Stormy Daniels could take the stand in Donald Trump’s hush money trial as soon as today, according to multiple press reports.
The porn actress — whose real name is Stephanie Clifford — was paid $130,000 by a Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen, during the 2016 presidential campaign to stay quiet about a sexual encounter with the married Trump that she claimed had happened a decade earlier.
Daniels attorney Clark Brewster told the AP that it was “likely” Daniels would take the stand today.
The deal with Daniels is the centerpiece of the Manhattan District Attorney’s case against Trump. After Cohen paid her off days before the 2016 election, prosecutors say, Trump and his allies undertook a lawbreaking scheme to repay Cohen. They falsified business records by disguising the reimbursement as taxable income for legal work Cohen never did, according to prosecutors.
Earlier today, Trump posted a message on his social media platform, Truth Social, that read, “I have just recently been told who the witness is today. This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare. No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way.” He then deleted the post. The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has threatened Trump with jail time if his continues to comment on witnesses or potential witnesses in the case. The judge already has fined Trump $10,000 for violations of a partial gag order.
Trump has denied any sexual contact with Daniels, and his lawyers have suggested that Cohen acted on his own to protect Trump from her salacious claims. Monday’s comparatively dry and detailed testimony — from a pair of Trump Organization accounting employees, once since retired — revealed the inner workings of the payments to Cohen.
Even as president, Trump made time to sign checks to Cohen that were approved by his company’s chief financial officer and overnighted to the White House, according to testimony from the Trump accounting employees.
Daniels went on to write a tell-all memoir, Full Disclosure, claiming she slept with the Celebrity Apprentice star in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament in California.
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