Stormy Daniels clashes with Donald Trump’s lawyer over sex encounter
- The ex-US president’s lawyer asked her about different accounts she had given of the incident, seeking to undermine the porn star’s credibility as a witness
- Daniels remained defiant in the face of the aggressive questioning and frequently snapped back with witty retorts
Donald Trump’s lawyer sought to catch inconsistencies in porn star Stormy Daniels’ various tellings of an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, part of an effort on Thursday to undermine her credibility as a witness in the first criminal trial of a sitting or former US president.
Daniels’ unflattering account of a sexual encounter with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006 while he was married to his wife Melania riveted jurors on Tuesday, reminding US voters of some more lurid aspects of his 2017-2021 presidency as he campaigns to win back the White House this year.
Trump, 77, is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s US$130,000 payment to Daniels, 45, for her silence ahead of the 2016 election about the alleged encounter. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies ever having sex with Daniels.
In nearly four hours of cross-examination on Tuesday and Thursday, defence lawyer Susan Necheles asked Daniels about her earlier testimony of the alleged encounter compared with versions in a book she wrote and interviews she gave over the years.
She asked Daniels why in a 2018 interview to Vogue magazine she did not mention that Trump’s bodyguard had been outside the hotel room where the encounter happened. Daniels on Tuesday said her awareness of the bodyguard’s presence contributed to a power imbalance that left her feeling uncomfortable.