Adult film actress Stormy Daniels testifies she had sex with former President Donald Trump in July 2006
Former President Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels appear in this photo exhibit shown in court during Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday. Credit: Government Exhibit
Ex-President Donald Trump greeted adult film actress Stormy Daniels in his Lake Tahoe, Nevada, hotel suite in silk pajamas and later stripped down to boxers and a T-shirt before they had sex in a brief encounter on his hotel suite bed in July 2006, Daniels testified Tuesday at Trump's historic hush money trial.
“When I came out [of the bathroom] Mr. Trump was on the bed,” said Daniels, who testified under oath for the first time and in explicit detail about the alleged sexual encounter that is at the center of Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in Manhattan. “He was in his boxers and T-shirt.”
Daniels, 45, dressed in all black and sitting on the witness stand just feet from Trump, said she thought to herself: “Oh my God. What did I misread to get here?”
Daniels, who describes herself on a social media profile as “director, writer & adult film star. Paranormal investigator,” recalled from the witness stand that she wasn’t necessarily enthusiastic about bedding the then-reality TV star who would go on to become the 45th president of the United States, but acquiesced.
“I laughed nervously,” said Daniels, as Trump beckoned her. “I tried to make a joke out of it and step around. I was in slow motion. I thought, 'Great, I put myself in this bad situation.' … The next thing I know, I was on the opposite side of the bed, my clothes and shoes were off. My bra was still on. … I was in the missionary position.”
Daniels said as the two, who had only met hours prior, engaged in sexual intercourse, “I was staring up at the ceiling. I didn't know how I got there.”
Trump, whose wife, Melania Trump, had given birth to their son, Barron, just months earlier, did not wear a condom, Daniels said.
After the encounter was over, Daniels said Trump told her: “It was great, honey bunch. Let’s get together again sometime.”
Trump, 77, has long denied having sex with Daniels. As she detailed the encounter, a likely embarrassed Trump did not look directly at his former alleged paramour, but instead watched her testimony on a courtroom video monitor.
Daniels’ testimony about the widely publicized encounter — which she has recounted previously in a book and a "60 Minutes interview" — prompted Trump’s lead defense attorney, Todd Blanche, to argue for a mistrial because some of her testimony went beyond the parameters that were discussed before she took the stand, calling it “extremely prejudicial.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan denied the request after the lunch break.
Just before the lunch break, after Daniels detailed the Tahoe hotel rendezvous, the judge called the lawyers to the bench to warn them about Trump's reaction to the testimony.
"I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually and that's contemptuous," the judge warned the defense attorneys. "It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that."
Merchan said that he didn't say anything during the testimony because he didn't want to embarrass the former president. The judge said that Trump couldn't gesture either during the testimony.
"One time I noticed when Ms. Daniels was testifying about rolling up the magazine, and presumably smacking your client, and after that point, he shook his head and he looked down," Merchan said. "And, later, I think he was looking at you, Mr. Blanche, later when we were talking about The Apprentice, at that point he again uttered a vulgarity and looked at you this time. Please talk to him at the break."
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, testified for much of Tuesday about the alleged sexual encounter she had with Trump and the $130,000 in hush money she received in October 2016 — just weeks before the presidential election, which Trump won. She’s expected to continue testifying when the trial resumes Thursday.
During a combative cross-examination, Trump defense attorney Susan Necheles, who at times shouted at Daniels, attempted to paint the adult film star as a liar and extortionist — a woman who repeatedly tried to sell her story in pursuit of riches.
“You were looking to extort money from President Trump?” Necheles asked.
“False,” Daniels replied.
“Well, that’s what you did, right?” Necheles needled.
“False,” Daniels repeated.
In another pointed exchange, Necheles asked Daniels: “Is it true that you hate President Trump?”
Daniels, who smirked through much of Necheles’ questioning, responded: “Yes.”
Necheles asked: “You want him to go to jail?”
“I want him to be held accountable,” Daniels said.
Necheles tried to impugn Daniels' credibility by asking her about differing versions of the Tahoe golf tournament story.
“You have been making money for more than a decade by claiming you had sex with Donald Trump,” Necheles asked Daniels.
“I have been making money by telling my story about what happened to me,” Daniels responded.
“That story made you a lot of money,” Necheles asked.
“It has also cost me a lot of money,” Daniels responded.
Necheles prodded her to admit she only said to have sex with the president when she got paid.
