NEW YORK: Donald Trump’s defence attorney and Stormy Daniels went head to head during cross-examination of the porn star’s blistering testimony, the line of questioning occasionally meandering into the bizarre and even earning a critique afterward from the judge.
Under examination that frequently veered hostile, Daniels was quick on her feet, toeing a tight line between tenacity and vulnerability as jurors watched the defence deride her career and assail her credibility.
She clapped back for hours during the most intense testimony yet in the criminal trial, which centres on whether a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels was fraudulently covered up with the intent of influencing the 2016 presidential election.
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles insisted repeatedly through her questioning that Daniels, 45, had fabricated her story of a one-off sexual encounter with Trump.
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Several moments saw Daniels accuse Necheles of putting words in her mouth: “You’re trying to make me say it’s changed, but it hasn’t changed,” she said, referring to her account of events.
Team Trump vied to cast Daniels as money-grubbing, sleazy and deceptive.
Necheles grilled Daniels over her decision to pen a book that included depictions of the encounter, and her decision to promote branded products.
“Not unlike Mr. Trump,” Daniels quipped back.
In one of the more offbeat moments of the nearly eight hours of testimony, Necheles brought up interest by Daniels in tarot cards and the paranormal, in an apparent bid to cast her as unhinged.
She then moved to present Daniels as a fabulist, mocking her work as a screenwriter and director of pornographic films while alleging that it makes her good at twisting the truth.
“So you have a lot of experience in making phony stories about sex appear to be real?” said Necheles.
“Wow, that’s not how I would put it,” Daniels said.
“The sex is real. The characters names might be different. But the sex is very real. That’s why it’s pornography,” the witness continued.
If the story with Trump were untrue, she said, “I would’ve written it to be a lot better.”
At the close of her marathon testimony which lasted approximately eight hours over two days, the defense asked Daniels if she knew anything about Trump’s bookkeeping—the actual crux of the case.
She said she does not.
But that wasn’t the point of calling Daniels to the stand, one prosecutor said later—she was there to detail why Trump would’ve wanted to cover up her story at the finish line of his White House bid.
That reasoning came up after jurors had been dismissed for the day, during a motion hearing that saw Team Trump try once more for a mistrial.
It was again denied, but not before Judge Juan Merchan skewered Trump’s lawyers in front of him.
“I disagree with your narrative that there is any new account here. I disagree that there is any changing story,” he said, audibly irritated.
Trump’s lawyers also accused Daniels of appearing at strip club events promoted with a picture of Trump and the tagline “Making America Horny Again.”
“I never used that tagline—I hated it,” said Daniels who wore a green dress and a long, hooded black cardigan, her hair loose and her cadence confident.
“You have a lot of experience in making phoney stories about sex appear to be real,” Necheles said, noting that Daniels had directed and starred in over 150 adult films.
“If that story was untrue I would’ve written it to be a lot better,” Daniels retorted, referring to her account of the night with Trump.
“I didn’t have to write this one.”
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