Trump trial: Stormy Daniels testifies she hates ex-president, wants him jailed if guilty

Porn
star
Stormy
Daniels
testified
Tuesday
that
she
hates
former
President

Donald
Trump
and
wants
him
thrown
in
jail
if
he
is
convicted
in
his
criminal
hush
money

trial.

Daniels’
blunt
comment
came
as
Trump
lawyer
Susan
Necheles
began
cross-examination
of
the
key
witness,
whose
story
of
having
sex
with
Trump
years
earlier
is
central
to
the
historic
criminal
case.

“Am
I
correct
that
you
hate
President
Trump?”
Necheles
asked
in
Manhattan
Supreme
Court.

“Yes,”
Daniels
replied.

Necheles
followed
up, “You
want
him
to
go
to
jail,
right?”

“If
he
is
found
guilty,
absolutely,”
Daniels
testified.

Daniels
is
set
to
return
to
the
witness
stand
Thursday
morning.

Earlier,
Judge
Juan
Merchan
denied
a
request
by
Trump’s
lawyers
for
a
mistrial
after
prosecutors
finished
their
direct
examination
of
Daniels.

They
argued
that
Daniels’
detailed
testimony
about
that
alleged
one-night
stand
with
Trump
in
2006
was “prejudicial.”

“The
only
reason
the
government
asked
these
questions,
aside
from
pure
embarrassment,
is
to
inflame
this
jury,”
defense
attorney
Todd
Blanche
told
Merchan
as
he
argued
to
scrap
the
trial.

“There’s
no
way
to
unring
the
bell
in
our
view,”
Blanche
said.

But
Merchan
said, “I
don’t
believe
we’re
at
the
point
where
a
mistrial
is
warranted.”

The
judge
did,
however,
grant
a
bid
by
Trump’s
attorneys
to
strike
some
testimony
from
the
record.

Prosecutors
accuse
Trump
of
falsifying
business
records
related
to
a
$130,000
hush
money
payment
to
Daniels
shortly
before
the
2016
election.
The
payment
was
made
by
Trump’s
then-lawyer
Michael
Cohen
to
silence
Daniels
from
speaking
about
the
alleged
sexual
encounter
before
Election
Day,
prosecutors
say.

But
the
judge
had
warned
prosecutors
earlier
Tuesday
not
to
air
specific
details
about
Daniels’
story
of
having
sex
with
Trump.
As
Daniels
dove
into
the
details
about
that
night,
Merchan
at
times
angrily
sustained
objections
from
the
defense.

Daniels
described
meeting
Trump
at
a
celebrity
golf
tournament
in
Lake
Tahoe
in
2006
and
then
having
dinner
with
him
in
his
hotel
room.

Daniels
testified
she
sensed
no
red
flags
about
being
alone
in
the
room
with
Trump.
He
asked
her
about
the
adult
film
industry,
and
dangled
the
prospect
of
a
role
for
Daniels
on
his
wildly
popular
reality
show, “The
Apprentice,”
she
said.

After
using
the
bathroom,
Daniels
said
she
saw
Trump
in
his
boxers
and
a
T-shirt
on
the
bed.
At
that
point,
she
felt “the
room
spun
in
slow
motion.”

Then Trump said
to
her, “I
thought
you
were
serious
about
what
you
wanted.”
Daniels
took
this
to
mean
that
having
sex
with
Trump
could
benefit
her
career.

Daniels
said
she
had
sex
with
Trump
on
the
bed.
Testifying
that
she
didn’t
feel
threatened
at
all,
Daniels
noted, “There
was
an
imbalance
of
power
for
sure.”

Before
the
jury
entered
the
courtroom
Tuesday
morning,
Trump
attorney
Susan
Necheles
argued
that
Daniels
should
not
be
asked
to
testify “about
any
details
of
any
sexual
acts.”

There
is “no
reason”
that
details
of
the
alleged
sex “should
be
coming
into
a
case
about
books
and
records,”
Necheles
told
Merchan.

