Trump lawyer accuses Stormy Daniels of profiting off sex claims

Donald Trump’s lawyers accused porn actor Stormy Daniels of “shilling” merchandise off the former president’s indictment and “bragging” about landing him in legal trouble, as they sought to destroy the star witness’s credibility at the resumption of his Manhattan “hush money” trial.

The 45-year-old, whose alleged sexual encounter with Trump is at the heart of the criminal case, was subjected to a barrage of hostile questions from defense counsel Susan Necheles on Thursday. She was presented with a series of social media posts in which she celebrated the various charges brought against the presumptive Republican nominee.

Necheles introduced a recording in which Daniels’ then-lawyer, who was negotiating the $130,000 paid to silence her in the run-up to the 2016 election, claimed she “wanted this money more than you can even imagine”. The defense lawyer also brought up how Daniels had made more than a million dollars by telling her tale, in books and documentaries.

Daniels on Tuesday delivered hours of detailed testimony about her “brief” sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, including a series of embarrassing anecdotes about how the then reality TV star lured her to his hotel suite, told her not to worry about his wife Melania and did not use a condom.

At one point, here evidence prompted Trump, who was sitting a few feet away at the defense table, to mouth an expletive in response. The former president, who has always denied an affair with Daniels, was rebuked by Justice Juan Merchan for “cursing audibly” and “shaking his head visually”.

The Trump team’s legal tactics became more apparent on Thursday as Necheles continued her aggressive cross-examination, seeking to paint Daniels as an unreliable narrator with a vendetta against the 77-year-old who had seized on a moneymaking opportunity.

Pictures of various items sold online by Daniels following Trump’s criminal indictment in 2023 were shown to the court, including comic books and $40 devotional candles featuring her picture and the tagline “Stormy, Saint of Indictments”.

Necheles referenced Daniels’ work as a medium and tarot-card reader, alleging that she was “making a living talking with dead people”.

When Necheles insinuated that Daniels had used her skills as a writer of adult fiction to fabricate her story about Trump, she hit back by saying “if that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better”.

Responding to accusations that she was cynically monetising her life story, Daniels retorted: “Not unlike Mr Trump.”

In a particularly combative exchange, Necheles quoted a passage from Daniels’ memoir, in which she boasted about having made Trump her “bitch”. The quote cast doubt on Daniels’ claim that she was unable to “say no to having sex with [Trump]”, Necheles suggested.

The lawyer concluded her cross-examination by stating: “You never had an affair with President Trump but you realized you could earn money by saying[that you had]. . . and you’ve been doing that for 12 years?”

Merchan upheld an objection to the question, before Daniels was dismissed.

The court later heard from a book-keeper at the Trump Organization, a publishing executive and Madeleine Westerhout, who worked for the Republican National Committee and in Trump’s White House.