“False, I did '60 minutes' with Anderson Cooper and they paid me zero,” Daniels said.
A civil suit Daniels filed in California accusing Trump of defamation backfired on her, resulting in a $660,000 judgment against her for the former president's legal fees.
Daniels has refused to pay the money, which Necheles suggested was a motivation for her testimony.
“I will go to jail before I pay a penny,” according to a Daniels tweet that Necheles read in court.
“That is me saying that I will not pay for me telling the truth,” Daniels said.
Trump, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, is on trial on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records with respect to how the alleged $130,000 payment to Daniels was recorded in business records maintained by The Trump Organization, the ex-president's Manhattan-based real estate company. Prosecutors said the payment was falsely claimed as “legal services” and amounted to election interference.
His attorneys have said he is innocent. Trump has called the case against him a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
Prosecutors have said Trump entered into a conspiracy with Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer and a Lawrence native, and David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid, to “catch and kill” negative stories about Trump as he ran for president and to publish negative stories about his political opponents.
Those “catch and kill” schemes included the payment to Daniels and another woman who claimed to have an affair with Trump named Karen McDougal, prosecutors have said. McDougal was paid $150,000 in hush money, prosecutors said.
Under direct questioning by Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger Tuesday morning, Daniels described her early life. She was the editor of her high school newspaper and had dreams of being a veterinarian, but even with a scholarship, it was too expensive and she dropped out of college. She developed a love for horses as a child, she said.
She met a friend who was an exotic dancer, tried it and later found her way to the adult film industry, she testified.
“My mother was neglectful,” said Daniels. “She would disappear for days at a time. I wish I could say she was an addict, because then it would make more sense, but I really don’t know.”
Daniels confirmed she signed the nondisclosure agreement presented to her by her then-attorney Keith Davidson in October 2016, because she wanted the deal done before the election.
She told the jury she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2006 when she was working for Wicked Pictures, an adult film company.
“Wicked sponsored one of the holes on the tournament,” said Daniels. “It’s kind of funny that an adult film company was sponsoring one of the holes in the tournament.”
Daniels, who was 27 at the time, met Trump on the course. The two took a photo together.
“It was a brief encounter. The players were playing so they come through very quickly,” said Daniels, adding she knew he was on a reality show but had never seen “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Trump's bodyguard approached her and asked if she wanted to have dinner with him, she told the court.
“Mr. Trump wanted to have dinner with me,” said Daniels. “I said 'F' no.”
She gave the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, who later worked in the White House under Trump's administration, her number.
“He messaged me and I saved it,” said Daniels, who saved his number in her phone as “Keith Trump” because she didn't know his last name at the time.
“I was scheduled to go to dinner with everyone at the company that I worked for,” said Daniels. “There were a couple of people at the company that I didn’t want to be around — catfight stuff.”
Daniels said she thought about going to dinner with Trump, who was then at the height of his reality TV fame, and concluded: “If nothing else, it will make a great story.”
Her publicist told her maybe Trump could help her in the entertainment industry.
“What could possibly go wrong?” Daniels recalled her publicist saying.
Schiller gave her very specific instructions to take a certain elevator up the penthouse, Daniels said.
“You look nice, go on in,” Schiller, who was standing outside Trump's hotel suite door, told Daniels, she testified. “Mr. Trump is waiting for you.”
The door was cracked open.
Asked by Hoffinger what her expectations were, Daniels said: “I didn’t really have any expectations.”
The suite was “super fancy,” with a black-and-white tiled floor and a big wood table topped with a flower arrangement, Daniels recalled. The living room area was bigger than the living room area in her first three homes, Daniels noted.
“I called his name or said 'Hellooo' and he came out,” said Daniels. “He was wearing silk or satin pajamas. I said, 'Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas?'" she said, referring to the late Playboy publisher, Hugh Hefner.
She said Trump went and changed and returned wearing a shirt and pants.
She and Trump sat down at a dining table and chatted, she said.
“Do you mind if we talk a little bit and get to know each other before we go down to dinner?” she said Trump asked her, before he queried her on her life, including where she went to school and if she had any children or a boyfriend.
“Did I have a boyfriend? I didn’t at the time,” said Daniels.
The conversation drifted into how she got into the adult film industry and how she segued from being an actor to writing and directing films.
Trump asked her if she had been tested for sexually transmitted diseases — she told him she had tested negative, she testified.
