OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress whose testimony is central to former President Donald Trump’s criminal case, has been detailing her alleged one-night stand with Trump in 2006 as prosecutor Susan Hoffinger questions her.
Daniels received a $130,000 “hush money” payment to prevent her from speaking out about her alleged affair with Trump before the 2016 presidential election. The payments Trump made to his former attorney Michael Cohen, which prosecutors allege were reimbursements for paying off the adult film star ahead of the election, are central to the 34 charges of falsifying business records against him.
CNN detailed how Daniels’ took the stand on Tuesday and how things appear to be going well for Trump.
“They have a Stormy Daniels on the stand right now in Donald Trump‘s hush money cover-up case. And she‘s talking about how she got into the world of adult films. And also as you mentioned, Anderson talking about some of the more mainstream entertainment projects she‘s been in the jury,” the reporter began.
“We‘re told the jury is not reacting to her laughs. And at time her at times her blunt testimony and what is the purpose Bill Brennan of the prosecutors, eliciting from her the information not only about how she got into the world of adult films pornographic films, but also that she‘d been in a maroon five video that she‘d been in a rob zombie video that she‘d been in at least two works by altar jot apa town,” the reporter added.
“The knocked up in the four-year-old verjee and asked if she discussed trumping connection with politics and our podcast now she says yes, of course. She no longer hosts the podcast because she was fired what is the purpose of all this from? Because the prosecution is doing this, I think the prosecutor, trying to humanize Stormy Daniels before this jury, but the latest reports say that they don‘t seem to be reacting to her,” the reporter continued.
“It’s information that‘s irrelevant to what we‘re looking for in this trial. It‘s going to backfire,” she said.
WATCH:
Trump signaled this week that he is willing to be locked up for violating Judge Juan Merchan’s restrictive gag order in remarks to reporters.
On Monday, Merchan, a known donor to Democratic candidates, cited new examples of Trump violating the order after he fined the 45th president $9,000 last week for similar violations. “Merchan warned Trump that continued violations of the order could result in incarceration—a threat he made again on Monday after fining him the maximum of $1,000 for the most recent violation,” NBC News reported.
“It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent,” Merchan said during early proceedings on Monday.
“The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail. You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well. There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for you,” he continued, adding that taking that step would be “disruptive to the proceedings.”
However, Merchan warned Trump that “his continued willful violations of this court’s orders threaten the administration of justice and constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue.”
Merchan noted that the offending statement was posted to Trump’s Truth Social account and that it must be removed by 2:15 p.m. on Monday.
Later, Trump was critical of the gag order to reporters, vowing that he may have to be jailed over the issue.
“I tell you people, you ask me a question, a simple question, I’d like to give it, but I can’t talk about it because this judge has given me a gag order and said you’ll go to jail if you violate it,” he said.
“And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day,” he added.
The former president also noted that the trial is expected to last for several more weeks.
“So we just found out. The government said they want two to three more weeks,” he said, per The Epoch Times.. They want to keep me off the trail for two to three more weeks. Now, anybody in there would realize there’s no case; they don’t have a case.”
“This is just a political witch hunt, it’s election interference, and this is really, truly election interference,” he said, claiming that the case was only brought after he announced his campaign.
Trump also criticized the order late last week.
“This judge has taken away my constitutional right,” Trump said in the hallway outside court on Friday morning. “We’re filing, I think today, a constitutional motion. He added, “If somebody says something about me and I’m not allowed to respond, that’s never happened before.”
