Pornographic film actress, Stormy Daniels, spent nearly 5 hours in a criminal courtroom in Manhattan, on Tuesday, talking about a sexual relationship that she says she had with former US President, Donald Trump, in 2006.
These deep sexual details that she revealed before the judge and jury, and in the presence of Trump, in the first criminal trial of a former American president, may affect the course of the entire case, according to American newspapers.
In one of the most important moments in Trump’s historic trial, Daniels’ testimony was so detailed that defense lawyers demanded a mistrial, considering that the content of Daniels’ testimony fell outside the framework of the court and entailed “great harm” to the Republican candidate for the White House.
Daniels (45 years old) is the focus of the “buying silence” case, in which Trump is accused of falsifying accounting documents to conceal $130,000 that was paid to her during the 2016 election campaign to cover up the relationship.
Before she appeared in court, Trump’s defense attorney, Susan Nicholls, objected, saying her testimony was not useful in a case centered around financial records.
Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the trial, told prosecutors during a break that many of the details were “unnecessary.”
Trump’s lawyers objected several times during Daniels’ testimony, especially when she added answers that prosecutors did not request.
Trump’s lawyers spoke of possible harm to the Trump campaign
In contrast, the plaintiff, Susan Hofenfer, said that testimony was necessary to complete the story and prove Daniels’ credibility. She said that the testimony would include basic details “and not a description of genitalia or anything like that.” However, Daniels proceeded to describe many aspects of the sexual encounter. Allegedly occurring during a golf tournament.
The Washington Post says the actress provided “far more detail than the judge, Juan Merchan, should have allowed to be heard.”
Daniels testified that Trump invited her to his hotel room after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006. She said that she accepted with the encouragement of her publicist, that Trump received her in his suite wearing silk pajamas, and that she asked Trump to change his clothes, and he complied. her politely.
The actress indicated that Trump showed her several pictures and magazine covers in his hotel suite, and said that she asked to see a picture of his wife Melania, noting that: “She is very beautiful.” He responded that they did not even sleep in the same room, according to the details of her testimony reported by “NBC.” “.
Then, in response to questions from Prosecutor Hoffinger, who is leading the questioning, Daniels spoke about the moment she said she came out of the bathroom to find Trump naked on the bed.
She said she did not feel threatened, but that his intention “was completely clear” and that “the balance of power was imbalanced.”
“I think I blacked out,” Daniels said, adding that there were a lot of details she didn’t remember, but she insisted she was not drugged or drunk.
“The next thing I knew, I was in bed… I was staring at the ceiling. I didn’t know how I got there,” she testified.
Stormy Daniels has talked about a lot of sexual matters
“I ended up having sex with him,” she added, likening the situation to “losing consciousness.” She added, “I felt ashamed because I did not stop him, and I did not say no… I told very few people.”
In the tense interrogation atmosphere, the judge seemed annoyed by some of the prosecutor’s questions, while Trump’s lawyer, Nicholls, asked not to discuss the sexual relationship, saying that “this is a very harmful matter.”
“Mistrial”
During the recess, Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, asked for a mistrial after Daniels’ testimony, accusing her of providing extrajudicial details and incorrectly suggesting that the alleged sexual encounter may not have been consensual, and said the prosecution’s questions were intended to embarrass Trump and prejudice the jury, according to what she reported. Wall Street Journal.
“All of this has nothing to do with this case, and is extremely prejudicial, and the only reason these questions were asked, besides sheer embarrassment, was to influence the jury and not consider important evidence,” Blanch said.
Judge Merchan agreed that some aspects of Daniels’ testimony “were better left unsaid,” but rejected a mistrial.
The judge had previously held the former president in contempt 10 times, and imposed a fine of $10,000 on him. He twice threatened to imprison him.
The judge said he heard Trump insulting the witness
On Tuesday, Trump again angered the judge after the latter said that the former president was “cursing audibly” and “shaking his head.”
The judge asked the lawyer to speak to Trump, and said, “He has the ability to intimidate the witness, and the jury can see that… I don’t want to embarrass him. You need to talk to him. I will not tolerate that.”
He said that as a witness, “it was a little difficult to control her,” adding that he was “surprised that Trump’s lawyers did not raise more objections during her testimony.”
“The defense has to take some responsibility for that,” Merchan said.
Doubts about intentions
The Trump team’s questioning of Daniels focused on whether she disliked the former president and whether she made money from the alleged sexual encounter.
Nicholls referred to a defamation case filed by Daniels against Trump in California, which the court rejected and ordered her to pay more than $293,000 in legal fees to Trump.
She said Nicholls, in her interrogation, suggested that Daniels was trying to “extort money” from Trump, according to the New York Times.
On the other hand, the actress said that she did not care about hush money, because at that time she was getting good wages for her film work and she owned a house in Texas.
Trump’s lawyers asked her if it would benefit her if Trump went to prison, to which she owes large legal fees after the defamation suit was dismissed, and said: “Isn’t it true that you hope that if Trump is convicted, you will never have to pay the money you owe?”
Daniels denied that she had a financial motive to testify, but the actress, who wrote a book about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, acknowledged that she made money from him.
Legal loophole
And she says Washington Post Trump’s team can appeal the “mistrial” ruling.
It says that if the jury convicts Trump, his defense lawyers may try to appeal the conviction, contesting to a higher court that Merchan allowed damaging and unnecessary testimony at trial.
Any motion or objection made by the defense that is rejected by the trial judge provides an opportunity for appeal, said Anna J. Kominsky, a law professor at New York Law School.
But winning an appeal is not easy.
“The real question is, even if the judge errs in his decision, will that provide a basis for overturning the ruling on appeal? That’s a bigger goal,” Kominsky wrote in an email to The Washington Post.
The dispute over Daniels’ testimony comes weeks after the New York Attorney General’s Office suffered a judicial blow, when New York’s highest court overturned the conviction of movie production mogul, Harvey Weinstein, in rape and sexual assault cases.
The court indicated that the court committed procedural errors related to allowing the jury to see and hear a lot of evidence that was not directly related to the charges that the producer faced.
In the Trump case, Merchan insisted that the latest ruling has no impact on the current trial.
After the session, Trump said in a statement to reporters, “Today was important and revealed a lot,” stressing that “the file is about to collapse.”
