Judge denies defense's 2nd request for mistrial in Trump's hush money case, AP Explains
Donald Trump’s lawyers were denied in their second request for a mistrial at the former president’s hush money criminal trial. Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Juan Merchant Thursday afternoon to end the trial. They said that stormy Daniels testimony on Tuesday and Thursday had been unfairly prejudicial to the former president. Daniels testified about what the defense contended was a power dynamic, and the visceral reaction she had in the encounter, she says, happened at a hotel room. In 2006 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Now, some of the details had been shared with Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen when he decided to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 on the eve of the 2016 election. That’s the hush money payment really, at the heart of this trial. But defense lawyers say the story that Stormy Daniels told on the stand did not match what Colin was told and what the impetus was for that payment. The testimony, according to Trump lawyer Todd Blanche, amounted to a dog whistle for rape. But. Gales made clear in her testimony that her encounter that she says happened with Trump that it was consensual. The prosecution said that the details that she offered were necessary to prove her contention that there was a sexual encounter and to show the motivation for Trump years later to want that story suppressed. Trump denies any sex with Stormy Daniels, and after the trial concluded for the day, he made an impassioned statement in the hallway outside the courtroom, he said. I am innocent. The trial resumes on Friday and then we’ll continue into next week.