Judge denies Trump team’s motions for mistrial and to modify gag order – live
Donald Trump speaks to reporters outside the courtroom on Thursday.
LIVE – Updated at 22:18
Judge Juan Merchan denies the defense’s requests to both call a mistrial and to modify a court-imposed gag order to allow Donald Trump to respond to testimony by Stormy Daniels.
Closing summary
22:18
The court has now adjourned for the day, and is scheduled to resume at 9.30am ET tomorrow. Here’s a recap of the day’s events:
Donald Trump arrived in court on Thursday morning with the Florida senator Rick Scott among his entourage, part of a parade of supporters who have come to court to back the former president.
Stormy Daniels testified for a second day as the former president’s lawyers sought to undermine her in an attempt to persuade jurors that the case’s key prosecution witness cannot be believed.
Trump attorney Susan Necheles pressed on Daniels’ motivations for agreeing to a hush-money payment, asking her why she didn’t just go public with her story in the waning days of the 2016 campaign and instead sought to get paid for her story.
Necheles seemed to be trying to seed the idea that Daniels was more interested in getting a payout than telling the truth. “You wanted money, right?” Necheles said. Daniels said “I wanted the truth to come out.”
Necheles tried to poke holes in Daniels’s story about her encounter with Trump, highlighting instances in which she said Daniels’s recollection had changed over the years. Daniels refused to concede any inconsistencies: “You’re trying to make it say that it changed but it hasn’t changed.”
Necheles also suggested that Daniels could make up a good story about having sex with Trump because of her experience in the adult entertainment industry. “If that story was untrue I would have written it to be a lot better,” Daniels fired back.
During redirect examination, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Daniels bluntly if she was telling the truth or lies about Trump. “The truth.” Hoffinger also asked Daniels whether the whole episode had been a net positive or net negative on her life. “Negative,” Daniels said.
Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio testified about sending unsigned checks for Trump to sign at the White House for his personal expenses. She told the jury that Trump and then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg would speak at least once a day before Trump embarked on his run for president.
Donald Trump’s former personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, was also called as a witness. Westerhout, who was Trump’s personal secretary to Trump from 2017 to 2019 and the former director of Oval Office operations for the Trump White House from February to August 2019, is expected to return to the stand on Friday.
Westerhout worked for the Republican National Committee before going to the White House. She testified that the RNC was rattled by the “Access Hollywood” tape release and that there were “conversations” about replacing Trump as a presidential candidate.
The jury was shown a list of key contacts that Trump’s assistant at his company, Rhona Graff, put together for Westerhout, containing names including Michael Cohen, Allen Weisselberg, David Pecker, members of the Trump family, Fox News hosts and football legends.
Westerhout broke into tears as he described he being from the White House after she spoke at an off the record dinner with journalists.
Judge Juan Merchan denied the defense’s request to modify the gag order so that Trump be allowed to respond publicly to Daniels’ testimony. Merchan, in denying the request, said his concern “is with protecting the integrity of these proceedings as a whole.”
Merchan also denied the defense’s renewed mistrial motion. Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued that one of Daniels’ answers on the stand was “a dog whistle for rape” Merchan said Trump’s lawyers had ample opportunities to object to questions that elicited what they say were damaging details about the alleged sexual encounter.
22:14
Judge Juan Merchan just gave a lengthy ruling where he explained why he was denying a mistrial for the second time this week.
Even though lurid details did come in, Trump’s lawyers had essentially opened themselves up to them by denying in their opening statements that Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels ever had sex. Merchan said:
These details add a sense of credibility if the jury chooses to believe them.
Merchan also castigated Trump attorney Susan Necheles, saying “for the life of me” he couldn’t figure out why she didn’t object to questions about whether Trump used a condom.
The testimony came after Merchan had sustained similar objections in Daniels’ testimony. He also noted that Necheles had pressed Daniels on details about the incident after Trump’s team said they were prejudicial, hammering them into the heads of the jury.
Judge denies motion for mistrial
22:02
Judge Juan Merchan says he can’t figure out “for the life of me” why Trump attorney Susan Necheles didn’t object to the prosecution’s question about whether Donald Trump used a condom – something Trump’s lawyers are now saying was prejudicial so there should have been a mistrial.
The judge denies the defense’s motion for a mistrial.
21:54
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says that during direct, Judge Juan Merchan sustained an objection to a question when Stormy Daniels was asked if she felt anything unusual during sex.
At one point Ms Daniels was asked ‘Did you feel anything unusual.’ The answer was going to be ‘I felt like what it felt like to feel the skin of a 60-year-old man. I was 27 and that was different than anything that I had ever felt before.’
He says he has other details and he’s willing to make a sealed record.
