US Court Reporter Phil Hirschkorn reports for ITV News from inside the Donald Trump’s New York trial.
The central figure in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial is telling her story for a Manhattan jury.
Stormy Daniels, 45, testified on Tuesday for the prosecution in the trial where Trump is accused of 34 counts of falsifying business documents to disguise the reimbursement of his attorney, Michael Cohen, for paying Daniels $130,000 (£104,000) to stay silent during the 2016 presidential campaign over the sexual encounter, she testified, happened a decade earlier.
Prosecutors allege Trump conspired to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election by suppressing negative information that would hurt his campaign.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies the encounter, which Daniels testified, occurred nearly 18 years ago, the day she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Utah.
Daniels told the jury she agreed in October 2016 to accept $130,000 (£104,000) to sign a non-disclosure agreement and did not demand more money.
“I didn’t care about the amounts. It was just to get it done,” Daniels testified.
Daniels entered the courtroom from a side door all witnesses come through, walking behind Trump’s defense table, down an aisle to the witness stand.
She and Trump did not make eye contact. Daniels wore a black dress and black shirt and glasses.
Daniels recalls meeting Trump at a golf tournament
As she has recounted before, Daniels explained how she met Trump on July 13, 2006, at a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe, Utah, because the film company she worked for, Wicked Pictures, was sponsoring one of the 18 holes.
“It was a very brief encounter on the course,” Daniels testified.
Daniels said she knew Trump hosted The Apprentice reality TV programs but had never watched them. She was introduced to him as a film actress and director.
“Oh, you direct. You must be the smart one,” Trump said to her, Daniels recalled.
When they ran into each other at the gift shop later that day, a Wicked photographer snapped their now famous photo together – with Trump wearing a red baseball cap and yellow golf shirt.
Daniels testified Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller invited her to dinner with Trump and greeted her at sunset outside Trump’s penthouse suite at the Harrah’s Lake Tahoe Hotel and Casino.
Other than dinner, Daniels said, “I didn’t really have any expectations.”
Daniels met Trump in a hotel room
She said Trump greeted her wearing silk or satin pyjamas, like Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
“I told him to go change,” Daniels said, while she explored the suite. “This hotel room was three times the size of my apartment.”
Trump reappeared wearing a dress shirt and slacks. They sat across from each other at the dining table and chatted. She was 27, unmarried, with no boyfriend and no kids. Trump asked about her work in the porn industry.
“He was interested in a lot of business aspects, which I thought was really cool,” Daniels testified. She said Trump asked about how they got paid, residuals, unions, and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.
“I’ve never had a bad test,” Daniels told the court, adding that her employer was condom-mandatory for sex scenes.
Daniels asked Trump about his wife, Melania, who had given birth to their son, Barron, four months earlier, following their marriage in January 2005.
“We don’t sleep in the same room,” Trump told her, according to Daniels.
During their two-hour conversation, Daniels said, Trump proposed she appear on The Celebrity Apprentice, but Daniels said she doubted NBC would allow her, given her profession.
“There’s no way that’s going to happen,” Daniels said she told him. “Even you don’t have that much power.”
Trump and Daniels had ‘brief’ encounter
Daniels went to the bathroom and when she came out, she testified, Trump was sitting on the bed only in his boxer shorts and a t-shirt.
“I felt the room spun in slow motion,” Daniels said. They were both sober and had been drinking only water.
“I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what did I misread?’” Daniels said. “The intention was pretty clear.”
Daniels said she thought to herself, “I put myself in a bad situation.”
Trump stood up. He was taller and his security guard was outside.
“There was an imbalance of power for sure,” Daniels testified. “But I was not threatened verbally or physically.”
Daniels said, “Next thing I know, I was on the bed. I had my clothes and my shoes off.”
Daniels told the jury they had “brief” sex on the bed. She testified, “I was staring at the ceiling. I didn’t know how I got there.”
“Was he wearing a condom?” asked Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger.
“No,” Daniels replied. She said that concerned her.
“Did you say anything about it?” Hoffinger continued.
“No,” Daniels said.
“Why not?” the prosecutor asked.
“I didn’t say anything at all,” said Daniels.
As the date wound down, Daniels recalled, Trump said he wanted to see her again.
“We were great together, honey bunch,” Daniels recalled him saying.
Trump went to kiss her goodbye. “I left as fast as I could.,” Daniels said.
Daniels told the jury Trump did not ask her to keep their encounter confidential and did not express concern about his wife. Daniels said she told a few close friends about the encounter.
“I told very few people that we had sex, because I felt shame I did not stop it,” Daniels testified.
‘He always called me honey bunch’
In the ensuing months, Trump called her on average once a week, Daniels said.
“I always put him on speakerphone” without telling him, Daniels said, and dozens of people heard their conversations. “We thought it was funny.”
She said, “He always called me honey bunch.”
There were “non-updates” about Celebrity Apprentice – her reason for staying in touch. She said, “It would have been great for my career.”
Daniels testified about seeing Trump a few more times in person.
On January 17, 2007, she went with two friends to a Los Angeles party for the unveiling of Trump Vodka.
“He said, if I was ever in New York, I should stop by,” Daniels testified.
In March 2007, she did, with her assistant, for a short meeting at his Trump Tower office. “He introduced me to everybody,” Daniels said.
Trump’s former executive assistant, Rhona Graff, testified on April 25 that she saw Daniels in the Trump Tower office once and kept her phone number in Trump’s Outlook contacts.
In July 2007, Daniels said, her then-boyfriend drove her to meet Trump for dinner at his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.
“He kept trying to make sexual advances,” Daniels said. “I told him I was having my period.”
They did not have sex, Daniels testified.
According to Daniels, Trump called her several more times and asked if he could see her again. He informed her he was unable to get her approved to appear on Celebrity Apprentice. They never saw each other again.
Defence attorney presses on Daniels’ ‘hate’ for Trump
In January 2018, the Wall Street Journal broke the story about Daniels’ election year hush money deal with Trump.
Prosecutor Hoffinger asked about the impact of that disclosure on her life.
“Chaos,” Daniels said. “Blew my cover.”
Daniels said she and her family were ostracised in Texas, where she lived at the time.
On cross examination, defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Daniels if she hates Trump.
“Yes,” Daniels said.
Necheles asked if she wants the former president to go to jail.
“I want him to be held accountable,” Daniels said.
Necheles re-asked whether she wants him to go to jail.
“If he is found guilty,” Daniels said.
Daniels told the jury, in addition to the $130,000 (£104,000) paid to her in 2016 by Cohen for her silence – from which, she said, she netted $96,000 (£77,000) after her attorney and manager took their cut – she will be paid $125,000 (£100,000) in licensing fees for her 2018 memoir, Full Disclosure, being turned into a documentary this year called “Stormy.”
“You have been making money by claiming you had sex with President Trump for a decade,” Necheles asserted.
“It has also cost me a lot of money,” Daniels said.
Trump owed thousands by Daniels in legal fees
Daniels currently owes Trump in excess of $560,000 (£450,000) in legal fees, before interest, for losing a defamation lawsuit her one-time attorney, Michael Avenatti, brought on her behalf in California.
“I’ve chosen not to pay while it is still pending,” Daniels said.
Necheles pressed Daniels on changing her story, having publicly denied a sexual encounter with Trump for years.
“Because I had an NDA,” Daniels said.
At the end of Tuesday’s court session, Necheles said, “You tried to extort money from President Trump?”
“False,” Daniels said.
Her testimony will continue on Thursday, May 9.
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