“I've never tested positive for anything,” Daniels said, who said condom use was mandatory. “Even when I worked with my husband, I had to wear a condom, event though I'm allergic to latex.”
Trump also asked her about various elements of the industry, which she found surprising.
“Most people just want to know about the dirty stuff, the sexy stuff; these were very specific business questions,” said Daniels. “I can’t remember the last time someone asked me about a union.”
Daniels, who spoke at a fast clip as she testified just feet from Trump, was told multiple times by the prosecutor and the judge to slow her pace of speaking.
Daniels said she asked about his wife, Melania Trump.
“I said, 'What about your wife?' recalled Daniels. “He said, 'Don’t worry about that. We don’t sleep in the same room.'”
Daniels testified that at this point in the conversation she grew annoyed with Trump.
“I had had enough of his arrogance and not taking me to dinner,” Daniels testified.
She said she pointedly asked him: “Are you always so arrogant? Are you always so rude? You don’t even know how to have a conversation. … Someone should spank you.”
Daniels said she then rolled up a magazine with Trump on the cover and playfully swatted him on the butt.
“He was much better after that,” said Daniels, adding that the conversation continued.
“He said that I should go on his show,” Daniels said, referring to “Celebrity Apprentice.”
She said she countered, “There's no way that NBC would allow an adult film actress” on the hit show.
Trump then told Daniels that she reminded him of his daughter Ivanka Trump, Daniels testified.
“You remind me of my daughter because she is smart and blond and everyone underestimates her,” Trump said, according to Daniels.
Daniels recalled that after the conversation with Trump wrapped up, she needed to use the restroom because she had consumed a couple of bottles of water. “It was a very large, beautiful bathroom,” said Daniels, who said she looked at what Trump had in a leather toiletry bag on the sink, which included the brands of Old Spice and Pert Plus.
She thought the products were “amusing and odd.”
When she exited the bathroom, Trump had positioned himself on his bed.
That's when they had sex, Daniels said. They never had dinner that night.
Ex-President Donald Trump greeted adult film actress Stormy Daniels in his Lake Tahoe, Nevada, hotel suite in silk pajamas and later stripped down to boxers and a T-shirt before they had sex in a brief encounter on his hotel suite bed in July 2006, Daniels testified Tuesday at Trump's historic hush money trial.
“When I came out [of the bathroom] Mr. Trump was on the bed,” said Daniels, who testified under oath for the first time and in explicit detail about the alleged sexual encounter that is at the center of Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in Manhattan. “He was in his boxers and T-shirt.”
Daniels, 45, dressed in all black and sitting on the witness stand just feet from Trump, said she thought to herself: “Oh my God. What did I misread to get here?”
Daniels, who describes herself on a social media profile as “director, writer & adult film star. Paranormal investigator,” recalled from the witness stand that she wasn’t necessarily enthusiastic about bedding the then-reality TV star who would go on to become the 45th president of the United States, but acquiesced.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Adult film actress Stormy Daniels took the stand for several hours Tuesday in former President Donald Trump's ongoing hush money trial in Manhattan criminal court.
- Daniels testified Trump greeted her in his Lake Tahoe, Nevada, hotel suite in silk pajamas and later stripped down to boxers and a T-shirt before they had sex in a brief encounter on his hotel suite bed in July 2006.
- Trump has denied the alleged sexual encounter and has called his trial a "witch hunt."
“I laughed nervously,” said Daniels, as Trump beckoned her. “I tried to make a joke out of it and step around. I was in slow motion. I thought, 'Great, I put myself in this bad situation.' … The next thing I know, I was on the opposite side of the bed, my clothes and shoes were off. My bra was still on. … I was in the missionary position.”
Daniels said as the two, who had only met hours prior, engaged in sexual intercourse, “I was staring up at the ceiling. I didn't know how I got there.”
Trump, whose wife, Melania Trump, had given birth to their son, Barron, just months earlier, did not wear a condom, Daniels said.
After the encounter was over, Daniels said Trump told her: “It was great, honey bunch. Let’s get together again sometime.”
In this courtroom sketch, Stormy Daniels testifies at forrmer President Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan on Tuesday. Credit: AP/Elizabeth Williams
Trump, 77, has long denied having sex with Daniels. As she detailed the encounter, a likely embarrassed Trump did not look directly at his former alleged paramour, but instead watched her testimony on a courtroom video monitor.