Steinglass is fuming, and says he wants to correct Trump attorney Todd Blanche that they didn’t “change their mind” on calling Karen McDougal – she was always on the witness list and they just decided not to call her.
Trump attorney slams Stormy Daniels’ testimony as ‘a dog whistle for rape’
21:53
Trump attorney Todd Blanche concludes his request for a mistrial, saying that Stormy Daniels’ testimony was a “dog whistle for rape”.
21:46
Donald Trump is passing more notes to his attorney Todd Blanche as he listens to prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, who is heatedly defending Stormy Daniels’ testimony.
Steinglass says:
Those details of what happened in that room. That was Mr Trump’s motive to silence this woman in 2016 less than a month before the election.
Trump attorney renews request for a mistrial
21:39
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is arguing for a mistrial. The defense requested a mistrial earlier this week that was denied by Judge Juan Merchan.
Blanche is arguing that the prosecution led Stormy Daniels to disclose lurid and irrelevant details about her alleged affair with Donald Trump. It wasn’t that she was “out of control”.
Blanche is discussing details prosecutors sought about what Daniels says she saw in the bathroom in Trump’s suite and how she reacted when she allegedly saw Trump on the bed.
Judge denies motion to modify gag order
21:33
Judge Juan Merchan denies the defense’s request to modify a court-imposed gag order to allow Donald Trump to respond to testimony by Stormy Daniels.
Merchan says:
My concern is not just with protecting Ms Daniels or a witness who has already testified. My concern is with protecting the integrity of these proceedings as a whole.
Merchan continues:
Other people will see you doing it … Other witnesses, including not only Michael Cohen, other witnesses will see your client doing whatever it is he intends to do.
The reason why the gag order is in place to begin with “is precisely because of the nature of these attacks”, the judge says.
The nature, the vitriol … your client’s track record speaks for itself here. I can’t take your word for it that he says I’m just going to speak the facts.
Karen McDougal will not be testifying in trial, says defense
21:29
Trump attorney Todd Blanche says the prosecution has informed him that they no longer intend to call Karen McDougal as a witness.
Blanche asks the judge that Donald Trump be allowed to respond to Stormy Daniels’ testimony earlier today and on Tuesday.
Blanche says:
We ask that President Trump be allowed to respond publicly to what happened in court the last day and a half. The press reporting over the last 24 hours about the current version of the story that we believe is completely false … is completely different in kind than the denials and stories that have come forth since as far back as 2011 and 2014.
Blanche adds:
As we’ve said repeatedly, he needs an opportunity to respond to the American people. The reasons for the gag order as they relate to Ms Daniels are over. She’s no longer a witness.
Trump attorney asks for gag order to be lifted to respond to Stormy Daniels’ testimony
21:28
Trump attorney Todd Blanche says Donald Trump will be “asked repeatedly over the next week or two about these new accusations of consent and of what happened that night”.
He says:
There’s voters out there and there’s questioners who will ask him questions about it and he can’t say anything.
Speaking for the prosecution, Chris Conroy says, “It seems as though the other side almost lives in an alternate reality.”
Conroy says:
This is where facts are brought out. If somebody wants to respond to something that’s said in this room, it can happen in this room.
Trump is passing notes to Todd Blanche as Conroy argues against lifting of gag order.
Conroy continues to argue that “the fact that witnesses are brave enough to come here under subpoena, tell the truth under oath, shouldn’t expose them” to Trump’s barrage of attacks.
21:04
The jury is being dismissed for the day.
The court is taking a short break, after which the defense is expected to present more motions including for a mistrial.
Donald Trump has left the courtroom.
21:03
Madeleine Westerhout is describing the relationship between Donald Trump and Melania Trump.
Sometimes Trump would be on the phone in the Oval Office and tell Melania to come to a window in the residence to wave. Other times he would tell her he was about to board Marine One and called just to check in.
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is clarifying that when Westerhout interacted with Trump Organization officials it was to deal with personal matters for Trump, but not business affairs.
20:53
Madeleine Westerhout says Donald Trump’s relationship with his wife, Melania, didn’t change after the Stormy Daniels story.
Direct examination is over and Trump attorney Susan Necheles is just beginning cross-examination.
Former Trump assistant breaks down describing being fired
20:50
Madeleine Westerhout just broke down in tears when she described being fired from the White House.
She was fired after she spoke at an off the record dinner with journalists.
She says she has learned a lot since then and looks at Donald Trump who is looking back at her.
20:50Hugo Lowell
Also on the “close contacts list” from 2017 are a cast of people from the world of celebrity media and entertainment: MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, WME talent agency chief Ari Emanuel, New England Patriots’ Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, and Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Jeanine Pirro and Bret Baier.
