Stormy Daniels testifies against Trump – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

Daniels explained himself for several hours before the court took a lunch break. When the parties returned, Trump’s defenders attacked her story.

– We believe the trial is invalid based on this testimony, said Trump lawyer Todd Blanche, according to CNN who is in court.

He believes Daniels went too far and that her story has changed since 2016.

– She told about a voluntary meeting with Trump that she tried to sell (in 2016). That is not the story she told today, he said.

Blanche says some limits were set on what she could talk about in court, and that these were not respected.

Judge Juan Merchan says there were some things that could have been left unsaid, but that they are not at a point where a new trial is warranted.

Thus continues a tough day for Trump in court.

Paid NOK 1.4 million

Trump is charged with breaching the Accounting Act in connection with a payment of 130,000 dollars, just over 1.4 million kroner, to Stephanie Clifford, best known as Stormy Daniels.

She is said to have received the money not to reveal that they had sex.

It is not illegal to pay someone to remain silent, but Trump must have hidden the payment in the form of fictitious election campaign contributions, the prosecution believes.

Trump is the first former US president to be indicted in a criminal case. The trial began on April 15.

Says she found Trump in bed

Stormy Daniels started by talking about a childhood with little money, and that she started working as a nude model when she was 21 years old.

She was 27 when she met Trump during a golf tournament at Lake Tahoe in 2006.

She says she initially said no to having dinner with Trump, but later allowed herself to be persuaded. They ended up at Trump’s suite. When she came out of the bathroom, Trump was in bed, she told the court.

– Then I felt that the room was spinning. I thought, “Oh, my God, what did I get wrong here?”

– At first I was just scared. I didn’t expect anyone to be there, especially with so little clothing, she says.

Trump is said to have been wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt.

– The intention was quite clear, she believes.

She says that she took off her clothes and that they had sex.

Trump has denied that this happened.

Daniels also signed an agreement in 2018 in which she denies that they had sex.

Trump’s defenders believe Daniels made up the sex story to make money.

Intimate conversation

Daniels says there was a lot of back and forth before they met at Trump’s suite.

She says one of Trump’s security guards asked her if she wanted to have dinner with Trump, but that she declined in cash.

She later received a message from the security guard, and was persuaded by a boss to agree to a dinner, she says.

When she met Trump again in a suite, he was wearing satin pajamas, she says. Daniels says she asked him to change, and that he came back in suit pants and a shirt.

Before the dinner, Trump wanted to talk to Daniels to get to know each other better, she says.

Daniels tells in detail about this conversation, where she is said to have talked about, among other things, the porn industry, venereal diseases, opportunities to be on Trump’s TV show and, not least, Trump’s wife Melania.

Daniels claimed Trump had said he and his wife did not sleep in the same room. When she said this in court, Trump shook his head.

Daniels says she confronted Trump during the dinner.

– Are you always so rude. Are you always so arrogant and pompous? Like you don’t know how to have a conversation, Daniels says she said.

Trump mimes “bullshit” as Daniels says she playfully hit him with a magazine and he behaved better after that.

Daniels says Trump said she reminded him of his daughter Ivanka. “She’s smart, and blonde, and beautiful, and people underestimate her, too,” Daniels says Trump said.

Joked and laughed

Daniels spoke quickly, and prosecutor Susan Hoffinger repeatedly asked her to speak more slowly. She laughs several times when she talks about her professional career.

Among other things, she told a joke about a porn company that was supposed to sponsor one of the holes on the golf course, but the jury did not laugh.

Trump alternates between looking at Daniels and a TV screen. He occasionally asks the defenders to break into the testimony.

Told several people about the meetings with Trump

Trump and Daniels are said to have met several times. and had weekly contact by phone for a period, says Daniels.

She says Trump called her “honey bunch”.

– I told many people that I had been in his room. It was no secret. I told a few close friends about the sex part, she says.

– Did you tell your girlfriend at the time what happened in the hotel room? prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.

– Not the sex part, Daniels replies.

Hoffinger asks why she didn’t say that.

– Because I was ashamed, Daniels replies.

Stormy Daniels says she hoped to be on Trump’s show “The Apprentice”, but that she wasn’t too interested in maintaining contact when he said it wasn’t relevant.

The payment

When Trump started campaigning in 2015, Daniels’ editor Gina Rodriguez is said to have said they could sell the story.

In October 2016, she is said to have learned that Donald Trump and the lawyer Michael Cohen wanted to buy the story.

– It was the best thing that could have happened. Because then I was safe, and the story would not come out, she says.

– The motivation was not money, she claims.

She says Trump and Cohen offered $130,000, but that the amount didn’t mean much to her. She was good with money at the time.

Says she hates Trump

Defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Daniels if she hates Trump.

– Yes, answered Daniels.

– Do you want Trump to go to jail?

– I want him to be held accountable, Daniels replied.

It later emerges that Daniels still owes Trump 560,000 dollars after a defamation case.

Trump’s defender presents a Tweet from Daniels in March 2022. There, Daniels writes that she would rather go to prison than pay Trump.

They have also used unlucky nicknames for each other.

While Trump has called Daniels a horse-face, she has referred to him as an orange piece of shit.

Trump fined by the court several times

Trump has been fined ten times for contempt of court in this case.

Judge Juan M. Merchan has already fined Trump a total of $9,000 for failing to comply with the ban on speaking about witnesses, jurors and others connected to the case. On Monday, Trump was fined another $1,000.

The judge also threatened Trump with jail time if he shows contempt for the court again, saying the fines apparently do not deter the outspoken former president.

Trump has previously insisted that he is only using his freedom of speech.

Several matters

The so-called “extortion money case” is only one of four criminal cases against the 77-year-old former president.

The other cases are:

• Storming of Congress.
• If Trump took documents with national security secrets out of the White House.
• If Trump tried to overturn the election result in the state of Georgia.