Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty Guilty

[Al Czervik 1,244]

14 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

 

 

 

[Francisco 2.0 32,432]

Break over, back to Stormy:

We are breaking for lunch after a remarkable morning of testimony — often choppy and sometimes discordant — from Stormy Daniels, who described in great detail the sexual encounter in 2006 that lies at the heart of the case, and that Trump has denied ever took place.

Daniels has left the courtroom. Her testimony was tense and very interesting — and it's really hard to know what the jury will make of it. We noted early today that we weren’t exactly sure why prosecutors had called her and I’m still not sure I know the answer to that question. She testified about the sex at the heart of the deal, which, again, Trump denies. But her demeanor — her rushed testimony and the judge eventually chastising her — may not land well with jurors. And the defense hasn’t even started questioning her yet.

Stormy Daniels is laying out the specifics of the hush money deal — a really important part of her testimony, after a lot of details that were difficult to follow, as she skipped through meetings and dates and years as the prosecution guided her toward 2016. She said that if she were to violate the agreement, it would cost her a million dollars every time she did so.

Daniels said she was not paid on time, and that in 2016, she wasn’t sure why. “He just kept making excuses,” she said. At first she clarified that the “he” in question was Michael Cohen, who paid the hush money. But then she changed her answer and testified that it was “Trump” who delayed the payment — more specifically, Trump speaking to Cohen, who was speaking to her then-lawyer Keith Davidson. That was an interesting moment, almost as if Daniels was trying to make the prosecution’s case for them.

Stormy Daniels is testifying that she was not motivated by money, and says she didn’t negotiate the hush-money deal because she didn’t care about the figure. The hush money is at the heart of the case, and she was eventually paid $130,000. I can imagine it being very hard for jurors to accept that Daniels did not want money.

The testimony by Stormy Daniels that she did not care about money might be undercut by text messages I’ve reviewed personally between her agent at the time, Gina Rodriguez, and the editor of The National Enquirer, which looked something like an auction, with the two of them bidding back and forth until they got to $120,000. The Enquirer’s publisher would not pay, which is how Michael Cohen ended up taking over the deal.

Susan Necheles, the defense lawyer, has lodged objection after objection. Objections are meant to either cut off testimony or have it stricken from the official record entirely. We can’t tell you exactly what her rate of success has been, but it’s way higher than normal. The judge is accepting her objections and disrupting Stormy Daniels’s testimony.

Daniels is asked whether the story she’s told here today about her encounter with Trump is one she would have described to news outlets had she been interviewed then. But the defense objects to the question and the judge sustains it again — Daniels does not answer.

Stormy Daniels is now talking about an article posted on the website The Dirty in 2011 about her encounter with Trump. The jurors have already heard from other witnesses about this article, which Daniels said she wanted taken down.

For context, when this issue came up in 2011, Trump was making noises about running for president in the 2012 Republican primary. He had been promoting a lie about President Obama’s birthplace, suggesting Obama was an illegitimate president, and was gaining traction in polls as he did.

The testimony we’ve heard so far firmly puts Stormy Daniels in Trump’s orbit during a sustained period of time.

Trump has continued to motion to his lawyer Susan Necheles, who likely will be handling the cross-examination and has been taking notes throughout Daniels's testimony.

Stormy Daniels is now being asked about being threatened in a parking lot by someone while she was in Las Vegas with her daughter. Her voice shakes as she talks about it, and explains she didn’t report it because it would have been upsetting to the person she was in a relationship with at the time.

This is an account she never told some of the people who worked closely with her on the hush-money deal. She first revealed it in a "60 Minutes" interview in 2018, after hiring her now-jailed former lawyer, Michael Avenatti.

Trump has claimed he had nothing to do with Stormy Daniels, just as he has nothing to do with any of the women who’ve made claims against him. But the cumulative testimony extracted from this line of questioning is that Stormy Daniels met with Trump on multiple occasions, with dozens of witnesses. Daniels also describes multiple phone calls with Trump — some of which had witnesses because Daniels says she put Trump on speaker phone for sport while her friends were present. The jury has also been shown phone contact logs from Daniels’s phone and from Trump’s assistant’s phone.

The jurors, who have listened closely to past witnesses and looked back and forth between witnesses and prosecutors as they’ve asked questions, have appeared to be less focused on Daniels during her testimony. Some are looking down, some are looking away. Again, impossible to know what it means, but it’s something different.