20:45
Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold is asking Madeleine Westerhout about an email in which she and Rhona Graff, Donald Trump’s longtime assistant, were discussing which frame to buy for a picture of Donald Trump’s mother.
Mangold asked if it was typical that Trump would want to approve an expense like the frame.
Westerhout sidesteps the question and says there was no other instances like this. She says they may have made an executive decision without his approval. “Sorry sir,” she says quickly.
20:35
Madeleine Westerhout says Donald Trump sometimes had questions about the checks he would receive to sign.
When he had a question, Westerhout said, he would call Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, or someone else in the Trump Organization.
This is an important point because it establishes that Trump and Weisselberg were speaking about expenses when he was in the White House.
20:26
We’re reviewing a list of key contacts that Rhona Graff, Donald Trump’s longtime assistant, put together for Madeline Westerhout when she started at the White House.
Michael Cohen, Allen Weisselberg and David Pecker are all on it, as are members of Trump’s family.
Weisselberg’s presence on the list is significant – remember that a previous witness said Weisselberg and Trump didn’t speak at all once Trump was elected.
But this was a list of people Trump might want to speak to frequently.
Westerhout testifies that Trump typically read things before signing them
20:19
Prosecutors are asking Madeleine Westerhout to describe a long list of Donald Trump’s habits, from the grammar he liked to use in his tweets to his preferred pen.
They are establishing how intimately familiar she was with how Trump worked and his processes.
Westerhout is asked if Trump typically reads things before signing them. Westerhout replies: “Yes”.
She says it is her understanding that Trump liked to see the tweets that went out.
On Trump’s grammar, she says:
It’s my understanding that he liked to use the Oxford comma.
Former Trump assistant says there were ‘conversations’ to replace Trump after Access Hollywood tape
20:09
Madeleine Westerhout worked at the Republican National Committee (RNC) in 2016 when the Access Hollywood tape came out.
She says she recalls discussions about how to potentially replace Donald Trump as the GOP nominee.
It’s my recollection that there were conversations about how it would be possible to replace him to the candidate if it came to that.
She also paused when asked what the Access Hollywood tape was and then said:
It was a tape of Mr Trump and I believe it was Billy Bush having a conversation.
20:06
Madeleine Westerhout is describing Donald Trump’s communication habits: He liked speaking to people in person or on the phone.
She says she remembers times where she knew Trump was taking calls as early as six in the morning, adding:
I recall times where he would be on the phone late into the night, after I went to bed, so I always felt guilty about that.
“Did Mr Trump use a computer?” the prosecution asked. Westerhout replied:
Not to my knowledge.
Did Mr Trump use an email account? Westerhout responded:
Not to my knowledge.
20:04
Madeleine Westerhout is establishing how close she was to Donald Trump.
In the beginning of his presidency, she, White House director of strategic communications Hope Hicks, Trump body man John McEntee and director of Oval Office operations Keith Schiller sat right outside the Oval Office.
Westerhout had the closest desk to the actual Oval Office.
20:02
Madeleine Westerhout says her nickname was “the Greeter girl” after Donald Trump was elected because she became known for scheduling high-level meetings.
19:50Hugo Lowell
Donald Trump is looking approvingly and sympathetically at Madeleine Westerhout as she starts testifying on the stand.
He smiled and had a word with his lawyer Susan Necheles as Westerhout said she was slightly nervous to testify. She is appearing under subpoena.
19:50
Madeleine Westerhout says she’s never been in a courtroom before today.
“Are you nervous to testify today?” prosecutor Rebecca Mangold asked.
Westerhout says:
I am now.
She has a lawyer who has “graciously” taken the case pro bono, she says.
Prosecution calls next witness: former Trump assistant Madeleine Westerhout
19:47
The prosecution is calling Madeleine Westerhout, Donald Trump’s former personal assistant.
Westerhout was executive assistant and director of Oval Office operations in the White House and is testifying pursuant to a subpoena.
19:46
Tracy Menzies is now off the stand.
She briefly testified about a book called Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life that was published by HarperCollins in which Donald Trump talks about getting revenge and the importance of loyalty.
Prosecution calls HarperCollins employee Tracey Menzies as next witness
19:39
The next witness is called: Tracy Menzies, who works for HarperCollins.
19:31
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now cross-examining Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump organization.
Manochio confirms that all of the checks sent to the White House for Trump to sign were for personal expenses.
19:30
Trump attorney Susan Necheles gets an important concession on cross-examination. After Donald Trump was elected, Rebecca Manochio says he and Allen Weisselberg didn’t speak at all.
Manochio is excused and we’re moving to the next witness.
