As the Trump hush money trial entered its tenth day of testimony, defense attorneys for former President Donald J. Trump continued their cross-examination of pornographic actress Stormy Daniels. Defense attorney Susan Necheles continued to handle the questioning, picking up where she left off on Tuesday. The former President’s legal team continued drilling down on the motivations behind Daneils’s actions, including her decision to sell her story to the National Enquirer.
In addition to Daniels, the court — with Democrat-aligned Judge Juan Merchan presiding — heard from three additional witnesses: Rebecca Manochio, a former assistant to Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, Tracey Menzies, a publishing executive at Harper Collins, and Madeleine Westerhout — who served as former President Trump’s executive assistant at the White House.
After the lunch break and conclusion of Daniels’s testimony, Trump’s attorneys again moved for a mistrial. They filed two other motions pertaining to potential testimony from another accuser, Karen McDougal, and for changes to the court-issued gag order.
STORMY CONTINUED.
The defense’s cross-examination of Stormy Daniels began with Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles pressing the porn star on her motivations for going public with her story. The adult film actress insisted that she didn’t want money from Trump or his company or campaign. Instead, Daniels told Necheles — using puzzling logic — that she sold the story to ensure the public heard it.
“I was asking to sell my story to publications to get the truth out,” Daniels said under cross-examination by Necheles. This response will likely undermine Daniels’s credibility as she’s also acknowledged signing the nondisclosure agreement with the National Enquirer, meaning her story would not be published. Daniels admitted that other news outlets, including Slate, wanted to publish her allegations, but the left-leaning website was unwilling to pay for the story.
PHANTOM THREATS REDUX.
Daniels continued to allude to unsubstantiated threats she and her family received. According to the porn actress, she signed the nondisclosure agreement to create a paper trail and protect her family from the unknown and unnamed individuals threatening them. Additionally, Daniels testified that if she had given the story to Slate or another outlet willing to pay, it would have put a target on her and her family’s backs. Not once did Daniels produce any concrete evidence of threats.
Note that she testified on Tuesday to a previously uncirculated claim that she was threatened to stay silent by an unknown man in a Las Vegas parking garage in 2011. She did not report the incident to police or inform her husband or daughter of the threat. Judge Juan Merchan expressed his dismay that Daniels had raised the story in court with no evidence to corroborate it.
DANIELS YELLS AT DAVIDSON.
A great deal of the cross-examination focused on the various ways Daniels has personally profited from her allegations of an affair with former President Trump. In an especially devastating moment for her credibility, Daniels was faced with a recording produced by Trump’s legal team where her former attorney, Keith Davidson, can be heard speaking with disgraced lawyer Michael Cohen, alluding to her motivations.
Davidson tells Cohen that Daniels “wanted this money more than you can ever imagine.” On the phone call, taped on April 4, 2018, Davidson recalls to Cohen: “I remember hearing her on the phone saying, ‘You — f–king Keith Davidson — you better settle this goddamn story.” According to her former attorney, Daniels called him a “p***y” and demanded he get her a good financial settlement in exchange for the story. He also told Cohen that Daniels told him, “We lose all f**king leverage” if Trump loses the 2016 election.
After being confronted with the phone call recording, Daniels denied having ever yelled at Davidson. “No I did not, actually, I never yelled at Keith Davidson,” she told Necheles.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!
“When Trump was indicted in this case, you celebrated on Twitter by repeatedly tweeting and pushing merchandise you were selling in your store, right?” Necheles pressed the porn star, driving at the financial motivations underpinning her ongoing attacks on Trump.
“I tweeted about him being indicted, yes. People asked how they could support me, so I tweeted the link to my store,” Daniels responded, attempting to dodge the fact she often used news about Trump‘s prosecution to sell merchandise. Showing the jury photos of Daniels’s social media posts, Nicheles asked: “That was you shilling your merchandise, right?”
“That is me doing my job,” the adult film actress responded.
When pressed if she made $100,000 from a documentary about her life and affair with Trump, Daniels became indignant. She refused to answer directly and snapped at Trump’s defense attorney, stating: “You’re trying to trick me into saying something that’s not entirely true.”
Necheles asked Daniels if she had had an affair with one of the cameramen while filming the documentary. Judge Mechan overruled an objection by the prosecution and directed Daniels to answer the question. The pornographic entertainer acknowledged that she did have an affair but claimed she was separated from her husband at the time.
Daniels was also forced to admit she profited from a strip club tour following her going public with her allegations. The tour was promoted with a photo of Daniels with Trump at the aforementioned Lake Tahoe Golf Tournament, where they first met.
I SEE DEAD PEOPLE.
