchan, who is hearing the case, has said some of those posts violated a gag order restricting Trump from speaking about witnesses, jurors, and others involved in the case if those statements are meant to influence the proceedings.
Merchan has warned Trump could be jailed if he keeps up his attacks.
Trump, the Republican candidate for president, has called the gag order a violation of his free speech rights and says the trial is an attempt to hobble his attempt to win back the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden.
The case is widely seen as less consequential than three other criminal prosecutions Trump faces, but it is the only one certain to go to trial before the election.
The other cases charge Trump with trying to overturn his 2020 presidential defeat and mishandling classified documents after leaving office. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all three.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Luc Cohen in New York and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Howard Goller and Chizu Nomiyama)
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