Trump attorney accuses Daniels of trying to profit off her story
19:21Hugo Lowell
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles doubles down on the line of questioning suggesting Stormy Daniels was motivated by money to tell her story, as part of the defense argument that Daniels was essentially extorting Trump.
Daniels had previously said on Tuesday it wasn’t about the money. But just now, Trump team played a recording of her lawyer Keith Davidson telling Michael Cohen that Daniels had screamed at him, called him “a pussy”, and told him “he better sell this goddamn story” before the 2016 election otherwise they would lose all leverage.
19:19
As he entered the courtroom, Donald Trump took a long look back at the gallery.
Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench.
19:15
Donald Trump has re-entered the courtroom after a lunch break.
19:11
Donald Trump’s legal team tried to discredit Stormy Daniels on Thursday as they attempted to suggest that Daniels was more interested in obtaining a payout than revealing the truth about her sexual affair with Trump.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Susan Necheles, a lawyer for Trump, asked Daniels to explain on Thursday why she didn’t just go public with her story in the waning days of the 2016 campaign and instead sought to get paid for her story. She noted that Daniels had been talking to a journalist at the publication Slate who had been trying to convince her to let him publish her story, but that she wouldn’t have been paid. She also suggested Daniels wanted to hurt Trump because Trump opposed gay marriage and abortion.
In rapid-fire questions, Necheles seemed to be trying to seed the idea that Daniels, dressed in a green blouse and black sweater, was more interested in getting a payout than telling the truth.
“You wanted money, right?” Necheles said.
Daniels, who insisted she wanted to do a press conference in the waning days of the 2016 campaign, said, “I wanted the truth to come out,” adding that she wanted a paper trail. “I never asked for money from anyone in particular, I asked for money to tell my story.”
For the full story, click here:
19:11Maya Yang
In a post on X following two days of testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Clark Brewster praised his client, saying:
Couldn’t be prouder of my client.
Defense says it will renew motion for a mistrial
18:05
Court is now breaking for lunch and the jury has left the room.
Judge Juan Merchan says he has been told by the attorneys that the trial is on schedule, perhaps even a little bit ahead of schedule.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche says the defense will ask for another mistrial based on Stormy Daniels’ testimony. He also says they are going to ask to preclude testimony from Karen McDougal and ask for a gag order. They will take this up at 4pm ET today.
17:56Hugo Lowell
Bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio is running through how she sent checks from New York for Donald Trump to sign at the White House.
Manochio described how the checks would be sent via FedEx, and through Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller.
Schiller as a link in the chain is interesting because Stormy Daniels testified earlier how Schiller was the one who set up the Trump encounter in 2006.
Prosecutors love to tie all the cast of characters together to bolster the narrative.
17:47Hugo Lowell
Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio testifies that Donald Trump and her direct boss Allen Weisselberg spoke every day, which prosecutors will use to show it was highly unlikely Trump would not have known what checks he was signing and, even if he didn’t know, he could have asked.
The connection from Weisselberg to Trump is important for prosecutors to highlight because we have already seen evidence that Weisselberg worked out the repayment scheme to Michael Cohen, in shorthand handwriting on a bank statement for the shell company Cohen used to pay Stormy Daniels.
Prosecution calls Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio as next witness
17:46
The prosecution calls its next witness: Rebecca Manochio.
Manochio is a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization. She has been compelled to testify by a subpoena and being represented by counsel.
She’s worked there since 2013 and started as an administrative assistant. She worked for Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer in the Trump Organization, and the organization’s longtime controller, Jeff McConney.
Manochio worked as an assistant to Weisselberg for about eight years. She sat outside Weisselberg’s office, and says Weisselberg and Donald Trump would interact every day when they were both in the office.
17:42
Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio is testifying about the process of getting Donald Trump to sign checks when he was in the White House.
Stormy Daniels finishes testimony
17:32
Stormy Daniels is excused.
Daniels walked quickly out of the courtroom, her lips pursed, and did not make eye contact with Donald Trump.
Daniels testifies that telling the truth about Trump has been a ‘net negative’
17:23
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks:
Have you been telling lies about Mr Trump or the truth about Mr Trump?
Stormy Daniels responds:
The truth.
Hoffinger asks:
On balance has it been net positive or net negative?
Daniels replies:
Negative.
17:22
Susan Hoffinger, on redirect, is revisiting some of Stormy Daniels’ Twitter attacks on Donald Trump.
Hoffinger is pointing out for the jury that many of Daniels’ comments were in response to threats and derogatory attacks on her.
Now they’re displaying a 4 August 2023 Truth Social post from Trump in which he says:
IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU.
Daniels says she understood that to be a threat against her because it was right around when Trump filed to recover legal fees from Daniels.
