Porn film actress Stormy Daniels came face to face with former U.S. president Donald Trump on Tuesday, testifying against him at his New York trial 18 years after she says they had a one-night sexual encounter. Prosecutors say Trump acted to keep the alleged tryst from voters just ahead of the 2016 election he won.
Trump, the first former president to face criminal charges, is accused of falsifying business records at his Trump Organization real estate conglomerate to hide a $130,000 reimbursement to his erstwhile lawyer and political fixer Michael Cohen. It is money that Cohen paid to Daniels to silence her claim of sex with Trump that he sought to keep from voters just days ahead of the election eight years ago.
Daniels, dressed all in black in a robe-like outfit with a hood, took the witness stand a short distance from Trump. Under questioning from prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, she started by describing her tough early life, growing up in the American South, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, once aspiring to be a veterinarian.
Before she took the stand, Hoffinger assured New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan that Daniels would not describe Trump’s “genitalia” from her claimed liaison with him. It was an open question since on a late-night comedy show she once described his physicality in a humiliating manner.
Trump, now the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential candidate, has denied Daniels’ claim of an affair at a celebrity golf tourney at Lake Tahoe in Nevada and all 34 charges he is facing. If convicted, he could be placed on probation or face up to four years in prison.
Prosecutors’ witnesses at the trial, now in its fourth week, have told the 12-member jury stories of sex and scandal, lurid tabloid journalism of fabricated stories to help Trump in the 2016 election or clandestine payoffs to Daniels and another woman, Playboy model Karen McDougal, to hide their claims of assignations with Trump. He had also denied McDougal’s claim of a 10-month affair with him in 2006 and 2007.
The jury on Monday heard details of the reimbursements to Cohen, a convicted perjurer who loyally took care of Trump’s every need for years before turning against him. Cohen is also expected to testify at the trial within the next two weeks.
Merchan on Monday held Trump in contempt of court for a 10th time for violating a gag order prohibiting him from attacking prospective witnesses in the case. The judge sternly warned Trump he could be jailed if he continues to ignore the order.
Merchan warned him that his violation of the gag order is a “direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue.” The judge said “the last thing” he wanted to do was to put Trump in jail but would if he felt he had to. He added, “You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president, as well.”
Merchan fined Trump another $1,000 for the violation of the gag order, on top of the $9,000 he fined him last week for nine previous violations of the gag order. Last week, Merchan acknowledged that the penalty was a pittance for a billionaire like Trump.
Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign started fundraising off the latest gag order contempt ruling. Outside the courtroom, Trump told reporters that Merchan “had taken away my constitutional right to speak.” He added, “It’s a fake trial,” and said prosecutors have no case against him.
