Stormy Daniels took the stand Tuesday in the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump related to hush-money payments made during his campaign in 2016. Daniels, a porn star, received $130,000 from Trump’s personal lawyer in return for her silence related to a sexual encounter with Donald Trump after a Lake Tahoe golf tournament in 2006. She appeared nervous as she began her testimony, speaking so quickly that the prosecutor questioning her asked her to slow down. Trump, sitting just a few feet from the witness stand, wore a sour expression as she testified, and whispered several times to his legal team, The New York Times reports.
Daniels was shopping her account of the 2006 encounter a decade later, in the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign. But Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, made a deal to bury her story before Election Day. The former president is accused of falsifying business records to cover up his reimbursements of Cohen. Daniels took the stand on Tuesday after Sally Franklin, an employee of Penguin Random House, who read from books by Trump as prosecutors sought to use his words against him. She discussed passages about how he focuses on minute details and watches every penny that leaves his accounts. On Monday, two witnesses walked jurors through the dry but crucial financial records that tie Trump to the reimbursement, most of which came from his personal account.