17:09
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is beginning to ask Stormy Daniels about her 2018 interview with Anderson Cooper and Trump’s team objects.
Judge Juan Merchan calls the lawyers to the bench for another sidebar.
For those following along who are wondering what a sidebar is, it’s when the lawyers and judge discuss something out of earshot of the jury.
We’ll learn what they’re discussing when the court transcript of today is published.
Cross-examination completed; prosecution to begin redirect
17:02
Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks Stormy Daniels to confirm that she never spoke to Donald Trump about the $130,000 payment to not speak about her alleged affair. Necheles says:
You have no personal knowledge about his involvement in that transaction or what he did or didn’t do, do you?
Daniels replies:
Not directly, no.
The defense team’s cross-examination is over.
17:02
Senator Rick Scott spoke to reporters outside the Manhattan courthouse after accompanying Donald Trump to court this morning.
Scott claimed Trump’s legal problems are because he is challenging Joe Biden in the November election, and suggested the trial is “pure political persecution”.
The Florida politician echoed Trump’s attacks on Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter, who has worked for a digital marketing agency that works with Democratic political candidates.
Scott said:
The judge’s daughter is a political operative and raises money for Democrats … You got the lead prosecutor’s wife, is a significant donor to Democrats, I think to Biden. So this is just a bunch of Democrats saying we want to make sure that Donald Trump can’t talk.
16:51
Susan Hoffinger from the Manhattan district attorney’s office is now about to begin redirect.
The last question Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked Stormy Daniels was to confirm that she never had an affair with Donald Trump and had been changing the details of her story because she knew she could get a payout for saying she did.
Daniels obviously denies this, but prosecutors objected to the question and it was sustained.
Trump lawyer and Daniels clash as defense tries to poke holes in testimony
16:48
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles is attempting to question Stormy Daniels’ credibility of her account with Donald Trump, asking:
Your story has completely changed, hasn’t it?
Daniels replies:
No, not at all. You’re trying to make it say that it changed but it hasn’t changed.
16:40
Court has resumed after a short break.
Stormy Daniels is back on the stand.
16:28Hugo Lowell
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles suggests Stormy Daniels’ story about the alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006 has inconsistencies, as she tries to cast doubt on her account she gave from the stand on Tuesday.
Part of the reason Necheles has so much ammunition is because Daniels has told the story so many times that some details have changed over time.
The most notable is the difference in how she recalled the sexual encounter with Trump in a 2011 interview with In Touch Magazine, when she said Trump was lying on the bed when she came out of the bathroom, she thought to herself “oh here we go”, they started kissing, and then they had sex.
It’s a remarkably different version of the story she told on the stand.
16:27
The court is taking a break.
Donald Trump scanned the courtroom and as he left pointed at the same person he pointed at when he came in.
Daniels says she was shocked to see Trump in his boxers
16:16
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is suggesting that it isn’t believable that Stormy Daniels was caught off guard when she came out of the bathroom and saw Trump in a T-shirt and boxer shorts.
Daniels has had acted in more than 150 porn movies, Necheles noted, and was used to men making a pass at her.
Daniels says it was jarring to see an older man in T-shirt and boxers when she wasn’t expecting it.
On Tuesday, Daniels testified that she went to use the bathroom during her meeting with Trump in his Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006. When she left the bathroom, there Trump was – on the bed, clad in boxer shorts and a T-shirt, she said.
“At first I was just startled, like a jump scare,” Daniels told jurors earlier this week.
I just thought: oh, my God, what did I misread to get here? The intention is pretty clear if someone’s stripped down to their underwear and on the bed.
16:15
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is returning again to the 2011 InTouch interview in which Stormy Daniels described having sex with Donald Trump. The InTouch story says:
When I came out, he was sitting on the bed and he was like, ‘Come here.’ And I was like, ‘Ugh, here we go.’ And we started kissing. I actually don’t even know why I did it but I do remember while we were having sex, I was like, ‘Please don’t try to pay me.’ And then I remember thinking, ‘But I bet if he did, it would be a lot.’
In court, Daniels says that she was more caught off-guard and couldn’t really remember the details of when they had sex.
16:04
Trump attorney Susan Necheles presses Stormy Daniels on the different accounts from over the years of her encounter with Donald Trump.
Daniels denies that her story has changed, saying that the 2011 inTouch magazine interview is “short on details” as it is an entertainment magazine.
Necheles moves on to asking about Daniels’ 2018 interview with Anderson Cooper, and asks if she had dinner with Trump in the room.
Daniels testifies that “we had dinner time in the room” but that they did not eat any food.
15:54
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is continuing to poke holes in Stormy Daniels’ credibility.
After walking through all the ways she’s profited off of her story, she’s now trying to find inconsistencies in Daniels’ stories about what happened with Donald Trump over the years.
