Stormy Daniels wraps up testimony in Trump hush money trial

Former President Donald Trump observes as Madeleine Westerhout, a former employee of Donald Trump in the White House, testifies in the Trump hush money criminal trial on May 9.

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers continued their attack on the credibility of Stormy Daniels for several hours Thursday, with defense attorney Susan Necheles accusing the adult film star of making up the story of having sex with Trump.

Today also saw testimony from a woman who was once among the closest people working with Trump in the White House, and failed efforts by the defense to get a mistrial and an exception to the defendant’s gag order.

Here are some key takeaways from Day 14 of the Trump hush money trial:

Contentious testimony: Daniels combatively and defiantly responded to questions from Necheles, insisting her story of a sexual encounter with Trump was true. Trump has denied the affair.

Trump’s attorney asked about minor inconsistencies in interviews Daniels has given about her interactions with Trump. Necheles also picked apart how Daniels has previously described the encounter.

Necheles also insinuated Daniels had employed her skills as a porn writer in making up the story. “You have a lot of experience of making phony stories about sex appear to be real,” the Trump attorney asked.

“Wow,” Daniels said, with a pause. “That’s not how I would put it. The sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room.”

Lawyers spar over Daniels’ financial situation: Beyond the details of the alleged encounter itself, Trump’s attorneys and prosecutors had Daniels tell conflicting accounts of her financial situation.

Necheles continued to suggest that Daniels was making money off of saying she had sex with Trump, pointing to a tweet where she said she’d earned $1 million and others where she directed her supporters to her online store after Trump was indicted.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, had Daniels recount how telling her story has also cost her, from having to move her daughter and hire security to the lawyers’ fees she was ordered to pay after she sued Trump and lost.

Former aide takes us inside the Trump White House: Former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout described the inner workings of Trump’s West Wing, where she worked for more than two years sitting just outside the Oval Office.

Westerhout described Trump’s work habits, from his affinity for sharpies and hard copies of documents, to his close control over his social media posts and his preference to talk to people in person or on the phone — not by email.

While she did not testify to direct knowledge of the checks Trump signed to his former fixer Michael Cohen, which are cited in the charges against Trump, her story added to the prosecution’s narrative about his involvement with the checks in 2017.

Two failed efforts by Trump’s team: Judge Juan Merchan denied the request from Trump’s lawyers to make an exception to the gag order allowing him to speak publicly about Daniels, saying he must protect the integrity of the proceedings, and he doesn’t trust Trump not to violate an order if he were to modify it.

The judge also denied Trump’s renewed motion for a mistrial over the salacious testimony Daniels gave, which his attorneys say unfairly prejudices the jury against Trump. Merchan said the specificity is important to helping the jury make a determination.

Read a full recap of today’s proceedings here.

Defense attorney Susan Necheles cross-examines adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the trial on May 9.

Donald Trump’s longtime assistant, the former banker of Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen and adult film actress Stormy Daniels are among witnesses who have taken the stand so far in the hush money trial.

As of Thursday, here’s everybody we’ve heard from so far:

Keith Davidson testifies during direct examination on May 2. 

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo questions former longtime Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney on May 6.

Tracey Menziez, the senior VP of production and creative operations for Harper Collins, testified in the Trump hush money criminal trial on May 9.

Stormy Daniels is cross examined by the defense on Thursday, May 9.

Donald Trump’s lawyers finished their cross-examination of Stormy Daniels on Thursday and spent most of the time trying to undermine her credibility by pointing out inconsistencies in her story.

In her more than 6 hours of testimony over two days, Daniels described her first meeting with Trump, the details of their alleged sexual encounter in 2006 and how the hush money payment unfolded years later. The defense tried to establish some of the ways the porn star gained publicity and money from her story going public.

The other witnesses on Thursday were a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, an employee of Harper Collins and Trump’s former personal assistant at the White House. 

