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Donald Trump is set to return to court after adult film actress Stormy Daniels’ testimony about her alleged sexual encounter with him, as prosecutors prepare to call their final witnesses in the first-ever criminal trial of a sitting or former US president.
In seven hours of testimony this week over two days in New York state criminal court in Manhattan, Ms Daniels spared few details.
She told jurors she had sex with Mr Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006 while he was married to his wife Melania.
Mr Trump, 77, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Ms Daniels, 45, for her silence ahead of the 2016 US presidential election about the alleged encounter.
He denies having sex with Ms Daniels and has called the case a politically motivated effort to interfere with his campaign to win back the White House in the 5 November US election against his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden.
Today’s proceedings are expected to kick off with more cross-examination of Madeline Westerhout, the former White House aide who testified yesterday about cheques Mr Trump signed in the Oval Office and a meeting he scheduled with Cohen early in his 2017-2021 presidency.
Cohen, Mr Trump’s one time loyal “fixer” who is now an outspoken antagonist, is chief among the remaining witnesses.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office have not said when he will be called to the stand, and his testimony could last several days.
Prosecutors say Mr Trump falsely labelled his reimbursement payments to Cohen in 2017 as legal retainer fees in his New York-based real estate company’s books to obscure the payment to Ms Daniels, which they say violated campaign finance law.
They say the payments to Ms Daniels and another woman who says she had an affair with Mr Trump, Playboy model Karen McDougal, were part of a broader scheme to corrupt the 2016 election by buying the silence of people with potentially damaging information in violation of campaign finance laws.
Mr Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the race for president that year. Mr Trump has also denied the alleged affair with Ms McDougal.
Prosecutors have now called 16 witnesses, and said they could rest their case by 21 May.
Last month, defence lawyer Susan Necheles said prosecutors had provided them a list of 20 potential witnesses. They may not call all those witnesses, and prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said in court yesterday they do not plan to call Ms McDougal.
Todd Blanche, a defence lawyer for Mr Trump, on both Tuesday and yesterday asked Justice Juan Merchan to declare a mistrial, arguing Ms Daniels’ detailed testimony had prejudiced the jury and was not relevant to the charges.
Judge Merchan denied both those requests, pointing out that Mr Blanche in his 22 April opening statement said Ms Daniels’ story was false and prosecutors had a right to try to repair her credibility.
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