She’s pointing to a 2011 story in InTouch magazine that suggests Daniels said Trump himself asked for her phone number. Daniels has testified that it was Keith Schiller, Trump’s bodyguard, who asked for her number.
15:53
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles is trying to discredit Stormy Daniels by suggesting that she is not entirely sane because of her paranormal beliefs and work as a medium.
Necheles is asking about Daniels’ belief that her house in New Orleans was haunted and that spirits attacked her boyfriend.
Necheles says:
You’ve been making money off of your claim that you can talk to the dead?
Daniels says a lot of her fans like to call in and read tarot calls together.
Daniels says she lived in a house with “interesting and unexplained activity”, a lot of which was “completely debunked by a giant possum living under the house”.
15:52
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is continuing to go after inconsistencies in Stormy Daniels’ story.
She has said she didn’t eat the night she had sex with Donald Trump. But in a 2011 inTouch magazine interview she said:
We ended up having dinner in the room. I cannot remember what we ordered.
Daniels testifies that sexual encounter with Trump ‘very much real’
15:43
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now walking through Stormy Daniels’ history in pornography. Necheles says:
You have a lot of experience in making phoney stories about sex appear to be real.
Daniels replies:
The sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room.
Daniels, addressing the suggestion she made up the story with Trump, says:
If that story was untrue I would have written it to be a lot better.
Daniels testifies about calling Trump ‘the orange turd’
15:33
Stormy Daniels is being asked about a tweet in which she called Donald Trump “the orange turd” in response to someone attacking her.
Daniels says:
I’m pretty sure this is hyperbole – if someone calls me a toilet then I can say I can flush an orange turd down.
Daniels adds:
I’m also not a toilet. I mean I’m not a human toilet. If they want to make fun of me then I can make fun of them.
15:29
Stormy Daniels is being asked about tweets in which she celebrated Donald Trump getting indicted, including the following:
15:21
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is walking Stormy Daniels through all of the business opportunities she’s gotten since going public with her affair with Donald Trump: a book, an appearance on a reality television show, and a documentary.
Necheles asked if Daniels has “become a hero” to Trump haters, Daniels replied: “Yes.”
15:10
Trump attorney Susan Necheles says Stormy Daniels decided she wanted to publicly say she had sex with Donald Trump after signing two statements denying it in 2018.
Daniels says:
No, nobody would ever want to publicly say that.
14:58
Rick Scott, the Republican Florida senator who is seated in the front row of the courtroom today, appeared alongside Donald Trump as the former president addressed the media before court proceedings began.
Scott did not speak to reporters directly but Trump said:
We have Rick Scott here, we have other politicians here. We have people, many people in support.
It is unclear which other politicians Trump was referring to.
14:54
Trump attorney Susan Necheles continues to suggest that Stormy Daniels was trying to shake down Donald Trump, via his then fixer Michael Cohen.
Necheles says:
When Michael Cohen was not paying you the money he promised to pay you, you were furious weren’t you? Didn’t you scream at your lawyer Keith Davidson, and call him a pussy, and tell him you better get paid before the election otherwise you would use all your leverage?
Donald Trump enters courtroom with Republican senator in tow
14:50Sam Levine
Donald Trump is entering the courtroom and pointed at someone in the press section who stood up to greet him as he walked in.
He’s trailed by his lawyers, Alina Habba, Boris Epshteyn and Rick Scott. The senaotr is seated in the first row.
Just before walking into the courtroom, Trump paused in the vestibule to talk with his attorney Todd Blanche and the small team that he entered with.
14:50
The judge is on the bench.
Prosecutors just successfully objected to having Donald Trump’s team introduce a prior arrest.
Juan Merchan, the judge, says anyone can be arrested for anything at any time, it doesn’t prove anything.
Daniels: ‘I wanted the truth to come out’
14:48
Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels if she was looking for money from Donald Trump to sell her story.
Necheles asks:
You wanted money, right?”
Daniels responds:
I wanted the truth to come out.
Trump lawyer questions Daniels about why she didn’t tell her story without being paid for it
14:48
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles is pressing Stormy Daniels with rapid-fire questions over why she didn’t just take the story public and get no money in the leadup to the 2016 election if Daniels really just cared about getting the truth out.
It appears part of an effort to put a dent in Daniels’ credibility and portray her as someone who was out to get money.
14:42
Trump attorney Susan Necheles has resumed cross examination.
Stormy Daniels says:
I never asked for money from anyone in particular. I asked for money to tell my story.
During Tuesday’s trial, Necheles tried over and over again to convey Daniels as a money-hungry bounder, and nothing more.