Stormy Daniels is now testifying about meeting with Trump at Trump Tower in 2007. She says she was greeted warmly, and although the meeting was brief, he introduced her to everybody, and at one point they took selfies.

Daniels says that another 2007 meeting, in Los Angeles, was the last time she saw Trump in person — before today, presumably — and that he in no way stressed that she should keep their encounter secret.

This small bit of testimony could be useful to the prosecution because it will allow them to argue that Trump changed his mind and wanted the encounter to remain under wraps once he was running for president.

 

Justice Merchan scolded Stormy Daniels for going off topic and told her to “just answer the questions,” a notable sign of disapproval from a judge who has largely been even-keeled, particularly with the prosecution.

Merchan sustains a defense objection. Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, objects, saying that Daniels’s answer was directly responsive to her question. Then, the judge again scolds Daniels, telling her again to keep her answers short and to the point. He then reverses himself and overrules the objection. We’ve rarely seen Merchan this openly annoyed — and when we do, he often seems to work to rein himself in after the fact.

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.

Stormy Daniels continues to walk the prosecutors through the encounter. She says Trump didn’t wear a condom. “Did you say anything about it?” Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks. “No,” Daniels replies, adding, when asked why not, “I didn’t say anything at all.” She describes it as brief, and repeats that she did not say no at any point. “I didn’t say anything at all,” she says again.

Daniels is testifying about a few details that corroborate her story, including who she talked to about the initial encounter, as well as further discussions with Trump, who called her “honeybunch.”

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

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

It’s worth noting that the ominous overtones of Stormy Daniels’s testimony her sexual encounter with Trump were not present in early versions of this story she has told. In her 2011 interview, she did not mention blacking out and described it much more casually than she is doing now. Experts on traumatic sexual experiences say that a person's perception of such encounters can change over time, and that the most traumatic details may only emerge later.

In recent years, her narrative has evolved. In the documentary “Stormy” that aired on Peacock in March, she referred to the power imbalance she has described today, saying: “I was nine years old again.” She said she could have fought Trump off, but said to herself, “I’m not supposed to act like that. There’s that whole dynamic because I was from the South that he was an elder and a man, and I was taught to show respect and be a good girl.”

The defense has been objecting to many questions and the judge has been sustaining a lot of them. He is not happy about this testimony. As we see how explicit this becomes, it's worth remembering the following: This is relevant testimony, given that this encounter is at the heart of the prosecution's case. But it also may be a risk for prosecutors. It’s very hard to know what jurors will make of it all.

Clearly prosecutors want Daniels to confirm the sexual encounter that underpins the entire narrative of Trump seeking to pay her off, keep her quiet and ultimately covering up the nature of the payment. But the risk they run in eliciting such intimate details from Daniels is that the testimony backfires and the jury develops some sympathy for Trump.

Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, is now asking Stormy Daniels about having had sex with Trump, which Trump denies. “Did you at some point end up on the bed having sex with him?” Hoffinger asks. Daniels says yes. When she describes the position they were in, the defense objects, and the objection is sustained.

Trump is watching Daniels as she talks about the sexual encounter. At one point, he motioned to his lawyer, who then objected.

Trump’s son Eric is sitting directly behind him in court, staring straight ahead as Stormy Daniels describes the sexual encounter and its aftermath in excruciating detail.

Trump has been unusually restrained listening to this portion of the testimony. His main responses have been to tap his lawyer Susan Necheles, seeming to urge on her objections.

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

Daniels is describing a remarkably intense encounter, and says that the room spun in slow motion and the blood left her hands and feet. She says that Trump did not act particularly threatening but blocked her access to the door to the bedroom. Then she says she “blacked out,” though she did not take alcohol or drugs. At this point, the judge — who has sustained one objection and seems unusually angry — called for a sidebar. He sustains another objection.

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

“What did I misread to get here,” she describes thinking. She says she tried to leave and he blocked her path, but not in a threatening manner.

Trump is staring straight ahead glumly as Stormy Daniels describes him in his underclothes sitting on the bed waiting for her.

