#Necheles, is seeking to attack #StormyDaniels's overall credibility. But Daniels told a very detailed story earlier about the not exactly consensual sexual encounter w/ #Trump, we’ll see how the #jurors process these attacks. It may very well backfire on the Trump team.

#BelieveSurvivors #criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Justice #Merchan has repeatedly asked for tighter answers & fewer extraneous details. The judge is sustaining most objections lodged by the defense.

Merchan's visible disapproval may be bad news for the prosecution. #Jurors often take their cues from judges. If the judge seems impatient with a witness, jurors could receive it almost as permission to feel the same way.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #StormyDaniels #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

For context, when this issue came up in 2011, #Trump was beginning to talk about running for president in the 2012 #Republican primary. He had been promoting the #birtherism #ConspiracyTheory lie about President #Obama’s, suggesting Obama was an illegitimate president, & was gaining traction in polls [w/ #WhiteSupremacists] as he did.

#criminal #law #StormyDaniels #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Susan #Necheles, the #Trump defense lawyer, has lodged objection after objection. Objections are meant to either cut off testimony or have it stricken from the official record. Her rate of success today has been way higher than normal. The judge is accepting her objections & disrupting #StormyDaniels’s testimony.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

The testimony by #StormyDaniels that she did not care about money might be undercut by text messages between her agent at the time, Gina Rodriguez, & the editor of The #NationalEnquirer, w/ the 2 of them bidding back & forth until they got to $120k. The Enquirer’s publisher David #Pecker would not pay saying, “I am not a bank.” Which is how #MichaelCohen ended up taking over the deal.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

It would be a surprise for Justice #Merchan to agree to a #mistrial. But he also exhibited displeasure w/how the testimony was going several times, sustaining multiple objections.

It’s not #StormyDaniels’ fault or prosecutors fault that this was a salacious event, it’s just what happened & goes directly to motive for hiding it.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#StormyDaniels is back on the stand, jury has returned, trial resumes.

Prosecutors question Daniels regarding the delayed payments from #Trump.

Jurors are re-shown an email from #KeithDavidson to #MichaelCohen:

“Please be advised that my client deems her Settlement Agreement cancelled."

Daniels confirms she signed another days later as Stephanie Clifford.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#StormyDaniels, referring to a #WSJ article that mentioned her while discussing another #HushMoney deal, says she did not comment for the article, honoring the terms of the deal she had reached through her lawyer, #KeithDavidson.

She’s keeping her answers short & to the point.

She testified that her lawyer, #KeithDavidson, received $130k. After he & her manager took fees, she ended up w/about $96k, she says.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference

#StormyDaniels testifies that she hired Michael #Avenatti after hearing #MichaelCohen talk about the story in public which was upsetting, “because he could talk about it & I couldn’t.”

She then testifies that Cohen filed a temporary restraining order against her, seeking to keep her from speaking.

Daniels says she hired Avenatti to “speak up" for herself, appeared on CNN to get her story out.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

After the #NDA ended, #StormyDaniels wrote her book, "Full Disclosure” because, she says, she wanted her daughter to know why she had done the things she had.

A #Trump post on Truth Social, in which he called Daniels “horseface,” is displayed on the courtroom screens. It’s from March 2023, when the Manhattan DA was preparing to indict Trump in this case. Daniels is now reading the Truth post aloud.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

In #Trump’s social media post, he says he hasn’t seen her since the golf tournament she described earlier & denies having had sex w/her.

#Jurors heard last week from Trump’s former executive assistant, #RhonaGraff, that #StormyDaniels visited Trump Tower in 2007, the year after the golf course event.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Direct examination is over; next is cross-examination by #Trump atty Susan #Necheles.

Necheles is pushing #StormyDaniels on her testimony about the money. She says that Daniels went into pornography for money, & asks her, again, “You wanted more money, right?”

Daniels retorted: “Don’t we all want to make more money in our jobs?”

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Importantly, this cross-examination isn’t addressing the evidence, it’s just an attack on #StormyDaniels’ credibility.

In a “your mama’s so fat” moment, when #Necheles gets Daniels to acknowledge she had mocked #Trump’s looks on Twitter, Daniels replies, “Because he made fun of me first.”

Necheles says that one of them started it, but “you both continued it.”

