Donald Trump was forced to sit and listen to a porn star describe in open court a bedroom encounter that he denies ever took place. He is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels over the affair ahead of the 2016 election that brought him to power.
Daniels told the New York court:
When I opened the bathroom door to come out, Mr. Trump had come into the bedroom. The intention was pretty clear, someone stripped down to their underwear posing on the bed waiting for you.
Trump stared ahead during Daniels’ testimony, which often veered into graphic sexual detail despite the judge’s best efforts:
My clothes and shoes were off, I think I still had my bra on. We were in missionary position.
Was he wearing a condom? “No.”
Was it brief? “Yes.”
Judge Juan Merchan appeared wrong-footed by the adult material, ordering Daniels to “just answer the questions” after repeated objections from the defence, several of which he upheld.
Sweary Don
At one point, during a sidebar, Merchan told Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche that the Republican was “cursing audibly” and shaking his head during Daniels’s testimony.
According to excerpts of the official trial transcript Merchan said:
I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually, and that’s contemptuous.
Merchan further explained that Trump’s noise and gestures “has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that,” later adding: “I won’t tolerate that.”
Well, you could argue that perhaps we should all be grateful that Trump isn’t farting and falling asleep anymore.
Merchan said he was raising this during the sidebar, when lawyers huddle with the judge in conversations that are not meant to be audible to the jury or wider courtroom, because “I don’t want to embarrass him.” Of course, Trump usually just embarrasses himself, instead of outsourcing it.
Trump is, of course, the same man who said he liked to “grab” women by the “pussy,” said of a 10 year old girl that he would be “dating her in 10 years,” stated that if Ivanka wasn’t his daughter he would date her, and, much much more.
Unforgettable allegations
Daniels still revealed a plethora of unforgettable allegations.
She told the court Trump called her “honeybunch,” and she described multiple phone calls with him – some of which she put on speakerphone to entertain her friends.
The encounter took place in 2006, she recalled, when Trump had pushed to have dinner with her at a golf tournament.
When she arrived via the penthouse elevator, Trump greeted her in silk or satin pyjamas before changing into casual clothes after she teased him.
“He said it was a bit early, maybe we could talk a little bit and get to know each other,” Daniels said.
She recounted that he asked if she had a boyfriend, about the economics of the porn industry, and the threat of catching a sexually transmitted disease in her job.
“I said well, we were tested every 30 days,” Daniels told the court, occasionally looking straight at Trump, who did not return her gaze.
‘He went to kiss me’
Daniels said their lengthy conversation touched on Trump’s wife Melania – with Trump saying, “we actually don’t even sleep in the same room” – as well as whether Daniels should go on Trump’s show The Apprentice.
In another excruciating comment, Daniels recalled another moment:
He said I reminded him of his daughter because she’s smart and blonde.
When Trump showed her a magazine with him on the cover, Daniels told the court that she had joked:
Someone should spank you with that. He gave me the look that he dared me to do it… so I swatted him with it right on the butt.
In the trial transcript, Merchan detailed that moment as one of the times Trump could be seen shaking his head.
In testimony that was at times calm, and at times uncertain, she said they saw each other the next day, and met again at a function at Trump Tower in New York and in Los Angeles, but they did not have sex again.
Desperate
Trump’s attorneys tried unsuccessfully to have a mistrial declared based on Daniels’s testimony. In fact, Daniels appeared to have gotten under Trump’s skin even before she entered the shabby courtroom in a Manhattan skyscraper. Trump later deleted the following social media post, but he said:
I have just recently been told who the witness is today. This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare.
Of course, how are the poor dears supposed to prepare for testimony from Stormy Daniels during a trial that covers allegations that Trump paid hush money to… erm… Stormy Daniels?
Trump’s lawyers called for a mistrial, saying much of Daniels’ testimony had nothing to do with the fraud charges that the ex-president faces.
The judge denied the request but added “I agree there were some things that were better left unsaid.”
Those words aptly describe Trump’s presidency, and indeed, his entire existence. The trial continues.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
Featured image via YouTube/screenshot – The View
