Stormy Daniels Takes Witness Stand At Trump Trial

Porn star Stormy Daniels took the witness stand Tuesday to testify in former President Donald Trump’s trial.

A $130,000 payment made ahead of the 2016 election to keep Daniels’ quiet about her claims of an affair is at the center of prosecutors’ case, which claims Trump falsified business records to reimburse his former attorney Michael Cohen for the payment.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger started by asking Daniels about her education and upbringing. Daniels, who said she came from a very low income family, explained that she started working as an “exotic dancer” on the weekends at 17 and doing nude modeling at 21.

When they briefly met at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006, Daniels said Trump singled her out as “the smart one” among the other girls because she also directed adult films.

Judge Juan Merchan denied in March Trump’s request to prevent Daniels, as well as Cohen, from testifying in the trial.

“Locating and purchasing the information from Daniels not only completes the narrative of events that precipitated the falsification of business records but is also probative of the Defendant’s intent,” he wrote.

Prosecutors focused on the documents at the center of the case on Monday, showing the jury the allegedly falsified ledgers, invoices and checks through the testimony of two witnesses from the Trump Organization’s accounting department. During the prior two weeks of testimony, prosecutors called witnesses who set up context for the Daniels’ payment, as well as the “conspiracy” to influence the 2016 election they allege Trump was engaged in through the payment to suppress her story, along with two others.

Merchan also ruled Monday that Trump violated his gag order for the tenth time, warning that the court would “have to consider a jail sanction” moving forward.