Stormy Daniels is talking about going to the bathroom in Trump’s hotel suite and seeing a “leather-looking” toiletry bag on the counter. She says she saw Old Spice and “manicure stuff” that was gold. Daniels keeps chuckling as she describes the scene, as if she's giving an interview.

One of Trump’s go-to moves during testimony has been to close his eyes, which an adviser told me he has used during other trials to keep himself from blowing up. Sometimes, he also falls asleep. Today, he has tried to close his eyes but he has been mostly alert, and looking like his face is going to crack from tension.

 

We are back from the break. Justice Merchan asked if the defense lawyers, spoke to Trump — it’s not clear about what. And the judge, in a rarity, admonishes the prosecutors, specifically Susan Hoffinger, saying that the level of detail they’re eliciting from Stormy Daniels is unnecessary. Daniels is back on the stand and as soon as the jury returns, we'll start up again.

This is just the latest reminder that juries, even in the most prominent cases, almost never hear the full story. The evidence they are permitted to consider is always balanced against the possible prejudice it could have against the defendant.

There’s no way to know how the jury is receiving Daniels’s account, but her demeanor on the stand — a fast talker, unfettered, prone to asides that are sometimes funny and sometimes distracting — is consistent with interviews I’ve seen of her. This is, in short, how she is: she is not putting on a show, or any staid artifice, for a courtroom audience.

Edited May 7 by Francisco 2.0

['stache 21,900]

Judge sounds like a real square. The case is about hush money to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn star. There's gonna be discussions about sex.

[Red Five 41,066]

Judge sounds like a real square. The case is about hush money to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn star. There's gonna be discussions about sex.

And considering that the defendant is denying the sex even took place…..

[TexArcher 38,409]

1 minute ago, 'stache said:

Judge sounds like a real square. The case is about hush money to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn star. There's gonna be discussions about sex.

 

Conservatives don't want their kids to hear about any sex except 4-pump missionary between a hetero white man and his hetero white wife.  

And, yes, they're gonna vote for Donald Trump again, because Trump would have been able to be faithful to his hetero white wife if the libs hadn't put porn all over the place.

It all makes sense if you look at it just right and you're fucking stupid.

 

[SimonBolivar 10,961]

My Trump friends/family have full shifted to "I vote for the policy not the man" position in public.

Edited May 7 by SimonBolivar

[Js1 85,744]

Just now, SimonBolivar said:

Mine have full shifted to "I vote for the policy not the man" position in public.

That says just as much about them because his policy positions are cruel, ignorant and downright anti-American 

[Pato del Muerto 52,853]

Your honor the defense calls Beulah balbricker as expert witness

[Chewbacca 7,793]

It wasn't a perfect storm.  It was a corruption by Mitch McConnell and his friends.   

But it was also RBG refusing to retire when Obama was in office.

[C-Man 27,347]

11 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Your honor the defense calls Beulah balbricker as expert witness

[Biff Tannen 45,763]

15 minutes ago, Js1 said:

That says just as much about them because his policy positions are cruel, ignorant and downright anti-American 

They don't mean THOSE policies (well they actually do, but not in public).  They mean taxes.  Because they are all millionaires right?

[dcbc 14,568]

30 minutes ago, Red Five said:

And considering that the defendant is denying the sex even took place…..

Well, he hasn't testified . . . yet.  Let him do so and open the door for the second round of Stormy that he wasn't up to taking on in 2006.

 

He denies it, and maybe she gets to take the stand again and describe the mushroom in great detail.  If he denies it, this trial might go about as well for him as that trial went for Michael Jackson and the dong inspections.

 

That's the play.  We double-dog dare you to testify.

Edited May 7 by dcbc

[YGIFS 19,453]

And we could put up notice posters around the Capitol.  "Have you seen this tiny prick?  It is known to be armed and dangerous."  

My god, there's a meme in here somewhere if the freckle has the courage to do what's right.  

[Chewbacca 7,793]

My Trump friends/family have full shifted to "I vote for the policy not the man" position in public.

I would ask them what the policies are. Republicans have no policy other than fascism and owning the libs.

[WhatTheBuck 28,825]

9 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

But it was also RBG refusing to retire when Obama was in office.

That was her right. It’s a lifetime appointment. We can debate whether that should be a thing. But as it stands now, it’s a thing and she had every right to do what she did. If she only could’ve held on for a few months longer. It’s sucks that she didn’t but it is what it is. She seemed like she was still mentally sharp right up until the end.