Moving on from her financial motivations, Susan Necheles entered a line of inquiry that must have had the prosecution regretting their decision to put Daniels on the stand. While the adult film industry isn’t known for employing the most mentally sound individuals, Daniels’s side job as a ‘medium‘ between those living in this world and the one beyond may take the cake. Daniels admitted she tried to pitch a paranormal reality show following her newfound fame regarding her home in New Orleans, which she claims is haunted.
“It was a lot of interesting and unexplained activity,” the porn star explained, though she did admit: “A lot of the activity was completely debunked as a giant possum.” In 2022, Daniels described a “non-human thing with tentacles” that frequented her home and would break items. She claimed the ‘haunting’ negatively impacted her mental health.
Necheles pressed Daniels further on whether she claimed she could speak with people’s dead relatives. While the adult entertainer said she did make such claims, she added that it was “all entertainment.”
STORMY STANDS BY THE STORY.
The over six hours of testimony — over two days — by Daniels came to a close with Necheles pressing the porn actress on whether she made the affair allegations up. Trump’s defense team noted the multiple inaccuracies in her story and the fact that its details have changed over time. The National Pulse reported that a previous iteration of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump insinuated that Danials was the aggressor — something she now denies, insinuating she was, in essence, assaulted.
Defending the shifting details, Daniels insisted that she can’t control what quotes end up in magazine interviews or how the reporter framed events. On several occasions, the porn actress was forced to clarify her prior statements when confronted with her inconsistent recollections.
After the defense team finished its cross-examination, the prosecution engaged in a brief redirect. Daniels was again asked about the unsubstantiated threats against her and her family and if this is what motivated her to sign the nondisclosure agreement. Again, Daniels insisted this was the case.
THE BOOK KEEPER AND PUBLISHER.
Following the marathon testimony of Stormy Daniels, prosecutors moved on to Rebecca Manochio — the former assistant to Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. Like with other testimony from former Trump Organization financial staff, the prosecution focused its questioning on the check signing process and which company executives can approve payments.
The goal of this questioning by the Manhattan District Attorney‘s office is to insinuate that former President Trump not only signed the checks but was aware of their purpose. Thus far, they’ve presented no actual evidence that this is the case.
Following a brief cross-examination of Manochio, during which she acknowledged she never directly interacted with Trump, Harper Collins executive Tracey Menzies was called to the stand next. Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold handled the questioning, which consisted entirely of Menzies reading sections of a book co-authored by Trump. The prosecution’s goal appears to have been to underscore certain controversial statements printed in the book regarding loyalty and getting even.
Under cross-examination, Trump’s defense attorney, Todd Blanche, asked Menzies if she was part of the team that published Trump’s book. “No, I was not,” she replied. Pushing further, Blanche asked Menzies if she had selected the excerpts read in court. She said she had not.
THE FINAL WITNESS FOR THE DAY.
The tenth day of testimony ended with former President Trump‘s personal assistant at the White House, Madeleine Westerhout, taking the stand. The protection asked Westerhout mostly about check signing procedures, but other topics also arose. When asked about the Access Hollywood tape, Westerhout told the prosecution, “At the time, I recall it rattling RNC leadership.”
“It’s my recollection there were conversations about how to, if it was needed, how it would be possible to replace him as the candidate if it came to that,” Westerhout added.
Westerhout was asked what implements Trump would use to sign documents and checks. She recalled, “He liked to use Sharpies or, I believe, a Pentel felt-tip pen.” She also acknowledged that the former President liked to review and read any document before he signed it. When asked whether Trump and Cohen had a close relationship in the early days of the presidential administration, Westerhout responded: “At that time, yes.”
‘A REALLY GOOD BOSS.’
Trump defense attorney Susan Necheles also handled Westerhout’s cross-examination. When asked why Westerhout later wrote a book about her time in the Trump White House, the former aide replied, “I thought it was real important to share with the American people the man that I got to know.”
She added, “I don’t think he’s treated fairly, and I wanted to tell that story.”
Westerhout told the court that the former President wasn’t nearly as concerned about the Access Hollywood tape as those around him.
“He never once made me feel that I didn’t deserve that job and that I didn’t belong there. Especially in an office filled with older men, he never made me feel like I didn’t belong there. He was a really good boss,” Westerhout told Necheles, adding: “I found him very enjoyable to work for.”
With that, the court adjourned for the day, but not before Judge Juan Merchan considered three new motions by Trump‘s defense team.
JUDGE DENIES MISTRIAL MOTION AGAIN.
Former President Donald Trump‘s defense team again motioned for a mistrial, citing the unsubstantiated, unrelated, and prejudicial testimony from Stormy Daniels. Again, Judge Juan Merchan denied the motion. A second motion to bar testimony from the second Trump accuser, Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate, was vacated as District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecutors announced they would no longer be calling her as a witness. A third motion regarding the extent of the court’s gag order on former President Donald Trump did not receive an immediate ruling.
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