(One of these people was the president of the United States)

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#StormyDaniels knocked back Necheles’s implication that Daniels wants Trump to be convicted so she doesn’t have to pay his legal fees from the defamation case. “I hope I don't have to pay him no matter what happens,” Daniels said.

Necheles moves on, saying that telling her story about having had sex w/ Trump has made Stormy Daniels a lot of money. Daniels again hits back: “It has also cost me a lot of money.”

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Necheles tries something else, asking whether #StormyDaniels had talked to the lawyer #GloriaAllred about potentially suing #Trump.

Again, Daniels fires back, saying that she also told Allred, “I had sex with Donald Trump.”

[Allred is a prominent women’s rights lawyer — often representing survivors of sexual harassment or assault by powerful men.]

Daniels hasn’t been fased by any of these questions.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Necheles, pushing #StormyDaniels about the threat she says she encountered in the Vegas parking lot, challenged her about not telling her baby’s father implying she made it up.

Necheles: “Your daughter’s life was in jeopardy & you did not tell her father — but you went on Anderson Cooper & decided to tell the world?”

Again attacking Daniels' character & credibility.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

The question of whether #StormyDaniels was threatened has come up before. #KeithDavidson, cast some doubt on the story as he read his texts w/ #MichaelCohen.

#Necheles has hardly asked about the actual case — whether there was a #conspiracy to cover up a #HushMoney payment made before an election, & if business records were falsified in the process. Instead she has focused on whether Daniels embellished her story about being threatened in Vegas by someone connected to #Trump.

#TrumpTrial #law

#StormyDaniels testified that #Trump did NOT ask her to keep their sexual encounter confidential.

“He didn’t give me anything, he didn’t offer to pay me or give me his cell phone number or anything like that," Daniels said.

Daniels went on to say that Trump also did not express any concern about his wife finding out.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#StormyDaniels describes herself being traumatized by the encounter: shaking, bewildered, wondering “how I got” to the place of having sex w/ #Trump. But she says she didn’t say no, “because I didn’t say anything at all.”

Daniels says that while she didn't object in the moment, she also didn’t enjoy it, & that she felt there was an “imbalance” in the power dynamic between the two.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Prosecutor #Hoffinger asked #StormyDaniels if #Trump was wearing a condom.

Daniels: “No.”

Asked if that was concerning to her, Daniels said, “yes,” but she did not say anything about it to Trump, & that the sex itself was brief.

Daniels said that after she had sex w/Trump, he said to her, "Oh it was great, let’s get together again honey bunch.”

"I just left as fast as I could," she testified.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

The defense has been objecting to many questions & Justice #Merchan has been sustaining a lot of them. He is not happy about this testimony.

Despite being explicit this is RELEVANT testimony, given that this encounter is at the heart of the prosecution's case.

But it may be a risk for prosecutors depending on what jurors make of it.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #StormyDaniels #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#StormyDaniels says she came out of the bathroom & found that #Trump was in the bedroom, waiting for her, in his boxer shorts & a T-shirt. She had been planning to go, she said. He was seated on the bed, between her & the exit.

Justice #Merchan is noticeably upset, & Daniels seems confused, after some objections, about what to answer from prosecutors. We are in an intense, intense moment here.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#StormyDaniels is talking about going to the bathroom in Trump’s hotel suite.

She says she’d been there a while & had drank several bottles of water.

Daniels says #Trump directed her there via the bedroom, the bed was unmade.

She says she remembers seeing a “leather-looking” toiletry bag on the counter w/ Old Spice & “manicure stuff” that was gold.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#StormyDaniels says that it was #Trump himself who invited her to come on “The Apprentice,” not the other way around. Daniels is suggesting she wasn’t the one trying to use “The Apprentice” — he was, for sex.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#StormyDaniels says #Trump said "you remind me of my daughter. she's smart & beautiful & people underestimate her as well.”

🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

He suggested she appear on "The Apprentice."

Daniels says Trump inquired her about her adult film female coworkers asking,

“Do you hook up off camera, do you sleep with each other off camera...?”

Then he asked her to call a friend.

🤮🤮🤮🤮

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Trump is a germophobe. #StormyDaniels previously said that they had sex w/o a condom. Her testimony about Trump asking how frequently she was tested for STDs — helps explain this.

Daniels says that during the dinner, she asked about his wife. She says he told her not to worry because the 2 did not “even sleep in the same room.” Trump & Melania were married in 2005, the year before this encounter.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

As #StormyDaniels is talking, #Trump whispers to his lawyer. He can’t stand feeling or appearing weak or powerless. But that’s exactly what he is here as Daniels is describing, in extensive detail, an encounter he continues to maintain didn’t happen.