I try to put myself in her shoes (robe?) and I can identify with the attitude of ‘Fuck you, I’ll decide when it’s my time to retire.’

Just a few months longer and we wouldn’t be having this discussion. 

[YGIFS 19,453]

It was certainly her right.  And was mentally sharp until the bitter end.  But then again, if she was so fucking smart...why didn't see the long game?  She fucked up and we all know it.  

[Gatorubet 30,391]

1 hour ago, Nivek said:

The Titantic was a pretty robust ship until its rivets were compromised by a captain who put his own ego ahead of the safety of the passengers.   That is our government and legal system.   We even have a few Nevil Chamberlain's worried that he would get a boost by being jailed.   

And when Neville Chamberlain stood upon the deck of that ship declaring there were “Peas in our time” to the Le Sueur cartel,  the name of that ship’s officer was - Captain Ronan Sinatra. 

[YGIFS 19,453]

And the name of his first mate?  You guessed it!  

And it wasn't an iceberg that brought her down, she was rammed by the Cat Stevens, helmed by the great Edmund "Etta James" Fitzgerald.

[Huckleberry 33,519]

10 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

That was her right. It’s a lifetime appointment. We can debate whether that should be a thing. But as it stands now, it’s a thing and she had every right to do what she did. If she only could’ve held on for a few months longer. It’s sucks that she didn’t but it is what it is. She seemed like she was still mentally sharp right up until the end.

I try to put myself in her shoes (robe?) and I can identify with the attitude of ‘Fuck you, I’ll decide when it’s my time to retire.’

Just a few months longer and we wouldn’t be having this discussion. 

What a terrible argument. Lots of things are well within people's rights but are dumb and they should be called out for doing them. 

[SimonBolivar 10,961]

9 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

35 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

My Trump friends/family have full shifted to "I vote for the policy not the man" position in public.

I would ask them what the policies are. Republicans have no policy other than fascism and owning the libs.

Baptist shit usually 

[Pato del Muerto 52,853]

12 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

38 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

My Trump friends/family have full shifted to "I vote for the policy not the man" position in public.

I would ask them what the policies are. Republicans have no policy other than fascism and owning the libs.

At least it’s an ethos

[tx ind 7,014]

Simulation is full throttle; Stormy met Big Ben thru Trump, can't make this up.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/ben-roethlisbergers-name-comes-up-at-donald-trump-trial

 

[Chewbacca 7,793]

Baptist shit usually 

Like what? Push on that shit. Trump is the most immoral man I've ever seen.

[YGIFS 19,453]

Adam Sandler's drunken twin brother with Down's Syndrome but broad shoulders seems like a strange tactic by counsel.  But I'll allow it /judge

[RDCanecutter 26,550]

1 minute ago, Chewbacca said:

9 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Baptist shit usually 

Like what? Push on that shit. Trump is the most immoral man I've ever seen.

Two Corinthians.

[locodos 5,423]

Just now, RDCanecutter said:

Two Corinthians.

walk into a bar

[Brisketexan 105,569]

29 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

They don't mean THOSE policies (well they actually do, but not in public).  They mean taxes.  Because they are all millionaires right?

 

20 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

46 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

My Trump friends/family have full shifted to "I vote for the policy not the man" position in public.

I would ask them what the policies are. Republicans have no policy other than fascism and owning the libs.

Not true.  They have some policy positions.  They are just breathtakingly stupid and cruel.

Just this week, I drove by more than one billboard put up by actual local Republican parties saying "CLOSE THE BORDER!"  Close the border.  The border, over which THREE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS IN TRADE A YEAR CROSSES (over 5 million truck crossings and over 1 million rail cars), accounting for almost 37% of all US trade with Mexico.  Mexico is the largest trading partner of both the US and Texas, and they want to....shut that down.  These are stupid, stupid, not serious, very, very dumb people and policies.  They literally propose an action that would cripple both the Texas and US economy.  It's among the dumbest ideas I've ever heard, and I've watched a Greg Davis offensive game plan unfold.

And don't forget their other policies, like imprisoning women for getting an abortion, even if they do so in a state where it's legal.

How about the policy of supporting authoritarian despots who repeatedly launch attacks on American assets (including infrastructure right here in Texas) and those of our allies?  The GQP loves them some Russia, so how about that policy?

