Stormy Daniels has taken the witness stand at Donald Trump's hush money trial, describing for jurors a sexual encounter the adult film star says she had with him in 2006 that resulted in her being paid off to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
Warning: This story contains content that may disturb some readers
Jurors appeared riveted as Ms Daniels offered a detailed and at times graphic account of the encounter Mr Trump has denied.
Mr Trump stared straight ahead as Ms Daniels entered the courtroom, later whispering to his lawyers and hanging his head away from the witness box as she testified.
Ms Daniels testified that her life descended into "chaos" after the deal was made public, saying she was ostracised and harassed at her home.
"My husband asking questions, my friends asking questions," Ms Daniels testified on day 13 of the first criminal trial of a former US president.
"It blew my cover, for lack of a better way to explain it."
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked her: "Who do you understand Mr Trump to be referring to as horseface and sleazebag in this post?" as she displayed a social media post by Mr Trump.
"Me," Ms Daniels replied, later saying she hated Mr Trump and hoped he went to jail if found guilty.
She told the New York jury about the alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Mr Trump and the $US130,000 ($197,000) hush money payment she secured when he ran for president in 2016.
Ms Daniels said she was worried he would not pay her if he won the November 2016 election. Jurors saw documents that showed she cancelled the deal in mid-October but later revived it.
She said she honoured the agreement by telling the Wall Street Journal in 2018 that she had not had sex with Mr Trump. Nevertheless, the Journal published the story.
Ms Daniels, 45, said she was determined to keep the incident private after being threatened in a parking lot in 2011 but changed her mind during Mr Trump's 2016 presidential bid when he faced multiple accusations of sexual misbehaviour.
"My motivation wasn't money, it was to get the story out," she said.
Mr Trump, 77, who is the Republican candidate for president again this year, did not react as he watched her testimony from the witness stand.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up the hush money payment to Ms Daniels and denies ever having sex with her.
His legal team has suggested that Ms Daniels made up the story as she was angling for a spot on The Apprentice, a popular reality TV show then hosted by Mr Trump, a New York real estate mogul.
Ms Daniels confirmed that she hoped he would cast her on the show following their encounter.
Asked by Mr Trump's lawyer if she was now making money off her story, she replied: "I've been making money by telling my story about what happened to me."
Mistrial rejected
Ms Daniels veered into salacious details despite the repeated objections of defence lawyers, who after the lunch break demanded for the first time a mistrial over what they said were prejudicial and irrelevant comments.
Mr Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, argued that her testimony was irrelevant to a case about business records and that details, such as the fact that Mr Trump did not wear a condom, would only "inflame" the jury.
"This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from," he said.
"How can we come back from this in a way that's fair to President Trump?"
He added that it is also "unfair" as Mr Trump had to go out on the campaign trail later that day.
A post published to Mr Trump's Truth Social account just before court resumed read: "THE PROSECUTION, WHICH HAS NO CASE, HAS GONE TOO FAR. MISTRIAL!"
He argued that "the court set guardrails for this testimony" but it was "just thrown to the side".
Judge Juan M Merchan rejected the request, saying he did not "believe we're at the point where a mistrial is warranted".
The judge said he agreed Ms Daniels said more at times than she should have, but he blamed the defence for not objecting more vigorously when she was testifying.
"I agree there are some things that would've been better left unsaid," Judge Merchan said, noting the "witness was a little difficult to control".
Prosecutors had defended Ms Daniels's testimony following the mistrial request, countering that her testimony went to Mr Trump's reasons for paying her to stay silent — and went to Ms Daniels's credibility.
Judge Merchan said there were guardrails in place and that he sustained most of the defence's objections — but that there should have been more.
Details of alleged encounter
Ms Daniels said Mr Trump made sexual advances after inviting her to his hotel suite at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
She said he told her, "this is the only way you're getting out of the trailer park". Ms Daniels testified she grew up as the daughter of a low-income single mother.
Ms Daniels said she "blacked out" despite consuming no drugs or alcohol after Mr Trump prevented her from leaving the room by blocking the door. She said she woke up on the bed with her clothes off.
"I was staring at the ceiling and didn't know how I got there, I was trying to think about anything other than what was happening there," Ms Daniels testified.
Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she did not tell Mr Trump to stop. "I didn't say anything at all," she said and that she left the hotel room quickly afterwards.
The Republican politician, who served as president from 2017 to 2021, says the trial is an attempt to hobble his attempt to win back the White House from Democratic president Joe Biden in the November 5 election.
Wearing a black outfit and black glasses, Ms Daniels testified that she worked in strip clubs and pornography after a childhood in which her single mother was often gone for days at a time.
Details of satin pyjamas and a spanking
Ms Daniels said Mr Trump greeted her at his hotel suite wearing satin pyjamas. She said she grew annoyed by Mr Trump's frequent interruptions and asked him: "Are you always this arrogant and pompous?"
Mr Trump then dared Ms Daniels to spank him with a magazine and she obliged. "He was much more polite after that," she said.
"That's bullshit," Mr Trump appeared to say as he watched from the defendant's table.
The alleged encounter took place while Mr Trump was married to his current wife, Melania.
Ms Daniels said she confided in only a few people about the encounter. She said she saw Mr Trump at public events on several occasions in the years that followed, but then fell out of touch with him after he did not put her on the show.
She said she was approached in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 by a man who warned her not to speak about the encounter.
"I was scared and I didn't want anything else about the story to come out," she said.
She said she changed her mind during Mr Trump's 2016 bid and ultimately negotiated a $US130,000 payment with his lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles grilled Ms Daniels on apparent inconsistencies in the account of the parking-lot threat she has told over the years.
"The whole story was made up, wasn't it?" Ms Necheles asked.
"No, none of it was made up," Ms Daniels said.
Prosecutors say Mr Trump falsified business records to obscure the fact that he reimbursed Mr Cohen for the payment.
They say that amounts to an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election by buying the silence of people with potentially damaging information.
The case is widely seen as less consequential than three other criminal prosecutions Mr Trump faces, but it is the only one certain to go to trial before the election.
The other cases charge Mr Trump with trying to overturn his 2020 presidential defeat and mishandling classified documents after leaving office. Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to all three.
Reuters/AP