According to several press reports, Stormy Daniels could take a stand in the hush money trial against Donald Trump as early as today.
The porn actress – real name Stephanie Clifford – was paid $130,000 by a Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen, during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about a sexual encounter with the married Trump that she claimed lasted a decade previously taken place.
Daniels’ attorney, Clark Brewster, told the AP that it was “likely” Daniels would take the stand today.
The Daniels deal is the centerpiece of the Manhattan district attorney’s case against Trump. After Cohen paid them off just days before the 2016 election, Trump and his allies undertook an illegal scheme to repay Cohen, according to prosecutors. They falsified business records by disguising the reimbursement as taxable income for legal work that Cohen never performed, prosecutors said.
Trump has denied any sexual contact with Daniels and his lawyers have suggested that Cohen acted alone to protect Trump from her salacious claims. Monday’s comparatively dry and detailed testimony — from two now-retired Trump Organization accounting employees — revealed the inner workings of the payments to Cohen.
Even as president, Trump took time to sign checks to Cohen that were approved by his company’s chief financial officer and wired to the White House overnight, according to testimony from Trump accounting staff.
Daniels went on to write a comprehensive memoir: Full disclosureclaims she slept with him Celebrity Apprentice Star in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in California.
Today, Trump posted a message on his social media platform Truth Social that read, “I was just recently told who today’s witness is. This is unprecedented, the lawyers have no time to prepare. No judge has ever conducted a trial in such a biased and biased manner.” He then deleted the post. The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has threatened Trump with prison time if he continues to comment on witnesses or potential witnesses in the case, as well as jurors and others involved. The judge has already fined Trump $10,000 for violating a partial gag order.
Merchan’s silence order does not apply to himself, and the judge remains the daily target of Trump’s outspoken comments under pressure outside the courtroom.
Trump responded to a second contempt ruling on Monday by suggesting he was willing to risk prison to assert his First Amendment rights. “And honestly, you know what, our Constitution is way more important than prison,” he said on his way out of court Monday. “It’s not even close. I will make this sacrifice every day.”