Trump lawyer grills Stormy Daniels, says she sought to revenue off story

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s lawyer accused porn star Stormy Daniels of profiting off her story that they had intercourse in 2006, a part of an effort to undermine her credibility as a witness within the first prison trial of a sitting or former U.S. president.

Daniels’ unflattering account of a sexual encounter with Trump in a Lake Tahoe resort suite in 2006 riveted jurors on Tuesday, reminding voters of the extra lurid features of his 2017-2021 presidency as he campaigns to win again the White Home this 12 months.

Trump, 77, is charged with 34 counts of falsifying enterprise data to cowl up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 cost to Daniels, 45, for her silence forward of the 2016 election concerning the alleged encounter. Trump has pleaded not responsible and denies ever having intercourse with Daniels.

His lawyer Susan Necheles confirmed jurors Daniels’ social media posts promoting merchandise on her on-line retailer across the time Trump had been charged final 12 months.

The merchandise included a “Stormy Saint of Indictments” candle along with her photograph on it and a comic book e-book titled, “Political Energy: Stormy Daniels.”

“A big a part of your livelihood for a bunch of years now has been creating wealth off the story that you simply had intercourse with President Trump and that you’ll assist President Trump be convicted, proper?” Necheles requested.

Daniels stated she wants cash to foot her authorized payments — she owes Trump greater than $500,000 from a failed defamation lawsuit — and that promoting merchandise was a part of her job.

“That’s me doing my job,” Daniels stated in a assured tone, sporting a inexperienced shirt and a black coat.

A Republican looking for to take again the White Home from Democratic President Joe Biden in a Nov. 5 election, Trump argues the trial is a politically motivated try and intrude together with his marketing campaign.

Prosecutors say Trump’s efforts to obscure the paper path corrupted the 2016 election by stopping voters from studying a few story that may have knowledgeable their vote.

Necheles sought to make use of Daniels’ work within the grownup movie business to forged doubt on her account of intercourse with Trump.

“You might have loads of expertise in making phony tales about intercourse seem like actual?” Necheles requested.

“Wow,” Daniels stated, laughing. “That is not how I might put it. The intercourse within the movies could be very a lot actual, identical to what occurred to me in that room.”

“If that story was unfaithful I might have written it to be quite a bit higher,” she stated.

Trump, sporting a blue tie, sat hunched ahead on the protection desk, frowning, as Daniels gave that testimony.

In a single sense, Daniels’ testimony is peripheral to the case, and it could not matter a lot to voters who’ve already heard different tales of Trump’s alleged sexual misbehavior.

Trump’s attorneys argued as a lot on Tuesday after they unsuccessfully sought a mistrial, saying that she had “infected” the jury with pointless particulars like claiming that Trump didn’t use a condom.

Daniels’ testimony clearly annoyed Trump, who at one level appeared to make an expletive in court docket, drawing a warning about witness intimidation from Justice Juan Merchan.

Merchan has fined Trump $10,000 for speaking about jurors and witnesses within the trial and warned that additional violations of a gag order that’s in place might land him in jail.

The case is extensively seen because the least consequential of the 4 prison prosecutions Trump faces. However the probabilities of the opposite three — which stem from efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden and his dealing with of categorized paperwork — going to trial earlier than the election are rising extra distant. He has pleaded not responsible in all of the instances.

Contributing: Jack Queen and Andy Sullivan