NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump squirmed and frowned, shook his head and muttered as Stormy Daniels described the unexpected sex he said they had nearly two decades ago, saying she remembered “trying to think about something else.” then think about what happened’.
It was a story Daniels has told before. This time, Trump had no choice but to sit and listen.
Years in the making, the personal confrontation between the former president and the porn actor who has become one of his archenemies took place Tuesday in a New York courtroom that has become the candid stage for the historic spectacle of Trump’s hush-money trial, where the gravitas of the very first criminal trial against a former American commander in chief encounters a crude and splashy story about sex, tabloids and payoffs.
It’s often said that factual trials are nothing like the TV drama versions, and in that respect this is no exception: a methodical and sometimes static sequence of questions, answers and rules. But if Tuesday’s testimony wasn’t a stirring scene of outbursts and tears, it was no less stunning for its sheer improbability.
Daniels’ testimony has been the subject of speculation as long as Trump is under indictment. But when it would happen was still a mystery until Tuesday morning, when her attorney Clark Brewster confirmed in an email to an Associated Press reporter that it was “probably today.”
But even after the trial resumed, Daniels still had to wait.
The first witness of the day was a publishing house who read passages from some of Trump’s business books.
When the judge then asked for the next prosecution witness, Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger stated matter-of-factly, “People call Stormy Daniels.”
Daniels walked quickly to the stands, without looking at Trump, her shoes rattling on the ground. The former president stared straight ahead until she passed his spot at the defense table, then tilted his head slightly toward her.
As is customary in legal proceedings, Daniels was asked if she had seen Trump in court and to identify him. Before answering, Daniels, who was wearing glasses, shifted briefly in her seat and looked around the courtroom. She then pointed to him, described his navy blue suit jacket and gold tie, and said he was sitting at the defense table. Trump looked straight ahead, his lips pursed.
Dozens of reporters and a handful of public observers stood in the courtroom gallery.
Just in one row: CNN anchor Erin Burnett, MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell and Andrew Giuliani, the son of Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who wore a media credential from WABC Radio, where he and his father host shows. Trump’s son Eric was elsewhere in the courtroom.
As she testified, Daniels spoke confidently and at a rapid pace, the sound of reporters typing reaching a frantic pace.
She spoke so quickly that during her testimony she was asked at least six times to slow down so a court stenographer could keep pace.
The judges seemed as attentive as they were all judged as Daniels talked about her path from aspiring vet student to porn actor.
One judge smiled when Daniels mentioned that one of the ways to get into the industry was to win a competition, like “Ms. Naked North America.” Another juror’s eyes widened as he read along on the monitor to a Truth Social post in which Trump said he “did NOTHING wrong” and used an insulting nickname to discredit Daniels’ appearance.
Trump denies her claims and has pleaded not guilty in the case, in which he is accused of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to Daniels to keep his mouth shut.
Many jurors took notes during her testimony, peering up from their notebooks and shifting their gaze from Daniels on the witness stand to the attorneys questioning her from a lectern.
Guided by prosecutors, Daniels drew a detailed scene of her alleged evening with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006, candidly delving into details that Judge Juan M. Merchan would later admit “probably should have been left unsaid.”
She recalled entering the expansive suite and finding Trump in silk pajamas. She sheepishly admitted that she had rummaged through his toiletries in the bathroom and found a pair of gold tweezers. Daniels even reenacted part of her interaction with Trump, as he leaned back on the witness stand to demonstrate how she said he was lying on the bed of his hotel suite when she came out of the restroom.
Her willingness to provide additional details led to a customary moment: Trump’s lawyers agreed to have a prosecutor meet with Daniels in a side room, during a break in the testimony, to give her some instructions to — as Judge Merchan put it – ‘ensuring that the witness remains focused on the question, provides the answer and does not provide unnecessary narration.’
Out of earshot of the jury or reporters in the room, Merchan also asked Trump’s lawyers to keep him from swearing while Daniels spoke.
“I understand your client is upset at this point, but he’s swearing audibly, and he’s visually shaking his head, and that’s dismissive. It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that,” the judge said. “I’m talking to you here on the bench because I don’t want to embarrass him,” Merchan added.
“I will talk to him,” said one of Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche.
Daniels was cheerful and talkative when questioned by prosecutors but was fiercer on cross-examination, interjecting when defense attorney Susan Necheles questioned her credibility and motives.
Daniels strongly denied Necheles’ suggestion that she had tried to extort Trump, responding to the attorney’s claim: “False.”
Daniels left the witness stand just before 4:30 p.m. She didn’t look at Trump as she walked by. He didn’t look at her either, but leaned over to whisper to Necheles.
Moments later, Merchan adjourned court until Thursday – with Wednesday the usual day off for the trial. Trump left the courtroom with his entourage of lawyers and aides.
“This was a very revealing day in court. Any honest reporter would say that,” Trump told reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom. By order of the court, he is no longer allowed to say much about Daniels to the media.
In the courtroom, history’s witnesses reconciled their thoughts, gathered their belongings and waited for Trump to leave the building so they could do so too.