Your Trump friends and family are shitty people with shitty brains and shitty ideas who support shitty things.  You should spend your time convincing them that the most important Trump policy they should follow is chugging antifreeze.

[BamaATL 16,593]

9 minutes ago, tx ind said:

Simulation is full throttle; Stormy met Big Ben thru Trump, can't make this up.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/ben-roethlisbergers-name-comes-up-at-donald-trump-trial

 

It really is fitting that one of the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet is right in the middle of all this.  

[Brisketexan 105,569]

1 minute ago, BamaATL said:

It really is fitting that one of the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet is right in the middle of all this.  

Even with that picture link....you're going to have to be more specific.  Because we've got a real "dumbest motherfucker on the planet" olympiad going on in the Trump orbit.

[SimonBolivar 10,961]

10 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

18 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Baptist shit usually 

Like what? Push on that shit. Trump is the most immoral man I've ever seen.

Abortion, War on Christmas, anti LGBTQ, anti-woke all that fun jazz that is either policy or policy adjacent for the GOP. 

 

 

[YGIFS 19,453]

1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:

Even with that picture link....you're going to have to be more specific.  Because we've got a real "dumbest motherfucker on the planet" olympiad going on in the Trump orbit.

No, it's "Stupidest Motherfucker on the planet", not Dumbest.  There's a big difference.  You and I do and say dumb shit every single day.  But there's a massive gap between that and being "stupid."  

 

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,917]

4 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Abortion, War on Christmas, anti LGBTQ, anti-woke all that fun jazz that is either policy or policy adjacent for the GOP. 

 

 

I'm sorry all your friends and family are morons

[Horn Dog 10,024]

From the W.Post 

Spoiler

Judge says prosecutors are going into too much detail with Stormy Daniels encounter

Return to menu

 

After a 15-minute morning break in the testimony of adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said prosecutors were going into too many details and should move faster.

“The degree of detail you are going into here is just unnecessary,” said Merchan, adding that jurors don’t need to know the color of the floor in the hotel room where Daniels said she spent an evening with Donald Trump in 2006.

 

When Daniels returns to the stand, the judge said, “The people need to move along.”

Even before Daniels’s court appearance, prosecutors and defense lawyers had argued about the value of her testimony in a case in which the charged crimes are falsification of business records that she never saw.

But those business records involved a wire transfer and checks in 2016 and 2017 that paid for Daniels’s silence about their alleged tryst during Trump’s presidential campaign.

When Daniels’s testimony resumed, prosecutors asked her about her trip to the bathroom in Trump’s hotel suite, and the Old Spice and Pert Plus she found there.

Spoiler

Stormy Daniels says Trump sent Ben Roethlisberger to escort her to her room

Return to menu

By Devlin Barrett

Reporter focusing on national security and law enforcement

Stormy Daniels, whose testimony provoked a number of sidebars between lawyers and the judge in a short period of time, just described running into Donald Trump in Lake Tahoe the night after she says they had sex in his hotel room in 2006.

At a hotel nightclub, she testified, she met Trump, who was with Ben Roethlisberger, then the quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“He introduced me as his ‘little friend Stormy’ to Big Ben,” she told the jury, using the star quarterback’s nickname.

Daniels said that when she was going back to her room, Trump sent Roethlisberger to walk her there, she testified. Prosecutors did not press further, but in her book, Daniels describes an awkward standoff at the door of her room in which she resisted Roethlisberger’s entreaties to come into her room.

KEY UPDATE

47 min ago

Daniels describes having sex with Trump

Return to menu

By Tom Jackman

Reporter covering criminal justice locally and nationally

Stormy Daniels in 2018. (Markus Schreiber/AP)

Stormy Daniels said that after drinking two bottles of water while chatting with Donald Trump, she asked to use the restroom. She walked through a bedroom to use the bathroom, and when she emerged Trump was on the bed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts, Daniels said.

Daniels said she was startled. “I wasn’t expecting someone to be there, especially minus a lot of clothing,” she testified. “That’s when I had that moment when I felt like the room spun in full motion. And I felt the blood leave my hands and my feet, almost like if you stand up too fast. I just thought: ‘Oh my God. What did I misread to get here?’ Because the intention is pretty clear — somebody’s in their underwear on the bed, posing for you.”

