Stormy Daniels testifies about sex with Trump in hush money trial

In seeking a mistrial, Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche argued that the jury was now biased and a fair trial was no longer possible, and that Trump and his team later lost faith in the trial. He made efforts to bring about his downfall.

Regarding Stormy Daniels’ testimony about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, he said, “This is extremely biased testimony and cannot be corrected.” “This is a testimony of no return.”

Blanche argued that much of Daniels’ testimony had nothing to do with the business records falsification trial itself, and that her testimony was simply intended to embarrass Trump and “spark the jury.” He claimed that he had done so.

He went on to say that the testimony was “very prejudicial and risks distracting the jury from focusing on the evidence in the case itself.”

Marchand denied the motion for a miscarriage of justice filed by Trump’s lawyers.

“As a matter of threshold, Ms. Blanche, I agree that there were things you would have been better off not saying. I think it would have been a little difficult to control the witnesses,” the judge said.

“I don’t think we’ve reached the point where a miscarriage of justice is justified,” he added. more Objection. ”

Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said his team is moving toward a mistrial based on Daniels’ testimony this morning.

Blanche argued that the guardrails were thrown aside and that the testimony unfairly prejudiced Trump and the charges in the case. He said her account of her 2006 encounter with President Trump differed greatly from the story she told in 2016.

He said her testimony had nothing to do with the case and argued that the only reason prosecutors asked about the encounter, other than to embarrass Trump, was to provoke the jury.

“What’s a jury to do about it?” he said. “It remains highly prejudicial to bring security, or security concerns, into a business records case.”

“In our opinion, there is no way to ring a bell,” he said.

Blanche said Daniels’ testimony that she “blacked out” before having sex with Trump was “the kind of testimony that is impossible to recover from.”

Mayor Eric Adams said the city’s Department of Corrections and Rikers Island are ready if Trump is jailed for violating Marchand’s gag order at trial.

Secretary Adams said in a press conference today, citing Harvey Weinstein’s recent comments, that the department’s secretary, Lynelle McGinley-Liddy, is “prepared for whatever happens at Rikers Island and is ready to take action on the situation.” I am confident that we are prepared to manage and deal with it.” He is transferred to the prison’s medical ward.

“We have to adjust,” he said. “In this business, especially in law enforcement, you have to adjust to whatever happens, but you don’t want to deal with hypotheticals. But these guys are professionals. They’ll be ready.”

Asked if he had discussed President Trump’s situation with the department, Adams said, “Yes, we have.”

The trial will take a lunch break until 2 p.m., and direct questioning of Daniels will continue.

Eric Trump, the former president’s adult son who is attending today’s trial, condemned the trial in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account.

“Pure blackmail!!!!” he wrote.

Daniels said the two had no contact as part of a $130,000 agreement forbidding her from talking about her sexual encounters with Trump.

“Basically, we had to pretend we didn’t know each other at all,” she testified.

Ms. Daniels said she accepted $130,000 to sign the non-disclosure agreement, even though Mr. Trump understood that she was the beneficiary of the agreement.

In her interactions with prosecutors, she testified that Michael Cohen was representing Trump at the time. She said she signed the contract not because of the money, but because she wanted her whole ordeal to end.

Prosecutors today have repeatedly tried to predict the specific line of questioning that is likely to occur during cross-examination so that jurors can first hear answers on her terms.

For example, Daniels has said she was not motivated by money, although her defense team is likely to argue that she was motivated by money, and she went to police because she was scared about a threatening interaction with a man in a parking lot. He says he did not report it. .

Daniels testified that she was offered $130,000 for an article about her and Trump, but that “money was not an issue” to her.

The prosecutor asked, “How did you feel about the $130,000 at the time?” Mr. Daniels responded: I just had to get it done. ”

“Money wasn’t important to me. I didn’t pick a number,” Daniels continued.

The prosecution questioned, “Why didn’t you ask for more money?” Daniels replied, “He didn’t care about money.”