NEW YORK - Porn film actress Stormy Daniels came face to face with former U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, graphically telling jurors at his New York trial that she had an unwanted 2006 sexual encounter with him and then was paid $130,000 to stay quiet about it ahead of Trump’s successful run for the presidency in 2016.

Daniels testified for hours about how she met Trump at a Lake Tahoe celebrity golf tournament in Nevada, how he invited her to dinner in his hotel suite, how she found him “rude and arrogant,” how they discussed a possible appearance for her on his “Celebrity Apprentice” reality show and then ended up in bed for a brief liaison that Trump denies ever occurred.

Trump defense lawyer Todd Blanche sought a mistrial after her at times lurid testimony. But New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, while saying some of her account might have been better left unsaid, denied the request.

Her testimony was a pivotal point in New York prosecutors’ 34-count indictment accusing Trump of falsifying business records at his Trump Organization real estate conglomerate to hide a $130,000 reimbursement to his erstwhile lawyer and political fixer Michael Cohen.

Cohen paid Daniels to silence her claim of sex with Trump, which Trump allegedly sought to keep from voters just days ahead of the election eight years ago.

Daniels, dressed in a black outfit, took the witness stand a short distance from Trump, apparently their first encounter since 2007 when she visited him at his Trump Tower business office in New York and he introduced her to the people who happened to be there.

She said they had numerous phone conversations after her claimed 2006 sexual encounter with him at the golf resort, when she was 27 and he 60, but never again sex.

Trump, who rarely is forced to come face to face with people accusing him of impropriety, sat through her testimony, listening intently, whispering to his defense attorneys at various points, and once, according to reporters in the courtroom, seemingly mouthing a profanity in response to one of Daniels’ claims.

That came as Daniels described their conversation in his hotel suite.

She said she asked him: “Are you always this rude? Are you always this arrogant and pompous? Like you don’t even know how to have a conversation.”

She said she asked about him about his wife, Melania, whom he had married the year before, and that he replied not to worry because the two did not “even sleep in the same room.”

She will face cross-examination from one of Trump’s attorneys.

Trump has denied Daniels’ claim of an affair and all 34 charges he is facing. If convicted, he could be placed on probation or face up to four years in prison.

Prosecutors’ witnesses at the trial, now in its fourth week, have told the 12-member jury stories of sex and scandal, lurid tabloid journalism of fabricated stories to help Trump in the 2016 election or clandestine payoffs to Daniels and another woman, Playboy model Karen McDougal, to hide their claims of assignations with Trump. He had also denied McDougal’s claim of a 10-month affair with him in 2006 and 2007.

Trump's lawyer called for a mistrial over testimony made by Daniels, but that motion was quickly rejected.

Meanwhile, Trump's classified documents case was delayed indefinitely. Judge Aileen Cannon has announced she is indefinitely postponing the former president's classified documents case from the 20 May start date, BBC reported.

Citing the complexity of the case and Trump's myriad of legal issues, Judge Cannon said the court was abandoning its plan to try Trump in the coming weeks. (Source: VOA News)

Story Date: May 8, 2024