Daniels’ testimony about the widely publicized encounter — which she has recounted previously in a book and a "60 Minutes interview" — prompted Trump’s lead defense attorney, Todd Blanche, to argue for a mistrial because some of her testimony went beyond the parameters that were discussed before she took the stand, calling it “extremely prejudicial.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan denied the request after the lunch break.
Just before the lunch break, after Daniels detailed the Tahoe hotel rendezvous, the judge called the lawyers to the bench to warn them about Trump's reaction to the testimony.
"I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually and that's contemptuous," the judge warned the defense attorneys. "It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that."
Merchan said that he didn't say anything during the testimony because he didn't want to embarrass the former president. The judge said that Trump couldn't gesture either during the testimony.
"One time I noticed when Ms. Daniels was testifying about rolling up the magazine, and presumably smacking your client, and after that point, he shook his head and he looked down," Merchan said. "And, later, I think he was looking at you, Mr. Blanche, later when we were talking about The Apprentice, at that point he again uttered a vulgarity and looked at you this time. Please talk to him at the break."
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, testified for much of Tuesday about the alleged sexual encounter she had with Trump and the $130,000 in hush money she received in October 2016 — just weeks before the presidential election, which Trump won. She’s expected to continue testifying when the trial resumes Thursday.
During a combative cross-examination, Trump defense attorney Susan Necheles, who at times shouted at Daniels, attempted to paint the adult film star as a liar and extortionist — a woman who repeatedly tried to sell her story in pursuit of riches.
“You were looking to extort money from President Trump?” Necheles asked.
“False,” Daniels replied.
“Well, that’s what you did, right?” Necheles needled.
“False,” Daniels repeated.
In another pointed exchange, Necheles asked Daniels: “Is it true that you hate President Trump?”
Daniels, who smirked through much of Necheles’ questioning, responded: “Yes.”
Necheles asked: “You want him to go to jail?”
“I want him to be held accountable,” Daniels said.
Necheles tried to impugn Daniels' credibility by asking her about differing versions of the Tahoe golf tournament story.
“You have been making money for more than a decade by claiming you had sex with Donald Trump,” Necheles asked Daniels.
“I have been making money by telling my story about what happened to me,” Daniels responded.
“That story made you a lot of money,” Necheles asked.
“It has also cost me a lot of money,” Daniels responded.
Necheles prodded her to admit she only said to have sex with the president when she got paid.
“False, I did '60 minutes' with Anderson Cooper and they paid me zero,” Daniels said.
A civil suit Daniels filed in California accusing Trump of defamation backfired on her, resulting in a $660,000 judgment against her for the former president's legal fees.
Daniels has refused to pay the money, which Necheles suggested was a motivation for her testimony.
“I will go to jail before I pay a penny,” according to a Daniels tweet that Necheles read in court.
“That is me saying that I will not pay for me telling the truth,” Daniels said.
Former President Donald Trump and attorney Susan Necheles attend his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday. Credit: Getty Images/Win McNamee
Trump, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, is on trial on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records with respect to how the alleged $130,000 payment to Daniels was recorded in business records maintained by The Trump Organization, the ex-president's Manhattan-based real estate company. Prosecutors said the payment was falsely claimed as “legal services” and amounted to election interference.
His attorneys have said he is innocent. Trump has called the case against him a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
Prosecutors have said Trump entered into a conspiracy with Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer and a Lawrence native, and David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid, to “catch and kill” negative stories about Trump as he ran for president and to publish negative stories about his political opponents.
Those “catch and kill” schemes included the payment to Daniels and another woman who claimed to have an affair with Trump named Karen McDougal, prosecutors have said. McDougal was paid $150,000 in hush money, prosecutors said.
Under direct questioning by Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger Tuesday morning, Daniels described her early life. She was the editor of her high school newspaper and had dreams of being a veterinarian, but even with a scholarship, it was too expensive and she dropped out of college. She developed a love for horses as a child, she said.
She met a friend who was an exotic dancer, tried it and later found her way to the adult film industry, she testified.
“My mother was neglectful,” said Daniels. “She would disappear for days at a time. I wish I could say she was an addict, because then it would make more sense, but I really don’t know.”
Daniels confirmed she signed the nondisclosure agreement presented to her by her then-attorney Keith Davidson in October 2016, because she wanted the deal done before the election.
She told the jury she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2006 when she was working for Wicked Pictures, an adult film company.
“Wicked sponsored one of the holes on the tournament,” said Daniels. “It’s kind of funny that an adult film company was sponsoring one of the holes in the tournament.”
