Adult film actress Stormy Daniels clashed with a lawyer for former President Trump on Thursday during her second day on the stand in the New York hush money trial.
Why it matters: Daniels’ allegations about an alleged sexual encounter with the former president are at the heart of the criminal trial. She defended herself Thursday against at times intense, personal questioning from Trump’s attorneys.
- Defense lawyer Susan Necheles led the questioning, often appearing to try to undermine the key witness’ credibility by accusing her of discrepancies in her story.
Driving the news: “You made all this up, right?” Necheles asked Daniels, to which she responded with an emphatic, “no,” per Reuters, affirming her story remains unchanged.
- “You’re trying to make me say that it changed, but it hasn’t changed,” Daniels said at one point.
- Asked by the defense if her account of sleeping with Trump was like “fictional stories” memorized for work, Daniels replied: “If that story was untrue, I would’ve written it to be a lot better.”
Zoom in: Necheles also appeared to question Daniels’ testimony Tuesday that she left the alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 feeling shaken.
- “This wasn’t the first time in your life that someone made a pass at you?” Necheles asked, per the Washington Post.
- “Well,” Daniels said, adding that it was different because of their age and size difference, per the Post.
State of play: During Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday, she described in detail the night that she said she met Trump for dinner in 2006 that turned into a sexual encounter.
- Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, stemming from a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels. Trump has denied having sex with Daniels.
- Daniels testified for more than seven hours between Tuesday and Thursday, per the New York Times. Court is not in session on Wednesdays.
Go deeper: Stormy Daniels describes encounter with Trump during NY criminal trial testimony