Stormy Daniels back on the witness stand
14:37
Stormy Daniels, dressed in a green blouse, black sweater and glasses on her forehead has just taken the witness stand.
You could hear the click-clack of her heels as she walked into the well.
14:36
Stormy Daniels, back on the witness stand, is fidgeting a bit with her hair, and looking anywhere except for at Donald Trump.
Satin pyjamas and mistrial denied: key takeaways from Tuesday’s trial
14:33Hugo Lowell
Stormy Daniels, whose alleged sexual affair with Donald Trump prompted a hush-money scheme at the heart of the criminal case brought by the Manhattan district attorney, described in excruciating detail on Tuesday her encounters with the former US president.
The testimony from Daniels appeared to be embarrassing for Trump, who shook his head at times, and was notably freewheeling – to the extent that the presiding judge sustained multiple objections, even as he denied a mistrial motion on the basis that key parts of her account were prejudicial.
Daniels was allegedly wired $130,000 by ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen just before the 2016 election to bury her account of the affair. Prosecutors allege Trump later reimbursed Cohen the money but covered up its nature by falsifying business records and in doing so, violated state election laws.
Here are the key takeaways from Tuesday, day 13 of Trump’s criminal trial.
14:32
Donald Trump’s motorcade has arrived at the Manhattan courthouse.
Juan Merchan, the judge, has instructed that photography is no longer allowed in the courtroom for the rest of the trial, per pool, citing a court officer.
The officer said that a pool photographer violated the court order by taking a photograph of Trump from the aisle. The order permits photographers to take photos only from the well itself.
14:26
Rick Scott, the Republican Florida senator, is expected to be in court with Donald Trump today, NBC News reported.
Seated in the overflow room is former judge Jeanine Pirro – a staunch defender of Trump who has called the trial a “kangaroo courtroom”, the outlet said.
13:46
Necheles also asked Daniels if she “hated” Trump.
“Am I correct in that you hate President Trump?” Yes.
“And you want him to go to jail?”
I want him to be held accountable.
“Part of the reason you hate him is because he won a legal case against you, and you owe him today, over half a million dollars, right?” Necheles said.
“He didn’t win the case – he won attorneys fees.
“So you agree with me, he won the case and he was awarded over half a million dollars in legal fees?” Correct.
13:45
The defense is expected to continue questioning Daniels today after a tense cross-examination on Tuesday.
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles suggested Daniels was hoping to get out having to pay Trump a roughly $250,000 judgement entered against her in federal district court in California.
Necheles repeatedly questioned Daniels about whether she was motivated by making money.
In one instance, she asked about why Daniels got into the porn industry, asking: “It’s that simple: “You want[ed] more money?” Daniels responded: “Don’t we all want more money in our jobs?”
She later returned to questions of money: “You’ve been making money by claiming to have had sex with Donald J Trump, for more than a decade?”
“I’ve been making money telling my story [about] what happened,” replied an increasingly irked Daniels.
Necheles asks again: “It has made you a lot of money?” Daniels shot back: “It has also cost me a lot of money.”
Stormy Daniels arrives at courthouse
13:26
Stormy Daniels has arrived at the Manhattan courthouse for her second day of testimony.
13:19Kira Lerner
In another significant win for Trump, Georgia’s state court of appeals on Wednesday said it would consider an appeal from the former president against an order allowing Fani Willis, the Fulton district attorney, to continue prosecuting his election interference case in Fulton county.
The decision to hear the appeal is a significant win for Trump. It decreases the chances that the case will go to trial before the November election and allows Trump and his lawyers to continue to undermine Willis’s credibility and keep questions about her judgment in the public eye.
Here’s the full story from Kira Lerner, Sam Levine and George Chidi:
At a glance: what happened on first day of Stormy Daniels’ testimony
12:34Léonie Chao-Fong
Daniels testified for nearly four hours on Tuesday. Here’s a recap of her first day on the stand:
Daniels testified that she and Trump had a sexual liaison in 2006 that left her nervous and ashamed. Prosecutors allege that in 2015, Trump, his then lawyer Michael Cohen and tabloid honcho David Pecker plotted to bury stories that could thwart his Republican presidential bid. Cohen allegedly shuttled a $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, to keep her from going public about her claimed sexual liaison with Trump.
Daniels said she had met Trump at a celebrity golf match in Lake Tahoe, and that she had gone to his hotel room under the belief that they would be getting dinner after meeting there. Per instructions from Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, she arrived at his penthouse to find Trump wearing “silk or satin pyjamas” and she asked him to change.
Daniels said Trump repeatedly grilled her on her time in the adult industry, including: “What about testing? Do you worry about STDs?” He asked whether she had been tested. She later testified that Trump did not use a condom.