A
prosecutor
countered
that
it
is
very
important
to
delve
into
the
story
of
the
alleged
affair,
including
the
conversation
that
led
up
to
Daniels
and
Trump
having
sex.

That
won’t
include “descriptions
of
genitalia
or
anything,”
the
prosecutor
said, “but
it’s
important
to
us
to
elicit
that
she
had
sex
with
him,
and
how
she
felt
about
it.”

Merchan
said
that
was
fine,
but
that
it
was
unnecessary
to
air
details
of
the
encounter
in
court.

The
first
witness
called
to
the
stand
Tuesday
was
Sally
Franklin,
a
senior
vice
president
at
Random
House
Publishing
Group.
Franklin
read
aloud
a
number
of
passages
from
Trump’s
books,
including “Trump:
How
to
Get
Rich”
and “Trump:
Think
Like
a
Billionaire.”

Before
arriving
at
court,
Trump
posted
—
and
then
quickly
deleted
—
a
statement
raging
about
the
witness
schedule
and
the
judge
in
his
trial.

Trump
sent
that
Truth
Social
post
less
than
one
day
after
Merchan
threatened
the
former
president
with
jail
time
for
repeatedly
violating
the
gag
order
that
bars
him
from
speaking
about
likely
witnesses
in
the
trial.

Trump
fumed
that
prosecutors
are
not
telling
defense
attorneys
which
witnesses
they
plan
to
call
until
the
day
before
the
witness
testifies.

“I
have
just
recently
been
told
who
the
witness
is
today.
This
is
unprecedented,
no
time
for
lawyers
to
prepare,”
Trump
wrote
in
the
post.

Prosecutor
Joshua
Steinglass
told
Merchan
on
Monday
the
Manhattan
District
Attorney’s
office
is
keeping
its
witness
schedule
hidden
in
order
to
stop
Trump
from
targeting
people
right
before
they
take
the
stand.

But
Steinglass
noted
that
while
prosecutors
are
keeping
the
order
of
witnesses
close
to
the
vest,
Trump’s
attorneys
have
had
the
witness
list
for
months.

Steinglass
blamed
Trump
for
forcing
the
move,
pointing
out
that
he “has
been
violating
the
order
restricting
extrajudicial
speech,
and
we
did
not
want
to
have
the
witnesses’
names,
the
next
witnesses’
names
out
there.”

Earlier
Monday,
Merchan
held
Trump
in
contempt
of
court
once
again,
for
his
10th
violation
of
the
gag
order.
He
fined
Trump
the
maximum
$1,000
for
the
latest
violation,
which
brings
the
total
to
$10,000
in
fines
for
the
10
separate
infringements.

But
the
judge
noted
that
those
fines
were
hardly
a
deterrent
for
Trump,
a
multibillionaire.

“The
last
thing
I
want
to
do
is
to
put
you
in
jail,”
Merchan
said
to
Trump.
But “I
will,
if
necessary,”
he
said.

Trump’s
since-deleted
post
from
Tuesday
morning
also
attacked
Merchan
at
length,
accusing
him
of
political
bias.

“No
Judge
has
ever
run
a
trial
in
such
a
biased
and
partisan
way,”
Trump
claimed.

“He
is
CROOKED
&
HIGHLY
CONFLICTED,
even
taking
away
my
First
Amendment
Rights.
Now
he’s
threatening
me
with
JAIL,
&
THEY
HAVE
NO
CASE
–
This
according
to
virtually
all
Legal
Scholars
&
Experts!”
Trump
wrote.

Trump’s
attorneys
have
failed
multiple
times
to
get
Merchan
to
recuse
himself
for
what
they
claim
is
a
conflict
of
interest
stemming
from
his
daughter’s
work
for
a
Democratic
political
firm.

The
gag
order
bars
Trump
from
speaking
about
likely
witnesses
in
the
case,
and
from
making
certain
statements
about
other
related
figures
including
lawyers,
court
staff
and
their
respective
family
members.
Merchan
expanded
the
gag
order
after
Trump
targeted
the
family
members
of
the
judge
and
the
D.A.