Former porn star Stormy Daniels, central character in Donald Trump’s trial in New York, gave raw testimony on Tuesday about the sexual relationship she claims to have had in 2006 with the former President of the United States, an episode at the heart of the case.
In another sensitive case, for which the Republican billionaire is accused of negligent use of classified documents, a federal judge in Florida postponed the start of the criminal trial on Tuesday indefinitely. This decision, taken by a magistrate appointed by the former president, makes it very unlikely that a trial will be held in this case before the presidential election of November 5 for which he is a candidate.
In New York, the testimony of Stormy Daniels was particularly awaited because Donald Trump, who denies any sexual relationship with her, is being prosecuted for the concealment of a payment of 130,000 dollars to the actress to buy her silence at the very end of the 2016 presidential campaign.
The hearing took place in a tense atmosphere. Judge Juan Merchan even asked Donald Trump’s lawyer in an aside to moderate the “contemptuous” attitude of his client who continued to “curse audibly”, according to a report relayed in the American press and on social networks.
The defense requested, in vain, the cancellation of the entire trial, on the grounds that the prosecutors’ questions were outside the scope and that the answers were “extremely prejudicial” for the Republican candidate in the November presidential election against the incumbent Democrat Joe Biden.
After the hearing, Donald Trump assured journalists that it was “an important day, very revealing” and that “the case is collapsing”. But he made no comment about Stormy Daniels after the judge threatened him with jail if he attacked witnesses again.
Nervous but talkative, the 45-year-old actress recounts in great detail this day when, on the sidelines of a golf competition, she met Donald Trump, then a figure in the business world and the jet-set. After “a very brief meeting”, a member of security “(told me) ‘Mr. Trump would like to know if you would like to have dinner with him,'” she said, in front of absorbed jurors. The person concerned remained impassive.
“I was ashamed”
In a black pantsuit, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, describes a hotel suite “that was three times the size of (her) apartment.” Donald Trump welcomed her there “dressed in silk or satin pajamas”.
The conversation is playful, the billionaire promises him an appearance on his famous reality TV show “The Apprentice”, she says. Then this moment when, she says, coming out of the bathroom, she finds Donald Trump undressed on the bed.
“I felt the blood leave my hands, and my feet like when you get up too quickly.” If she did not feel threatened, she assures that the businessman’s intention “was quite clear” and the “balance of power was unbalanced”.
“I ended up having sex with him,” she adds, specifying, at the request of the prosecutor, that Donald Trump did not wear a condom. “I was ashamed of not having stopped it, of not saying no,” she confides. Judge Juan Merchan seemed annoyed by certain questions from the prosecutor, while Donald Trump’s defense asked that the sexual relationship not be mentioned.
“I wasn’t interested in money.”
Stormy Daniels says she ran into Donald Trump a few times, then lost contact. According to his account, when the billionaire launched the presidential campaign, his agent advised him to monetize his testimony. An American tabloid, whose boss was close to Donald Trump, had already paid twice to buy exclusive rights to similar stories, never published.
“The money didn’t interest me,” she assures, recounting having been threatened in 2011 by a stranger in a Las Vegas parking lot, so as not to speak. The $130,000 was paid to Stormy Daniels by the billionaire’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, via a shell company. He was reimbursed in 2017 by Donald Trump’s holding company, the Trump Organization, for expenses disguised according to the prosecution as “legal fees” which are at the center of the lawsuits.
The Republican candidate is being prosecuted for 34 falsifications of accounting documents, which could earn him the first criminal conviction of a former president of the United States and, in theory, a prison sentence. Donald Trump is also being prosecuted in three other criminal cases, including that of classified documents. Even if convicted, he could still run on November 5 against Joe Biden.
“In the foreground”
In New York, Stormy Daniels also recounted on Tuesday the “chaos” that followed in her life when the payment was revealed by the Wall Street Journal in January 2018, in the middle of the Trump presidency. “Suddenly, I was at the forefront everywhere,” accused by the president and his supporters of being a liar, she explains.
During her cross-examination, Donald Trump’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, sought to portray her as a venal character, recalling that Stormy Daniels had lost a defamation case against the ex-president and still owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars. dollars for attorney fees.
The actress replied “yes” when the lawyer asked her if she hated Donald Trump. She says she wants him to go to prison if he is convicted. The tone rose further when the lawyer claimed that she had sought to extort the former president. “Wrong,” Stormy Daniels replied dryly. His testimony continues Thursday.