(NEW YORK) — Stormy Daniels took the stand in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Tuesday, describing for jurors the night she allegedly had sex with him.
The adult film star, who testified pursuant to a subpoena, said she first met Trump at the Lake Tahoe Golf Tournament in 2006, when she was 27. Trump has repeatedly denied the alleged affair ever occurred.
“I didn’t know his age, but I knew he was as old as or older than my father,” Daniels said, noting her father was 60 at the time.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, testified that Trump’s bodyguard approached her at the tournament and asked if she’d like to have dinner with Trump. She was not initially interested, she said, but reconsidered after her publicist encouraged her to go.
“If nothing else, you’ll get a great story,” Daniels, who was an adult film actress, recalled what her then-publicist said her.
When she met Trump inside a suite at one of his resorts, Daniels said he was wearing pajamas.
“He was wearing silk or satin pajamas that I immediately made fun of him for — ‘Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas?'” she recalled saying to him. “I told him to go change and he obliged very politely.”
Trump changed into a dress shirt and pants, Daniels testified, and the two sat at a table and spoke. Much of the conversation focused on Daniels’ background in the adult film industry, she said.
“Are there any unions? Do you get residuals? How do you get paid? Do you get health insurance? What about STDs?” Daniels recounted Trump asking her.
Daniels said that Trump specifically asked about her own tests for STDs.
“Every test that I have ever done … and I have never had a bad test. I never tested positive for anything,” Daniels said.
The two also had a “very brief” conversation about Trump’s wife, Melania Trump.
“He showed me a few pictures … and I said, ‘Oh, what about your wife?'”
She testified that Trump responded, “Oh, don’t worry about that; we don’t sleep in the same room.”
During their conversation. Daniels testified Trump suggested she go on “The Apprentice.” He also allegedly compared her to Ivanka Trump.
“You remind me of my daughter,” Daniels said Trump told her, remarking on how people underestimate her intelligence.
At one point, Daniels said she got “snappy” because Trump kept cutting her off.
“Are you always this rude? Are you always this arrogant and pompous?” she testified she said to him, then “spanked” him “right on the butt” with a rolled-up newspaper.
After going to the bathroom — where she said she went through his toiletry bag — Daniels said she walked out and saw Trump on the bed wearing his “boxer shorts and T-shirt,” which she described as a “jump scare.”
“The next thing I know, I was on the bed,” Daniels said. “I had my clothes and my shoes off. I believe my bra, however, was still on.”
Daniels testified that she then had sex with Trump, and that he did not wear a condom. During this exchange, Daniels went into great detail.
Previously, the Judge Juan Merchan had said that “We don’t need to know the details of the intercourse.”
Trump’s attorneys objected to parts of the testimony, including when Daniels detailed the alleged positioning of her and Trump.
When it was over, Daniels said Trump told her, “We have to get together again soon.”
Before detailing the sexual encounter, Daniels noted there was an “there was an imbalance of power” but she was not threatened. “He was bigger and blocking the way. I was not threatened verbally or physically,” Daniels said.
She said he never expressed any worry about his wife finding out.
The two kept in touch after the encounter, Daniels said, with him frequently referring to her as “honey bunch.”
“It was weird,” she said.
Frequently, when Trump called, Daniels said she would put her phone on speakerphone because she “thought it was funny,” and she said “dozens and dozens of people heard me on the phone with him.”
After Daniels described details of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, the defense requested a mistrial. Judge Juan Merchan denied the motion.
“I don’t believe we are at the point where a mistrial is warranted,” Merchan said.
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