Playing far more of a secondary character to the plot than in most of her public performances, porn star and director Stormy Daniels took the stand in former president and present defendant Donald Trump’s election interference hush money trial in Manhattan on Tuesday.
- Sally Franklin, a senior vice president and executive managing editor of publisher Penguin Random House, is first witness, reading passages from Trump books into the record in which Trump details his attention to minute details, including signing all the company checks to oversee spending.
- At the time of their encounter, Trump was 60 and Daniels was 27. For what it’s worth, Ivanka was 25.
- Daniels says that when she first met Trump in his hotel room, he was wearing silk/satin pajamas. “Does Hugh Hefner know you stole his pajamas?” she quipped.
- Trump called Daniels “honeybunch” a number of times.
- Daniels said she had a “jump scare” when she exited the bathroom in Trump’s hotel room and he was reclined on the bed in boxers and a t-shirt. At one point, she said he stood between her and the door, but not in a menacing way.
- It only lasted through missionary.
- Daniels said she submitted to the sex, but did not want to have sex with Trump. She said during the act, she looked at the ceiling wondering how she “got here.”
- Prior to the Access Hollywood tape leak, no media outlet was interested in Daniels’ story of her encounter with Trump; after its broadcast, a number of outlets contacted Daniels’ publicist, with David Pecker outbidding the others.
- Daniels told the story of being approached by a menacing man in a parking garage in 2011, when she was with her child, where the man warned against speaking out against Donald Trump.
- After a break, Trump’s attorney called for a mistrial claiming the insinuations Daniels made that Trump forced her into a sex act–even though Daniels testified she did not feel forced–was prejudicial to the jury and called for a mistrial. Merchan denied the motion.
- Under cross, Susan Necheles asked Daniels, “Am I correct that you hate President Trump?” Daniels replied simply, “Yes.”
- Necheles attempted to portray Daniels as an opportunist who likes to make money, saying wealth is what motivates her. “That’s what we do here,” Daniels responded.
- After reading a tweet where Daniels called Trump an “orange turd,” Necheles asserted, “You despise him.” Daniels noted that Trump started with the name-calling, describing Daniels as “horseface.”
- Daniels reportedly had a deal to sell her story to In Touch magazine in 2011 for $15,000, but Michael Cohen threatened to sue the magazine, so the publisher dropped it.
- In an odd exchange, Daniels said she intentionally signed an illegible signature to a public statement read on the Jimmy Kimmel Show because she was somewhat blindsided by it.