Trump lawyer and Daniels clash as defense tries to poke holes in testimony
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.
Key events
Prosecution calls Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio as next witness
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.
Stormy Daniels finishes testimony
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’
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cross-examination completed; prosecution to begin redirect
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.
Court has resumed after a short break.
Stormy Daniels is back on the stand.
Hugo 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.
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.
Trump lawyer and Daniels clash as defense tries to poke holes in testimony
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.
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.
Daniels says she was shocked to see Trump in his boxers
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.