She describes Trump’s suite in Lake Tahoe in minute detail, every aspect down to the color of the tiles.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Trump was 60 at the time of this meeting, & #StormyDaniels was 27.

Daniels says that Trump asked further about testing for STDs

She told him she picked adult film production companies because of their contraceptive requirements & could show him her complete records & that she never had a bad test result.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

“The people call #StormyDaniels,” Susan #Hoffinger says. She takes the stand & is sworn in with her hand raised.

Daniels sounds nervous as she spells her name.

Several members of the jury noticeably perked up when Stormy Daniels's name was called as a #witness.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

The cross-examination is over. There will be some more questions from the prosecutor, Rebecca Mangold. But we are likely just minutes away from the testimony of #StormyDaniels.

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#Trump lawyer Todd #Blanche is on cross-examination of Sally Franklin.

His argument is that Meredith McIver, the ghost-writer, was behind the language, as opposed to Trump.

Trump himself has always insisted that all of the words printed in his name are his. During the White House years, Trump aides would implausibly claim on the record that Trump’s speeches were written by him.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Prosecutor #Mangold has Sally Franklin describe a chapter of a book in which #Trump, in his own words, describes his frugality, including looking over bills to “make sure I’m not being overcharged.”

This goes toward his micromanagement & supports the argument that there was now way he was unaware of what he was paying #MichaelCohen, or what the money was for.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Rebecca #Mangold, the prosecutor, has Sally Franklin to read #Trump’s written words from these books, including the following:

“For many years, I’ve said that if someone screws you, screw them back”

“When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously & as violently as you can. Like it says in the Bible, an eye for an eye.”

“All the women on ‘The Apprentice’ flirted with me."

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

The first #witness today is #SallyFranklin, who works at Penguin Random House, a publisher.

[#StormyDaniels is the 2nd]

Franklin is a #CustodialWitness — here to verify facts that Trump's lawyers have not agreed to — she will testify about 2 books that #Trump wrote, including “Trump: How to Get Rich” & “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire,” both published by Ballantine, a Penguin Random House imprint.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

Back to court

#Trump did not answer reporters’s questions about his morning Truth Social post.

One of Trump's lawyers, Susan #Necheles, appears to be taking her seat to Trump’s right— suggesting she will be the one to cross-examine #StormyDaniels.

Show’s about to start, doubt Trump will be sleeping today.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #StochasticTerrorism #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

#Trump posted an angry message on TruthSocial saying he’d just learned who the next witness was [#StormyDaniels] & that his lawyers had “no time” to prepare.

The post remained up for 30 mins before Trump removed it, probably bc it was another violation of the #GagOrder & #jail is fully on the table.

Reportedly, Trump hates deleting posts — he sees it as a sign of weakness 🙄.

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #StochasticTerrorism #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics

Tuesday 7 May 2024 #TrumpTrial 🧵

#StormyDaniels Is Expected to #Testify today

Daniels, who received $130k in #HushMoney to keep silent about her story of having had sex with #Trump, is at the center of the case against him.

#criminal #law #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #MobTactics #NodFarter #GagOrder #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal

Experts on traumatic sexual experiences say that a person's perception of such encounters can change over time, & that the most traumatic details may emerge only later.

So any arguments that the ominous overtones of #StormyDaniels’s testimony about her sexual encounter w/ #Trump were not present in early versions of this story is evidence that she is not being truthful is bunk.

#BelieveSurvivors #criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#HopeHicks says that when she shared the email from The Washington Post w/ #Trump, one of his initial reactions was to say that his comments about assaulting women “didn’t sound like something he would say.” [he later admits it was him, so = liar]

Hicks says she went to conference room to discuss #AccessHollywood tape & Trump came to see what was happening:

"Everyone was just absorbing the shock of it."

#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney

#HopeHicks is then shown a copy of her email forwarding the message to to “campaign leadership.” The email went to, among other people, Kellyanne Conway & Steve Bannon.

In it, she says: “Need to hear the tape to be sure,” & “Deny, deny, deny.” She describes it to prosecutor Colangelo as a “reflex.”

#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics #NodFarter #GagOrder #StormyDaniels #KarenMcDougal