Daniels, who was 27 at the time, met Trump on the course. The two took a photo together.
“It was a brief encounter. The players were playing so they come through very quickly,” said Daniels, adding she knew he was on a reality show but had never seen “Celebrity Apprentice.”
Trump's bodyguard approached her and asked if she wanted to have dinner with him, she told the court.
“Mr. Trump wanted to have dinner with me,” said Daniels. “I said 'F' no.”
She gave the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, who later worked in the White House under Trump's administration, her number.
“He messaged me and I saved it,” said Daniels, who saved his number in her phone as “Keith Trump” because she didn't know his last name at the time.
“I was scheduled to go to dinner with everyone at the company that I worked for,” said Daniels. “There were a couple of people at the company that I didn’t want to be around — catfight stuff.”
Daniels said she thought about going to dinner with Trump, who was then at the height of his reality TV fame, and concluded: “If nothing else, it will make a great story.”
Her publicist told her maybe Trump could help her in the entertainment industry.
“What could possibly go wrong?” Daniels recalled her publicist saying.
Schiller gave her very specific instructions to take a certain elevator up the penthouse, Daniels said.
“You look nice, go on in,” Schiller, who was standing outside Trump's hotel suite door, told Daniels, she testified. “Mr. Trump is waiting for you.”
The door was cracked open.
Asked by Hoffinger what her expectations were, Daniels said: “I didn’t really have any expectations.”
The suite was “super fancy,” with a black-and-white tiled floor and a big wood table topped with a flower arrangement, Daniels recalled. The living room area was bigger than the living room area in her first three homes, Daniels noted.
“I called his name or said 'Hellooo' and he came out,” said Daniels. “He was wearing silk or satin pajamas. I said, 'Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas?'" she said, referring to the late Playboy publisher, Hugh Hefner.
She said Trump went and changed and returned wearing a shirt and pants.
She and Trump sat down at a dining table and chatted, she said.
“Do you mind if we talk a little bit and get to know each other before we go down to dinner?” she said Trump asked her, before he queried her on her life, including where she went to school and if she had any children or a boyfriend.
“Did I have a boyfriend? I didn’t at the time,” said Daniels.
The conversation drifted into how she got into the adult film industry and how she segued from being an actor to writing and directing films.
Trump asked her if she had been tested for sexually transmitted diseases — she told him she had tested negative, she testified.
“I've never tested positive for anything,” Daniels said, who said condom use was mandatory. “Even when I worked with my husband, I had to wear a condom, event though I'm allergic to latex.”
Trump also asked her about various elements of the industry, which she found surprising.
“Most people just want to know about the dirty stuff, the sexy stuff; these were very specific business questions,” said Daniels. “I can’t remember the last time someone asked me about a union.”
Daniels, who spoke at a fast clip as she testified just feet from Trump, was told multiple times by the prosecutor and the judge to slow her pace of speaking.
Daniels said she asked about his wife, Melania Trump.
“I said, 'What about your wife?' recalled Daniels. “He said, 'Don’t worry about that. We don’t sleep in the same room.'”
Daniels testified that at this point in the conversation she grew annoyed with Trump.
“I had had enough of his arrogance and not taking me to dinner,” Daniels testified.
She said she pointedly asked him: “Are you always so arrogant? Are you always so rude? You don’t even know how to have a conversation. … Someone should spank you.”
Daniels said she then rolled up a magazine with Trump on the cover and playfully swatted him on the butt.
“He was much better after that,” said Daniels, adding that the conversation continued.
“He said that I should go on his show,” Daniels said, referring to “Celebrity Apprentice.”
She said she countered, “There's no way that NBC would allow an adult film actress” on the hit show.
Trump then told Daniels that she reminded him of his daughter Ivanka Trump, Daniels testified.
“You remind me of my daughter because she is smart and blond and everyone underestimates her,” Trump said, according to Daniels.
Stormy Daniels, second from left, exits Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday. Credit: AP/Seth Wenig
Daniels recalled that after the conversation with Trump wrapped up, she needed to use the restroom because she had consumed a couple of bottles of water. “It was a very large, beautiful bathroom,” said Daniels, who said she looked at what Trump had in a leather toiletry bag on the sink, which included the brands of Old Spice and Pert Plus.
She thought the products were “amusing and odd.”
When she exited the bathroom, Trump had positioned himself on his bed.
That's when they had sex, Daniels said. They never had dinner that night.