Daniels said Trump “stood up between me and the door, not in a threatening manner.” Daniels said she told him: “I’ve got to go. He said, ‘I thought we were getting somewhere, we were talking.’”

Daniels said she did not remember many of the subsequent details, saying, “I think I blacked out,” but that she wasn’t drugged or drunk.

“Next thing I know I was on the bed,” Daniels said, “the opposite side of the bed from where we’d been standing. I had my clothes and shoes off. We were in missionary position.”

She testified that she didn’t remember how her clothes came off but did recall that “I was staring at the ceiling. I didn’t know how I got there. I was trying to think about anything other than how I got there.”

Daniels said Trump did not wear a condom and that they didn’t discuss that. “I didn’t say anything at all.” She said the encounter was brief.

Spoiler

Stormy Daniels tells jury that she had unwanted sex with Trump, who said they were ‘fantastic together’

Return to menu

By Shayna Jacobs

Courts, law enforcement and criminal justice

Stormy Daniels told a Manhattan jury Tuesday that she did not want to have sex with Donald Trump in his Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006 but did not resist, and that afterward Trump suggested they reunite because they were “fantastic together.”

In the stunning testimony, the adult-film actress said she was so rattled by the event that while she was sitting on Trump’s hotel bed afterward, her hands were shaking and she couldn’t pull herself together.

She said that they had previously discussed his wife, Melania, but that he told her that they slept in separate rooms.

“My hands were shaking so hard I was having a hard time getting dressed,” Daniels testified to a captivated jury.

Trump suggested that they get back together for future encounters, Daniels testified. “Oh, it was great,” Trump said, according to Daniels. “Let’s get together again, honey bunch. We were great together.”

Daniels, who has discussed outside of the courtroom having been sexually abused as a child, said she was embarrassed by the fact that she allowed the sexual interaction to go forward. “I felt ashamed that I didn’t stop it and I didn’t say no,” she said.

Spoiler

Jury hears disturbing details of Stormy Daniels’s alleged sexual encounter with Trump

Return to menu

By Devlin Barrett

Reporter focusing on national security and law enforcement

Adult-film actress Stormy Daniels described having a one-night stand with Donald Trump that at times sounded like nonconsensual sex — prompting a flurry of sidebar arguments interrupting her testimony.

“There was an imbalance of power for sure. He was bigger and blocking the way, but I was not threatened,” Daniels said, describing the moment when she entered a bedroom in Trump’s hotel suite in 2006 to find him posing on the bed.

“The next thing I know, I was on the bed, somehow on the opposite of the bed.” She said her bra was still on, but they were in the missionary position.

“Do you have a recollection of feeling something unusual?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked, before the judge stopped Daniels from answering that question.

“I was staring up at the ceiling, and I didn’t know how I got there,” Daniels said.

The account is similar to what Daniels described years earlier in her book, but the degree of detail was surprising, particularly given that Trump is not accused of any sex crimes.

Trump is on trial for allegedly falsifying business records, but the jury has now heard details of him engaged in something akin to nonconsensual sex.

Daniels said she was not drunk or under the influence of drugs, but she described feeling strange and not having a grasp on the sequence of events.

Trump’s defense lawyers were clearly upset that Daniels kept offering details and opinions about the encounter far beyond the claim of the two having a sexual encounter — particularly since the testimony about that sex came after the judge had explicitly urged the prosecutor not to go into a lot of details in front of the jury.

Spoiler

Daniels says she stayed in touch with Trump in hopes of landing ‘Apprentice’ spot

Return to menu

By Tom Jackman

Reporter covering criminal justice locally and nationally

After her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump, Daniels said, Trump called her nearly weekly, and sometimes she would put him on speaker for her friends and fellow cast members to hear.

“We thought it was funny,” Daniels said. “Dozens and dozens and dozens of people heard me talking to him.” She said Trump would always have an update about his attempt to place her on his reality show “The Apprentice,” and because she thought such an appearance would bolster her career, she stayed in touch with him.

In March 2007, Daniels said, she traveled to New York and met Trump in his office at Trump Tower. She said Trump was busy and was getting “pushback” about having her on “The Apprentice.” But he arranged for Daniels and her assistant to attend the Miss USA Pageant, which Trump then owned, that summer.

