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Donald Trump’s defence lawyer pressed adult film actress Stormy Daniels about statements she issued in 2018 denying that she ever had sex with Mr Trump, a claim that is now at the centre of the first criminal trial of a former US president.
Ms Daniels’ unflattering account of a sexual encounter with Mr Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006 riveted jurors on Tuesday and served to remind US voters of the more lurid aspects of his 2017-2021 presidency as he campaigns to win back the White House this year.
Defence lawyer Susan Necheles showed jurors two statements Ms Daniels signed in 2018 denying she had an affair with Mr Trump.
At the time, Ms Daniels was still subject to a non-disclosure agreement she reached with Mr Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to not discuss the alleged encounter before the 2016 election in exchange for $130,000 (€120,000).
“Let’s be clear, I did not write this,” Ms Daniels said. “It was given to me and I was told that I had to sign it.”
Ms Daniels’ lawyer at the time, Keith Davidson, testified earlier in the trial that the statement was designed to be technically accurate by denying an affair without denying an individual sexual encounter.
Mr Trump, 77, is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up Mr Cohen’s payment to Ms Daniels, 45. He has pleaded not guilty and denies ever having sex with Ms Daniels.
A Republican seeking to take back the White House from Democratic US President Joe Biden in a 5 November election, Mr Trump argues the trial is a politically motivated attempt to interfere with his campaign.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump’s legal team was able to punch some holes in Ms Daniels’ account.
Under questioning, she admitted that she had not always told the truth about the encounter, and acknowledged that she has refused to pay Mr Trump a judgment of more than $500,000 (€464,000) stemming from a failed defamation lawsuit.
Ms Necheles also asked Ms Daniels why she let Mr Cohen buy her silence, when she had previously testified she wanted to go public with her story.
Ms Daniels said she ultimately agreed to the non-disclosure agreement rather than tell her story not because of the payout, but because of safety concerns.
“The better alternative was to get my story protected with a paper trail,” Ms Daniels testified. Publishing the story would have put “a target on my back, and my family’s,” she said.
Prosecutors say Mr Trump’s efforts to obscure the paper trail corrupted the 2016 election by preventing voters from learning about a story that might have informed their vote.
In one sense, Ms Daniels’ testimony is peripheral to the case, and it may not matter much to voters who have already heard other stories of Mr Trump’s alleged sexual misbehaviour.
Mr Trump’s lawyers argued as much on Tuesday when they unsuccessfully sought a mistrial, saying that she had “inflamed” the jury with unnecessary details like claiming that Mr Trump did not use a condom.
Ms Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday clearly frustrated the former US president, drawing a warning about witness intimidation from Justice Juan Merchan.
Judge Merchan has fined Trump $10,000 (€9,300) for talking about jurors and witnesses in the trial and warned that further violations of a gag order that is in place could land him in jail.
The case is widely seen as the least consequential of the four criminal prosecutions Mr Trump faces. But the chances of the other three going to trial before the election are growing more distant.
One federal case in Washington that accuses Mr Trump of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Mr Biden has been held up for months by the Supreme Court.
A federal case in Florida that accuses him of mishandling classified documents has been delayed indefinitely as the judge, appointed by Mr Trump, considers legal objections by his lawyers.
A state case in Georgia that accuses Mr Trump of election interference likewise is on hold as an appeals court considers whether the prosecutor improperly had a romantic affair with another lawyer who is no longer on the case.
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