Former American president Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly concealing hush money payments in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 7, 2024, in New York. Trump was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records, which prosecutors say was intended to hide a potential sex scandal, before and after the 2016 presidential election. Trump is the first former U.S. president to be tried on criminal charges. (Sarah Yenesel-Pool | Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Adult film star Stormy Daniels told a Manhattan jury Tuesday that he met Donald Trump in a penthouse suite in 2006, where he told the actress not to worry about his wife and that she reminded him of his daughter shortly before he they don’t have sex.
The testimony, reported by reporters in the courtroom, described in detail the intimate physical encounter with a former president, who now faces charges in New York for falsifying records of secret payments to the actress and director. Trump is the first former president to face criminal charges.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate in 2024, denies this meeting.
Daniels was called to the stand in the fourth week of the trial as prosecutors seek to prove that Trump hid a $130,000 payment to silence the star during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Former president faces 34 criminal charges for allegedly hiding payments, reimbursed to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, as “legal costs”. The Trump Organization ultimately paid Cohen $420,000 to account for taxes and a bonus.
The publisher of the book testifies
The trial opened Tuesday with a brief appearance by witness Sally Franklin. Franklin is a director and editor at Penguin Random House, the publisher of some of Trump’s books, including “Trump: How to Get Rich” and “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire.”
Prosecutors presented jurors with excerpts from Trump’s books, including passages in which Trump claims to always sign the checks personally and that he meticulously tracked funds coming in and out of the Trump Organization.
On Monday, the jury heard from a former and a current financial employee of the Trump Organization about the payments made to Cohen. Prosecutors used the testimony to show jurors financial documents, including the 11 checks Trump personally signed.
The New York case is the first of four criminal charges against Trump. reach trial stage. The probability of other cases trial access ahead of the November election declined further Tuesday when a federal district judge in Florida indefinitely postponed the trial date in the Trump classified documents case was scheduled for May 20.
“My motivation was not money”
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, testified for several hours, telling the jury about a reluctant sexual relationship with Trump and several public meetings with him in the following months as he dangled a possible appearance in the NBC show “The Apprentice,” according to…