In summer 2007, she said, she agreed to meet with Trump at a bungalow in Los Angeles, where she said Trump made sexual advances, but she rebuffed him by telling him she was menstruating and didn’t want to have sex.

Finally, Trump called her and told her she could not appear on the show. “He said his overrule had been overruled by someone.” Daniels said Trump continued to call her, but she stopped taking his calls and didn’t see him again.

 

Spoiler

Daniels tells jury she was threatened in a parking lot after word of her Trump tryst surfaced

Return to menu

Stormy Daniels said that five years after her 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump, the story surfaced in a gossip magazine, leading to a terrifying encounter in a Las Vegas parking lot.

She said she was approached by a man she didn’t know when she was with her infant daughter.

“He approached me and said that, he threatened me, not to continue to tell my story … about my encounter with Mr. Trump,” Daniels testified.

Daniels said she did not tell the police at the time about the threat “because he told me not to say anything at all, and I was scared.”

Spoiler

Daniels said she had moved on from Trump before gossip site published item about them

Return to menu

By Shayna Jacobs

Courts, law enforcement and criminal justice

Stormy Daniels said she fully moved on from what she described as an unwanted sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006 as well as the elusive idea of being cast on “Celebrity Apprentice,” the witness testified Tuesday.

In the coming years, and after learning that the TV gig Trump dangled would not transpire, Daniels said her career picked up and she started a family.

“It was pretty awesome. I got a raise, a lot more movies, a lot more mainstream things [like] ‘40-Year-Old Virgin,' ” Daniels said, naming a hit movie she had a cameo in.

“I got married, I had my daughter, I became a nationally-ranked equestrian with my horses,” Daniels said. “I bought a house and moved to Texas.”

Daniels said she stopped talking to Trump after a number of meetings during which he discussed her possible casting on his hit NBC show on which famous people win Trump’s approval in business situations.

She testified that “In Touch” magazine contacted her in 2011 offering her $15,000 for her story about Trump, which she said she participated in but the story never ran. It did appear, however, on a gossip website.

Daniels’s Trump story remained largely unknown for several years but resurfaced when Trump ran for president in 2016 and his payoff to Playboy model Karen McDougal was reported by the Wall Street Journal.

 

[Brisketexan 105,569]

1 minute ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

I'm sorry all your friends and family are moronic pieces of shit.

FIF completeness.

[Chewbacca 7,793]

Two Corinthians.

Love thy neighbor

[Horn Dog 10,024]

Spoiler

Trump focuses on Stormy Daniels’s testimony

Return to menu

By Marianne LeVine

National political reporter focused on the 2024 elections

Donald Trump appeared to be listening closely to Stormy Daniels’s testimony.

He whispered to his lawyer Susan Necheles as Daniels described taking calls from Trump after they met, and he appeared to hand Necheles a note.

Trump sat back in his chair during much of the testimony and at times turned to speak to his lawyer Todd Blanche. He listened intently as Daniels described what she said was her final in-person interaction with Trump.

He briefly looked at his watch as Daniels spoke about her interview with In Touch magazine.

 

The judge has sent the jury to lunch, with trial scheduled to resume at 2 p.m.

Donald Trump left the courtroom with a stern expression on his face. He was followed by his lawyers and his son Eric, who is in attendance again Tuesday.

 

[RDCanecutter 26,550]

22 minutes ago, locodos said:

walk into a bar

One says "heyy malaka malaka malaka..."

[Radical Larry 28,673]

 

[RDCanecutter 26,550]

17 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Abortion, War on Christmas, anti LGBTQ, anti-woke all that fun jazz that is either policy or policy adjacent for the GOP. 

 

 

Until recently I was in a club full of elderly people from Alabama. I noticed that every meeting would start with each person making one of the above-type comments. This is woke. That's a hoax. Start to make a joke about a black person, then stop with a sideways giggle. It was the same kind of social hot air as learning "Salut, ça va?" in French 101.

I didn't do it when it was my turn, so they knew I was an FBI plant.

[YGIFS 19,453]

10 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

One says "heyy malaka malaka malaka..."

