Stormy Daniels may have squandered Democrats’ last chance to see Donald Trump jailed before the election by portraying himself as a victim in stunning testimony from his hush-money trial, Bill Maher has claimed.
The HBO host has unearthed footage of his 2018 interview with the former porn star, in which she laughed off suggestions that she was coerced into sex during the alleged sex 12 years earlier.
“It’s not a me-too thing,” she told Maher at the time. ‘I was not assaulted, I was not assaulted, raped, coerced or blackmailed.’
But she told his trial in New York this week that her hands were shaking and she “blacked out” during the encounter, adding: “There was definitely a balance of power.” It was bigger and blocking the way.”
“Do you really think she blacked out?” Maher asked. ‘A porn star is used to having sex with people she doesn’t know. That’s the job. She’s not a good witness.’
Stormy Daniels with Donald Trump in 2006, at the time of the alleged sexual encounter
Daniels is at the center of claims that Trump paid hush money to prevent negative stories from coming out before the 2016 election. He denies 34 counts of falsifying business documents
Trump’s lawyers called for a mistrial on Tuesday after Daniels’ extraordinary testimony
The comedian was exuberant two weeks ago about the prospects of a conviction after magazine publisher David Pecker unveiled the catch-and-kill scheme to keep stories of Trump’s alleged infidelity under wraps when the billionaire ran for president in 2016 .
“If this goes like this and Trump loses, it will change the entire election,” Maher said.
“A number of independents, a significant number, and Republicans say their vote will change if he’s a convicted felon. And he’ll look like a loser, not that he doesn’t already.’
But he told Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday that the three other criminal cases against the former president went nowhere and that it was now “Stormy or Bust.”
“The Democrats have had four years to put Trump on trial, but it’s all over. They failed every time,” Maher complained.
“This is what happened this week. Georgia; They’re going to take Trump’s argument about Fani Willis to heart. You know, she’s the accuser: she’s having an affair with the man she hired.
“I mean, it’s not really relevant to the case, but they left an opening. And now it’s postponed.
‘The stolen documents one? That will never happen, because there’s a Trumpy judge sitting there. So it’s stormy or bankrupt.’
Stormy Daniels testified about her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006, revealing details of what she says she and Trump talked about, what he was at war with, and details of their alleged connection
In 2018, she told Maher, “They tried to put me in the ‘me too’ box as part of their own agenda, and first of all I didn’t want to be part of that because it’s not the truth and I’m not a victim in that respect’
But Daniels told his trial on Tuesday that her hands were shaking and she “blacked out” during the encounter, adding: “There was definitely a balance of power.” It was bigger and blocked the way.”
In the 2018 interview, Maher bluntly asked the Full Disclosure author, “Why did you fuck Donald Trump?”
‘I have no idea!’ she shouted from the audience, laughing.
“Okay, but you’re saying it’s not a me-too thing?” he replied.
“It’s not a me-too thing,” she replied.
“They tried to put me in the ‘me too’ box as part of their own agenda, and first of all I didn’t want to be a part of that because it’s not the truth and I’m not a victim in that regard.”
But she told the trial on Tuesday that she could not remember how she ended up in a hotel bed in Nevada with Trump and how he allegedly did not wear a condom.
When she came out of the bathroom, she said she was shocked to find Trump on the bed, wearing only boxer shorts and his T-shirt.
Daniels said she “didn’t expect anyone to be there without their clothes.”
She said Trump stood between her and the door, adding, “He said I thought we were getting somewhere… If you ever want to leave that trailer park.”
At one point she says she “just blacked out,” even though she wasn’t drugged and she and Trump only drank water.
When asked if the pair ended up on the bed during sex, she simply replied: “Yes.”
Asked to briefly describe the event, she said: ‘Before I know it, [I] was lying on the bed, the other side of the bed, I had my clothes and my shoes off. My bra was still on. Missionary position.’
She said she did not remember how who took off her clothes, but did recall that the sexual encounter was brief.
The lurid testimony nearly derailed the case, with Trump’s defense team demanding a mistrial.
“This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from,” said attorney Todd Blanche.
“How do we come back from this in a way that is fair to President Trump?”
She didn’t need to say Trump wasn’t wearing a condom, he said, except to “fire up” the jury.
Daniels admitted she “hates” Trump in response to questions from attorney Susan Necheles (left) during cross-examination
The jury was shown the famous photo of Trump and Daniels, taken at a celebrity golf event in Lake Tahoe. She described their brief meeting and how he invited her to dinner
Judge Manuel Merchan ruled there was no mistrial. But the defense did have a point, he added.
“There were several things that would have been better left unsaid,” he noted.
He even added that he had raised his own objection when the defense had failed to intervene.
‘In all fairness to the [prosecution]“I think the witness was a little hard to control,” he said.