Judge scolded Trump for calling Stormy Daniels’ salacious story ‘bulls***’ and porn star claimed she had a ‘panic attack’ during sex: What the jury didn’t hear from wild testimony
Donald Trump made his anger clear when Stormy Daniels described the moment she claimed to have spanked him with a rolled-up magazine during a hotel meeting long ago.
He shook his head and keen-eyed observers could see him say the word “bulls***.”
Those observers included Judge Juan Merchan, who shortly afterward berated Trump’s lawyers.
“I understand your client is upset at this point, but he is swearing audibly, and he is visually shaking his head and that is contemptuous,” Merchan told them during a “sidebar” with prosecution and defense teams after the jury left the courtroom . 1530 of Manhattan Criminal Court.
“It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury sees that.”
Former President Donald Trump leaves court on Tuesday. Earlier, Judge Juan Merchan asked attorney Todd Blanche (photo behind his client) to warn him about his behavior
The official transcript shows Merchan calling on both attorneys to discuss Trump’s conduct while the jury was out of the room. “I won’t tolerate that,” he said.
Tuesday was the biggest day of the trial so far. Jurors heard from the woman at the center of the case: a porn star paid $130,000 for her silence.
Trump denies in 34 cases that he falsified business documents to conceal the payment just before the 2016 election.
But if the heart of the matter is the invoices and checks paid to attorney Michael Cohen for setting up the deal, the stardust that could convict or acquit Trump in the court of public opinion comes in the form of Daniel’s erratic testimony .
The court heard how Trump met her in his hotel suite in Lake Tahoe, dressed in pajamas, and later lay on the bed in his underwear while she used the bathroom.
It made for an explosive day as the defense tried to undermine her testimony as unreliable.
And even more details were kept from the jury, discussed only when they were out of earshot.
The official court transcript records the conversation between the judge and Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney, just before the lunch break.
“You need to talk to him,” the judge said. “I won’t tolerate that.”
Judge Judge Merchan had to intervene just before lunch on Tuesday
Stormy Daniels pictured himself leaving the courthouse on Tuesday. She will be back on Thursday
Tuesday was the biggest day of the trial yet, with Daniels describing how she met Trump at a celebrity golf event at Lake Tahoe in 2006.
During her testimony, Daniels also said she saw Trump at the launch of “Trump Vodka.” She was pictured at the event in Les Deux, Los Angeles, in January 2007
He said he mentioned the sidebar to avoid embarrassing Trump in open court.
“One time I noticed that Ms. Daniels was testifying about rolling up the magazine and supposedly punching your client, and then he shook his head and looked down,” said Merchan, who has to walk a tightrope in dealing with with the former president’s antics.
“And later, I think, he looked at you, Mr. Blanche. Later, when we were talking about The Apprentice, at that moment he uttered another vulgarity and this time he looked at you. Please talk to him during the break.”
The day crackled with energy from the start. When Trump arrived, he looked at the rows of press at the back of the courtroom, as if to gauge the size of his audience.
And as a key witness waited to take the stand, the judge called on both sides to try to set some ground rules for what would be a contentious day. By doing this out of earshot of the jury, they could discuss controversial issues without planting ideas in the jurors’ minds that would prevent Trump from getting a fair trial.
It started with the defense saying they were afraid Daniels would talk about her feelings.
The judge asked prosecutor Susan Hoffinger where she wanted to go with the testimony.
Trump’s son Eric and lawyer Alina Habba sat in the front row behind Trump
“I think she’s going to describe something about how she felt at the time because it confirms what happened,” she replied.
“Look, I think her account of what happened that day is the account that would have been told to the American people before the election had she not made the non-disclosure agreement.
“It’s significant.”
Merchan asks for more information about what Daniels is likely to say.
“I mean, for example, she’s going to say that at certain times she felt feelings coming from her hands and toes, that at one point she felt like she was having a panic attack.
She will describe how some details came back to her later after seeing the movie Bombshell, for example, which I think will help explain at certain points what she did and did not remember.”
The 2019 film tells the story of women at Fox News who accused CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment.
Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles was unimpressed.
Susan Necheles conducted the defense’s cross-examination of Daniels. She is seen here with Trump before the trial resumed Tuesday morning
“Her story has changed over time. And if they follow through on this, we’ll have to investigate how her story has changed.”
“This is all a fabrication.”
The judge said these details may come to light during cross-examination.
Hoffinger asked if that meant she couldn’t uncover the information during the direct portion of the testimony, when Daniels was questioned by the prosecutor.
“She’s going to say she felt numb,” Hoffinger said. “She didn’t expect this to happen.”
Hoffinger said it would be a chance to “take the sting out” before the defense gets to it during cross-examination.
The defense then accused the accuser of making it sound like rape.
‘Well, we wouldn’t go there if the prosecutor didn’t go there, so it doesn’t take the sting out of it – they put very harmful material in there, and they don’t take the sting out of it, they basically turn this into rape , which is completely inappropriate and made her feel threatened,” Necheles said.