You believe this broad, your Honor?  She's into Malakas!  /RIPhughes

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,539]

1 hour ago, SimonBolivar said:

My Trump friends/family have full shifted to "I vote for the policy not the man" position in public.

the Trump voters in my circle of friends (50s, male, mainly white) have made comments about voting for Trump because of the economy. I push back asking them how they're not thriving under the Biden economy.

I understand that many Americans are struggling but not homeowners with solid careers in upper mgmt.  And Trump voters can't complain about federal taxes since we're operating under Trump's taxes not Biden.

[dcbc 14,568]

1 hour ago, YGIFS said:

And we could put up notice posters around the Capitol.  "Have you seen this tiny prick?  It is known to be armed and dangerous."  

My god, there's a meme in here somewhere if the freckle has the courage to do what's right.  

Nice Porky's reference.  But could we call it a Tallywhacker?

[Red Five 41,066]

6 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

the Trump voters in my circle of friends (50s, male, mainly white) have made comments about voting for Trump because of the economy. I push back asking them how they're not thriving under the Biden economy.

I understand that many Americans are struggling but not homeowners with solid careers in upper mgmt.  And Trump voters can't complain about federal taxes since we're operating under Trump's taxes not Biden.

I would for once like to hear "I'm voting for Trump because I've been conditioned to vote for anyone with an R next to their name." Because that's the deal. 

[TexEx15 17,812]

 

[speed817 19,568]

1 minute ago, TexEx15 said:

 

Can't wait until the movie comes out.....

[WhatTheBuck 28,825]

41 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

What a terrible argument. Lots of things are well within people's rights but are dumb and they should be called out for doing them. 

By whom? You? I won’t let you tell me shit about what I should do with my life and my work. I can respect RGB’s choice to virtually tell you to fuck off as well.

Just a few months longer and it wouldn’t be an issue. Yeah, hindsight is 20/20 but she took her shot.

I get it. You wanted her to appease your desires, not her own. I respect her right to do what SHE wants. Sue me. 

[Sawbonz 27,776]

3 hours ago, Nivek said:

It wasn't a perfect storm.  It was a corruption by Mitch McConnell and his friends.   

And hubris by RBG and fuck off if you want to excuse her

[YGIFS 19,453]

5 minutes ago, dcbc said:

Nice Porky's reference.  But could we call it a Tallywhacker?

Shit, it was "mole", not freckle.  

Speaking of court.  I have an old friend.  He and his ex-wife are both high-profile attorneys.  And like 10 years ago, over wine, we devised our own legal version of PCU's "Hackman-Caine" theory which posits that if you ever flip channels and "Porky's" is on, it's always the scene in the Principal's office with the Gym Teacher and the two boys as she describes the genitalia of the intruder, and pans in to show Eisenhower's portrait.  And laughed about how insane it would be to try to submit that as evidence in a trial of a sexual nature.  And we just laughed at how fucking dumb we were being despite all being fairly educated people.  

And here I am.  On a Tuesday.  In America.  Listening to my in-laws complain about how inappropriate it is to having their beloved President's genitals discussed for the open record.  Call me a long-cat poster of notable annoyance, but one thing even my regular neg rep friends have to admit...I got a pretty twisted imagination.  And in ten years, I could never write this script.  

[C-Man 27,347]

3 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

By whom? You? I won’t let you tell me shit about what I should do with my life and my work. I can respect RGB’s choice to virtually tell you to fuck off as well.

Just a few months longer and it wouldn’t be an issue. Yeah, hindsight is 20/20 but she took her shot.

I get it. You wanted her to appease your desires, not her own. I respect her right to do what SHE wants. Sue me. 

Except that her decision ultimately affects(ed) 300M+ Americans. It has set back women's rights (among other things) decades. I know @Brisketexan is a big swinging dick but I don't think many of his decisions quite carry the same ramifications.

[wildcat09 29,453]

3 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

By whom? You? I won’t let you tell me shit about what I should do with my life and my work. I can respect RGB’s choice to virtually tell you to fuck off as well.

Just a few months longer and it wouldn’t be an issue. Yeah, hindsight is 20/20 but she took her shot.

I get it. You wanted her to appease your desires, not her own. I respect her right to do what SHE wants. Sue me. 

It wasn't "her work." It was an appointed position on the highest court in our country, an enormously important seat of public trust, and she decided to risk that after having already been treated for cancer multiple times. It's a decision that should be criticized even stronger than it has been.