The Republican politician, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, says the trial is an attempt to hobble his attempt to win back the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Jail time for contempt could spell political trouble for Trump
Justice Juan Merchan on Monday threatened Trump with jail time for repeatedly violating a gag order in the criminal case underway in Manhattan, although Merchan said it is a step he is reluctant to take.
Jailing Trump would almost certainly inflame his already loyal base of supporters and in their minds further Trump's narrative that he is being politically persecuted, an argument that helped him win the 2024 Republican nomination.
- But being jailed - even for a brief time - would remind other voters of the chaos that has routinely followed Trump, including the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, several political analysts said.
RELATED
Stormy Daniels testifies of chaos once Trump hush money deal became public
By Luc Cohen, Jack Queen and Andy Sullivan
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Porn star Stormy Daniels testified on Tuesday that her life descended into “chaos” after her hush-money deal with Donald Trump to stay silent about their alleged sexual encounter was made public, saying she was ostracized and harassed at her home.
“My husband asking questions, my friends asking questions,” Daniels testified on Day 13 of the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. “It blew my cover, for lack of a better way to explain it.”
She told the New York jury about the alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump and the $130,000 hush money payment she secured when he ran for president in 2016.
She told the New York jury about the alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump and the $130,000 hush money payment she secured when he ran for president in 2016.
- Daniels said she was worried he would not pay her if he won the November 2016 election. Jurors saw documents that showed she canceled the deal in mid-October but later revived it.
Daniels, 45, said she was determined to keep the incident private after being threatened in a parking lot in 2011 but changed her mind during Trump’s 2016 presidential bid when he faced multiple accusations of sexual misbehavior.
“My motivation wasn’t money, it was to get the story out,” she said.
Trump, 77, who is the Republican candidate for president again this year, did not react as he watched her testimony from the witness stand. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up the hush money payment to Daniels and denies ever having sex with Daniels.
His legal team has suggested that Daniels made up the story as she was angling for a spot on “The Apprentice,” a popular reality TV show then hosted by Trump, a New York real estate mogul.
Daniels confirmed that she hoped he would cast her on the show following their encounter.
After a lunch break, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche moved for a mistrial, arguing that her testimony was irrelevant to a case about business records and would only “inflame” the jury. Justice Juan Merchan denied his request.
‘ONLY WAY YOU’RE GETTING OUT OF THE TRAILER PARK’
Daniels said Trump made sexual advances after inviting her to his hotel suite at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Daniels said Trump made sexual advances after inviting her to his hotel suite at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
- She said he told her “this is the only way you’re getting out of the trailer park.”
- Daniels testified she grew up as the daughter of a low-income single mother.
“I was staring at the ceiling and didn’t know how I got there, I was trying to think about anything other than what was happening there,” Daniels testified.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she did not tell Trump to stop.
- “I didn’t say anything at all,” she said.
- She said she left the hotel room quickly afterward.
The Republican politician, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, says the trial is an attempt to hobble his attempt to win back the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Wearing a black outfit and black glasses, Daniels testified that she worked in strip clubs and pornography after a childhood in which her single mother was often gone for days at a time.
Wearing a black outfit and black glasses, Daniels testified that she worked in strip clubs and pornography after a childhood in which her single mother was often gone for days at a time.
SATIN PAJAMAS AND A SPANKING
She said Trump greeted her at his hotel suite wearing satin pajamas. She said she grew annoyed by Trump’s frequent interruptions and asked him: “Are you always this arrogant and pompous?”
Trump then dared Daniels to spank him with a magazine and she obliged. “He was much more polite after that,” she said.
“That’s bullshit,” Trump appeared to say as he watched from the defendant’s table.
The alleged encounter took place while Trump was married to his current wife, Melania.
She said Trump greeted her at his hotel suite wearing satin pajamas. She said she grew annoyed by Trump’s frequent interruptions and asked him: “Are you always this arrogant and pompous?”
Trump then dared Daniels to spank him with a magazine and she obliged. “He was much more polite after that,” she said.
“That’s bullshit,” Trump appeared to say as he watched from the defendant’s table.
The alleged encounter took place while Trump was married to his current wife, Melania.
Daniels said she confided in only a few people about the sex. She said she saw Trump at public events on several occasions in the years that followed, but then fell out of touch with him after he did not put her on the show.
She said she was approached in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 by a man who warned her not to speak about the encounter. “I was scared and I didn’t want anything else about the story to come out,” she said.
She said she changed her mind during Trump’s 2016 bid and ultimately negotiated a $130,000 payment with Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen.
Prosecutors say Trump falsified business records to obscure the fact that he reimbursed Cohen for the payment. They say that amounts to an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election by buying the silence of people with potentially damaging information.
The case is widely seen as less consequential than three other criminal prosecutions Trump faces, but it is the only one certain to go to trial before the election.
The other cases charge Trump with trying to overturn his 2020 presidential defeat and mishandling classified documents after leaving office. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all three.
She said she was approached in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 by a man who warned her not to speak about the encounter. “I was scared and I didn’t want anything else about the story to come out,” she said.
She said she changed her mind during Trump’s 2016 bid and ultimately negotiated a $130,000 payment with Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen.
Prosecutors say Trump falsified business records to obscure the fact that he reimbursed Cohen for the payment. They say that amounts to an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election by buying the silence of people with potentially damaging information.
The case is widely seen as less consequential than three other criminal prosecutions Trump faces, but it is the only one certain to go to trial before the election.
The other cases charge Trump with trying to overturn his 2020 presidential defeat and mishandling classified documents after leaving office. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all three.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Luc Cohen in New York and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)
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