Former porn star Stormy Daniels, a central figure in Donald Trump’s politically charged trial in New York, began testifying Tuesday and telling the courtroom the story of her meeting with the former president of the United States. United.
A little nervous, the 45-year-old actress began to detail in great detail that day in 2006 when, on the sidelines of a golf competition, she met Donald Trump, then a figure in the business and political world. the jet set.
“It was a very brief meeting”, then, security “(told me) ‘Donald Trump would like to know if I wanted to have dinner with him’”, she recounted in front of jurors, visibly absorbed by her story , and Donald Trump, who remained impassive when she entered the courtroom.
The meeting at the heart of the matter
Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims to have then had a sexual relationship with the billionaire in his hotel suite, which the Republican categorically denies. During her testimony, prosecutors showed a now-famous photo of her and Donald Trump posing together.
The actress detailed the conversation they had in the suite, “a hotel room that was three times the size of my apartment”, where Donald Trump welcomed her “dressed in silk or cotton pajamas satin”, which she made fun of. She talks about a rather playful conversation, during which Donald Trump takes an interest in her. With my wife Melania, “we don’t sleep in the same room,” he confided to her, according to his testimony.
The billionaire would have dangled an appearance on his famous reality TV show, “The Apprentice”.
An unbalanced balance of power
Then, answering questions from prosecutor Susan Hoffinger who is leading the interrogation, Stormy Daniels recounts this moment when, leaving the bathroom, she said she found Donald Trump undressed on the bed.
“I felt the blood drain from my hands and feet like when you get up too quickly,” she recalled. If she did not feel threatened, she assures that the businessman’s intention “was quite clear” and that the “balance of power was unbalanced”.
“I ended up having sex with him,” she adds, comparing the situation to “a blackout.” “I was ashamed of not having stopped it, of not saying no” and “I told very few people”.
The defense renews its objection
In the tense atmosphere of the interrogation, Judge Juan Merchan seemed annoyed by certain questions from the prosecutor, while one of Donald Trump’s lawyers, Susan Necheles, had pleaded for the sexual relationship not to be mentioned. “It’s excessively damaging,” she added.
The meeting is at the heart of the matter. Ten years later, at the end of the 2016 presidential campaign, Stormy Daniels received $130,000 to keep quiet about this episode, a payment hidden at the center of the case.
The money was paid by the billionaire’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, via a shell company. He was reimbursed in 2017 by Donald Trump’s business group, the Trump Organization, for expenses recorded as “legal fees” which are at the center of the lawsuits.
Since April 15, the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election has appeared before a jury 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 sentence of prison.
The payment itself is not disputed, but Donald Trump’s lawyers deny any criminal wrongdoing. Even if convicted, Donald Trump could still run on November 5 against Joe Biden.