Stormy Daniels wraps up testimony in Trump hush money trial

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott forcefully defended Donald Trump as he sits for another day in the New York hush money trial.

He accused prosecutors of using the trial to hurt Trump politically and downplaying the hush money payment at the center of the case. 

Asked if Trump requested Scott to accompany him to court today, the Florida senator said “No.” Asked if Scott’s decision to travel with Trump was connected to the gag order, Scott said he joined Trump because he is “fed up.” 

Trump allies Boris Epshteyn, Alina Habba and John Coale are also in court today with the former president.

Defense attorney Susan Necheles is now asking about the celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe where Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump met.

Necheles asks Daniels if Trump played well at the tournament. "I don't know what the scores were," she says.

"People were recognizing who he was?" Necheles asks.

"Yes, but they recognized me where I went that day, too," Daniels says with a shrug.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is returning to the "Make America Horny Again" strip club tour, reminding Stormy Daniels that she testified she hates the name, which is a play on Trump's campaign slogan “Make America Great Again."

Necheles asks whether Daniels ever posted about it on social media.

"Sometimes they made me retweet them," Daniels says.

The jury is seeing two posts about the tour from Daniels' instagram in 2018.

Earlier today, Daniels testified that she never posted about the tour.

"That's not my personal Instagram, that's my business Instagram," Daniels said of the post.

The jury is back in the courtroom, and the cross-examination of Stormy Daniels is now continuing.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is back asking questions.

Donald Trump did not look at Stormy Daniels walking by. He was talking to one of his attorneys, Todd Blanche.

Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench and Stormy Daniels has returned to the stand.

Again, she avoided looking toward the defense table and kept her face turned toward the witness box.

Donald Trump's attorneys seem to be placating the former president during their cross-examination of Stormy Daniels, CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins said.

"To speak back to who the attorneys are performing for, that's always the difficulty of being Donald Trump's attorney. It was the same with his impeachment trial, it was the same with his civil fraud trial, it's the same situation here -- of what he wants and what they think is the best strategic decision," she explained.

Collins observed that during Daniels testimony on Tuesday, Trump was "about angry as I've ever seen him."

She added that Trump likely expressed his displeasure during court breaks.

"He goes into a side room with his attorneys and when they were in the middle of her questioning" before they got into examination "he was essentially seething" about what he had to sit there and listen to, Collins said.

He wants his attorney to get up there and undermine every little detail about Daniels testimony, Collins added.

Stormy Daniels has testified for an hour and 45 minutes so far this morning.

On Tuesday, she testified for three hours and 44 minutes, including under direct and cross-examination, according to our calculations.

She has testified for roughly five and a half hours over two days so far. 

The court is taking a 15-minute break now.

Stormy Daniels is leaving the witness stand, and does not appear to be looking at Trump's table as she exits.

Trump is also leaving, and points to a man in the audience as he goes.