Daniels said there was a brief discussion of Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, during which he said they slept in separate rooms. She also said he compared her to his daughter, Ivanka Trump.
Daniels said she used the restroom and when she exited, she saw Trump on the bed in his boxers and a T-shirt. “I just thought: oh my God, what did I misread to get here?” She said, comparing it to a “jump scare”. “The intention is pretty clear if someone’s stripped down to their underwear and on the bed.” She said it suddenly felt like the room was spinning, like blood was draining from her hands and feet.
Daniels said that she tried to make a joke and leave, but Trump stood up between her and the door. She testified that Trump told her: “I thought you were serious about what you wanted, if you want to get out of that trailer park.”
Daniels said she “blacked out” during her “brief” sexual encounter with Trump. “I was not drunk, I was not drugged … I just don’t remember,” she told the jury. She said she “was staring up at the ceiling and didn’t know how I got there”. She testified that she remembered her hands were “shaking so hard that I was having a hard time getting dressed” afterwards, and that Trump told her: “Let’s get together again, honey bunch!”
Trump’s team demanded a mistrial over what they said were prejudicial and irrelevant comments. The judge rejected the request and said defense lawyers should have raised more objections during the testimony.
Daniels said that in 2011, a man approached her at a Las Vegas car park and threatened her against coming forward. Her former attorney, Michael Avenatti, publicized a sketch of the man, and then filed a defamation suit after Trump denied involvement. Daniels said she thought a defamation claim was “risky” and “not worth it”, but that Avenatti filed it without her permission. The case was thrown out, in Trump’s favor.
Under cross examination, Daniels acknowledged that she “hates” Trump. “I want him to be held accountable,” she told the jury. Daniels also admitted she has chosen not to pay about $560,000 in legal fees that she owes to Trump after she filed and lost a defamation suit against him.
12:33
Trump’s New York criminal case is the first of four such cases to reach a jury, while the other three have been hit by serious delays that could prevent them from starting before November’s presidential election.
Also on Tuesday, the federal judge in the case alleging Trump retained classified documents at this Mar-a-Lago club in Florida indefinitely delayed setting a trial date after ruling the case was nowhere near ready to face a jury.
My colleagues Hugo Lowell and Cameron Joseph have the full story:
The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges of retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club on Tuesday formally scrapped her scheduled 20 May trial date without setting a new date, ruling the case was nowhere near ready to take before a jury in Florida.
The fact that the original May trial date would not hold was a foregone conclusion and has been apparent since last year, given delays with pre-trial litigation and the number of unresolved legal issues that have only increased in recent months.
The presiding US district court judge Aileen Cannon set several new deadlines in a five-page order scrapping the trial date, seemingly in an effort to get the case back on track, but the drawn-out nature of the dates cast doubt on the likelihood of a trial before the 2024 election.
12:19Victoria Bekiempis
The Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis has been reporting from court – and saw first-hand how Stormy Daniels’ testimony got off to a lurid start.
She writes that as Daniels took her seat on Tuesday, Trump turned to look at her and then leaned back in his chair, with an impassive look on his face. Trump’s son Eric, who was in the front row of the gallery, behind his father, looked at the wall. Alina Habba, a Trump attorney not on this case, sat with her arms crossed.
The long-awaited courtroom showdown between Daniels and Trump then began. Over the course of several hours, Daniels dished up a made-for-tabloid mix of titillation and gossip in detailing an alleged encounter with him some 20 years prior.
You can read her full report on the details of Daniels’ testimony here:
Stormy Daniels faces further questioning from Trump lawyers
11:55
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s hush-money trial where Stormy Daniels is returning to the stand for a second round of testimony.
The adult film star, whose brief alleged affair with the former US president has been the subject of much salacious questioning by prosecutors, will face further cross-examination from the defense.
The relationship between Trump and Daniels is central to the case because Trump’s then lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about their alleged sexual encounter during the 2016 election campaign.
Prosecutors argue that the money paid to Daniels was therefore an election expense and was deliberately entered wrongly in Trump’s business documents – with that act being the crime, rather than anything to do with the actual payment of hush money to cover up the alleged affair.
However, during the last court session on Tuesday Daniels went into detailed descriptions of her sexual relationship with Trump, prompting a rebuke from Judge Juan Merchan and Trump’s lawyers to again bid – unsuccessfully – for a mistrial.
Daniels testified that she pocketed about $96,000 of the $130,000 payment, after her agent and lawyer took cuts. The news of the pay-off only emerged in the US media in 2018.
Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the payments and had pleaded not guilty.
Court is expected to resume at 9am ET. We’ll bring you all the latest from our reporting team in the Manhattan criminal courthouse as we get it.