NEW YORK (AP) — The judge in Donald Trump's hush money case denied a second request from defense attorneys to declare a mistrial over porn actor Stormy Daniels' testimony, which concluded Thursday . Judge Juan M.
NEW YORK — The judge in Donald Trump's hush money case denied a second request from defense attorneys to declare a mistrial over porn actor Stormy Daniels' testimony, which concluded Thursday.
Daniels' testimony is a build-up to the prosecution's star witness Michael Cohen, who arranged the $130,000 payment to Daniels and later went to prison for orchestrating the payments and other charges. “This judge, what he did, and what his ruling was, is a disgrace,” Trump said. “Everybody saw what happened today.”The judge in Donald Trump's hush money case on Thursday denied another request from defense lawyers for a mistrial over Stormy Daniels' testimony.
“I agree. That should never have come out. That question should never have been asked and that answer should never have been given,” Merchan said. “For the life of me, I don’t know why Ms. Necheles didn’t object.”Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass countered a claim by Donald Trump's defense attorneys that Stormy Daniels changed her story as “extraordinarily untrue,” though there may be details “said in one forum and not another.
“They’re basically trying to have their cake and eat it too,” he said in pushing back against the defense's request for a mistrial.Defense attorneys in Donald Trump's hush money trial on Thursday said Stormy Daniels' testimony went far afield of rules established to protect Trump from being prejudiced by tawdry details, and didn’t match the account that was offered up to Cohen when he decided to pay her $130,000 for the rights to her story.
Under defense questioning earlier, Daniels insisted that while some reports on what she said had been incomplete, she hadn’t changed her story or fabricated it. Judge Juan M. Merchan on Thursday rejected the defense’s request to modify the existing gag order to allow Donald Trump to publicly respond to Stormy Daniels’ testimony.
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy responded that the gag order shouldn’t be altered to allow comments about Stormy Daniels because those remarks could have a chilling effect on other witnesses. He added that he's spoken with one future witness who is worried about the consequences of taking the stand. Defense lawyer Todd Blanche was concerned that Trump is being harmed by unchecked reporting on various claims she made about him on the witness stand.
Madeleine Westerhout’s testimony will continue on Friday. The judge is now sending the jury home so that he can attend to several issues the defense plans to raise, including renewing its motion for a mistrial following Stormy Daniels’ testimony.Madeleine Westerhout wiped tears from her eyes and asked for a moment as prosecutors turned to her exit from the White House during her testimony on Thursday.
After signing the checks, Westerhout said Trump would give them back to her and she’d sent them back to the Trump Organization using a prelabeled FedEx envelope. Another name on the list, Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro, was in attendance at the trial earlier Thursday, watching Stormy Daniels’ testimony from an overflow room down the hall.Prosecutors in Donald Trump's hush money trial called Madeleine Westerhout — Trump's personal secretary from 2017 to 2019 and the former director of Oval Office Operations for the Trump White House from February to August 2019 — to the stand Thursday afternoon.
Following roughly four minutes of cross-examination after a lunch break Thursday afternoon, Rebecca Manochio finished giving testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial. Blanche also said they will seek to prevent former Playboy model Karen McDougal from testifying and that they will make further arguments about the gag order that bars Donald Trump from speaking publicly about jurors, witnesses and others connected to the case.DANIELS CONCLUDES TESTIMONY
Necheles asked Daniels if she was aware of what Trump had been indicted for, producing an uncomfortable answer that the lawyer wanted stricken from the record. Her answer: “There’s a lot of indictments.” Daniels testified earlier this week that while she wasn’t physically menaced, she felt a “power imbalance” as Trump, in his hotel bedroom, stood between her and the door and propositioned her.
“You’ve acted and had sex in over 200 porn movies, right?” asked Necheles. “And there are naked men and women having sex, including yourself, in those movies?” Daniels rebuffed the idea that there was a discrepancy: saying that what she meant was that they talked during dinnertime but that she never said they actually got food, to her frustration, as she’s “very food-motivated.”
The line of questioning appeared aimed at undermining Daniels’ credibility while giving Necheles a chance to highlight that Daniels is working on a paranormal investigation show called Spooky Babes. Defense lawyer Susan Necheles pressed Stormy Daniels on her social media marketing of merchandise tied to her public persona as a Trump antagonist.
“Show me where I said I’d be instrumental in putting President Trump in jail,” the witness said, steady and unflustered. Daniels said she’s received $100,000 and is due another $25,000 for footage and other rights she provided to the makers of a documentary about her experiences that aired recently on the NBC streaming service Peacock.
Necheles confronted Daniels with two statements she signed in early 2018 denying that she ever had any sexual involvement with Trump or received money to keep quiet. She said her then-lawyer, Keith Davidson, advised her to sign it, and that she was told that Cohen was pressing him to get her to do so.
Davidson, relaying what the boyfriend might say about Daniels, was heard saying: “If loses this election, we all lose all leverage. This case is worth zero.” While Daniels said she was most interested in getting her story out and ensuring her family’s safety, Necheles accused her of refusing to share the story with reporters because she wouldn’t be paid for it.“The better alternative was to get my story protected with a paper trail so that my family didn’t get hurt,” Daniels replied.Donald Trump's lawyers asked New York's mid-level appeals court on Wednesday to expedite a decision on his gag order appeal.
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