Stormy Daniels wraps up testimony at former President Donald Trump's trial while judge denies a second request for a mistrial

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels, the woman at the center of the criminal case against ex-President Donald Trump, completed her explicit testimony in a combative back and forth with the Trump defense Thursday at Trump's historic hush money trial in Manhattan as the judge in the case later denied a second request for a mistrial.

Daniels answered a barrage of questions from Trump defense attorney Susan Necheles, who aggressively questioned the witness about her direct testimony on her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, attempting to draw the jury's attention to inconsistencies in her story.

Necheles also queried Daniels on the myriad ways she attempted to make money — including headlining strip clubs, holding seances and selling candles including selling candles — off her connection with the former president.

Necheles also appeared to take swipes at Daniels' chosen profession. When Daniels confirmed that she had acted in more than 200 adult films and written or directed some 250 adult films, Necheles asked: “You have a lot of experience making phony stories about sex appear to be real?” Necheles asked.

Daniels replied: “I don’t know about that. The sex is real like what happened to me in that hotel room. The sex is real, that’s why it’s called pornography.”

Daniels, who first took the stand Tuesday, testified for the first-time under oath that she had sex with the then-reality TV star in his Lake Tahoe, Nevada hotel suite on the same day they met in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament.

A decade later, as Trump ran for president in 2016, she signed a nondisclosure agreement preventing her from speaking publicly about the encounter and received a $130,000 payment, Daniels testified.

Daniels, 45, describes herself as a director, writer, adult film star and paranormal investigator.
Necheles began verbally sparring with Daniels on Tuesday, attempting to paint her as a liar and extortionist who has “been making money for more than a decade by claiming you had sex with Donald Trump.”

Prosecutors have said Trump directed the hush money payment to Daniels just weeks before the 2016 presidential election in order to prevent the story of their liaison from going public — and hurting his chances at becoming president. Prosecutors said it was amid the backdrop of the October 2016 release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” recording, in which Trump bragged about grabbing women by the genitals, that Trump acted to silence Daniels, who could have dealt his campaign a death blow if her story came out before voters began casting ballots.

Trump, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, is on trial on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the $130,000 payment.

Prosecutors said the payment was falsely claimed in business records maintained by The Trump Organization, the ex-president's Manhattan-based real estate company, 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, a former Playboy model, prosecutors have said. McDougal was paid $150,000 in hush money, prosecutors said.

During her direct testimony Tuesday, Daniels described in graphic details her alleged encounter with Trump.

She went to his penthouse suite via a dinner invitation from Trump's bodyguard. But when she arrived Trump was clad in a silk pajama set. After they spoke about various topics for a few hours, including her career in adult film and his wife Melania Trump, who had given birth to their son Barron months earlier, she excused herself to the restroom.

When she came out, she was greeted by Trump — now in shorts and a T-shirt — on his hotel bed. Daniels, 27, said she was not enthusiastic about bedding Trump, 60, but went along with it.
“I was staring up at the ceiling,” Daniels said. “I didn't know how I got there.”

Trump 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.”

Also testifying Thursday a pair of aides — one at the Trump Organization, Trump's Manhattan-based real estate company and the other at the White House — who testified about handling the checks that prosecutors say Trump paid to Cohen to reimburse him for the hush money payments he made to both Daniels and McDougal, who has alleged she had an affair with Trump and was paid $150,000 to keep quiet about it.

Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, testified that she sent unsigned checks via FedEx to the home of Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller in Washington, D.C. in 2017. The checks usually came back bearing Trump's signature, Manochio said.

Madeleine Westerhout, a White House aide, testified that she contacted Rhona Graff, Trump's assistant at the Trump Organization, to get an updated contact list. It included Michael Cohen and David Pecker, as well as other notable names such as football GOAT Tom Brady, tennis star Serena Williams and political broadcasters Joe Scarborough and Jeanine Pirro, Westerhout said.

Prosecutors displayed an email for the jury that Westerhout wrote to Cohen on Feb. 5, 2017 to confirm an upcoming meeting at the White House. Prosecutors have said Trump and Cohen finalized the repayment plan for the hush money payments at that meeting.

 Westerhout broke down in tears as she testified that she was fired from the White House for comments she made to reporters during an off-the-record dinner in August 2019.

“I said things that I should not have said and it cost me my job,” said Westerhout, who reportedly groused that Trump didn't want to be photographed with his youngest daughter due to her weight.

Westerhout, who wrote a book about her time at the White House and her firing, also had kind words for the ex-president.

“I thought it was important to share with the American people the man that I got to know,” said Westerhout. “I don’t think he’s treated fairly.”

Her time working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was “amazing” though she acknowledged her peers though she was “underqualified” for the post.

“I don’t feel like anyone deserved to be in the West Wing, but he never made me feel like I didn’t belong there,” said Westerhout. “He was a really good boss. Yeah. I just found him really enjoyable to work for.” 

Testimony ended at 4 p.m. on Thursday so that the judge could hear a motion for mistrial and a request to amend the gag order to allow Trump to respond to Daniel's testimony.

Defense lawyer Todd Blanche said that the adult film actress's account of the hotel liaison on the witness stand was drastically different from her previous statements.

In particular, the lawyer referred to Daniel's recollection that the former president did not use a condom during sex.

“He needs an opportunity to respond to the American people,” Blanche said. “There's a new accusation of consent.”

He said that her statement that a condom wasn't used was “a dog whistle for rape.”

Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said that he was sensitive to the effect the level of detail had on the jury, but he blamed the defense lawyers for opening the door to such testimony.

The judge said that the lawyers pitted Trump's credibility against Daniels when they denied the sexual encounter in their opening arguments, forcing the prosecutors to illicit a detailed account of the alleged sexual encounter in the Tahoe hotel room.

“It has always been the government's contention that the details corroborate her account,” Steinglass said.

Merchan specifically chided defense lawyer Susan Necheles for not objecting to the level of detail about the alleged sex act.

“Why she wouldn’t object to the mention of a condom, I don’t understand,” Merchan said.

Steinglass recounted one explicit detail that the jury did not hear, prompting Trump to poke Blanche's arm appearing to goad his attorney to respond again after he had already completed his arguments.

When the lawyer rose to speak, the judge cut him off.

“I disagree that there’s any new account here. I disagree that there’s any change in story,” the judge said before denying the motion for mistrial.

He also denied the request to modify the gag order to allow Trump to respond to Daniels' testimony due to the “vitriol” from the president toward his opponents.

“These attacks are very real,” Merchan said. “My concern is protecting this proceeding as a whole.”

The trial continues in Manhattan on Friday.