Here’s what happened in court on Thursday:

Stormy Daniels on cross-examination: 

On redirect: 

Rebecca Manochio: 

Tracey Menzies 

Madeleine Westerhout 

Judge makes other rulings: Judge Juan Merchan denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial. He said he disagrees with the Trump team’s assertion that Daniels gave a new account in her testimony this week. He also denied a motion to modify the gag order to allow Trump to talk about Daniels.

Former President Donald Trump attacked the judge presiding over his hush money trial in New York after court adjourned on Thursday.

In the hallway, he called Judge Juan Merchan “totally corrupt” and “conflicted.”

“Take a look at his conflict, it’s a disgrace to the city of New York, to the state of New York and to the country,” Trump said.

It comes after Stormy Daniels finished her testimony. She was on the stand for more than 6 hours over two days, describing her first meeting with Trump and their sexual encounter in 2006.

Remember: The former president is not allowed to talk about Daniels because of a gag order that has been imposed. However, it does not prevent Trump from attacking Merchan or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. 

After issuing his ruling, Judge Juan Merchan dismissed the court until tomorrow morning.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at 9:30,” he said.

Judge Juan Merchan has denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial.

Merchan says he disagrees with the Trump team’s assertion that Stormy Daniels gave a new account in her testimony this week.

Before the ruling, Mechan says the jurors have to decide who they believe in the case of the encounter between Donald Trump and Daniels.

He notes that the people do not have to prove the encounter happened but because the defense has called her credibility into question, prosecutors have to make an effort to show her story is credible to prove their case.

“The more specificity Ms. Daniels can provide about the encounter, the more the jury can weigh whether the encounter did occur and if so whether they choose to credit Ms. Daniels’ story,” Merchan says.

There were “many times Ms. Necheles could have objected but didn’t,” the judge says.

“For some unexplained reason that I still don’t understand” there was no objection to certain testimony cited in the motion for a mistrial and again today, Merchan says.

“Why on earth she wouldn’t object to the mention of a condom, I don’t understand,” Merchan says of Trump attorney Susan Necheles.

Trump is leaning back and stretching as the judge knocks the defense for not objecting to more of Stormy Daniels’ testimony.

Merchan has mentioned several portions of the proceedings he thinks Trump’s lawyers could have objected to as he explains his ruling.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says there were “very salacious details” that were purposely omitted from Stormy Daniels’ account, saying he’s willing to make a sealed filing with those details if necessary.

Steinglass says the prosecution specifically chose not to ask questions in a way that would elicit some of those details, so as not to embarrass Trump.

For example, Steinglass notes that the judge sustained an objection to a question to Daniels about whether she “felt anything different” at the time of the alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

The prosecutor says Daniels would have testified that she felt the skin of a 60-year-old man, and that that was different for her as a 27-year-old woman at the time. Steinglass says that would’ve been corroborative of her allegations.

“We feel that we have very faithfully adhered to your honor’s ruling,” the prosecutor says, in summary.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass confirms Karen McDougal — the model and actress who has said she was also paid to keep quiet about an affair with Trump — will not be called to take the stand.

“She was on our witness list, but we have never indicated an actual intention to call her,” he says.

Details about the alleged sexual encounter between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump “were the motivation” for Trump to keep the story quiet in 2016, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass argues.

“The details are essential to give the jury the tools they need to analyze her credibility,” Steinglass says, arguing that Trump attorney Susan Necheles was “cherry-picking” the details she thought were inconsistent and ignoring where Daniels has been consistent.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says there were about eight questions about the actual sexual encounter between Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels.

He argues the prosecution did not go into detail about the sexual encounter.

“There’s no opportunity for long explanations about it,” he says, and the questions were mostly yes or no responses.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says Stormy Daniels’ testimony detailing the conversation and experience with Donald Trump before and after the alleged sexual encounter is corroborative.

Trump is leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed.

Addressing the defense’s allegations of inconsistencies in Stormy Daniels’ story, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is arguing that Trump lawyer Susan Necheles “certainly probed them in her very thorough though somewhat misleading questioning.”

“The fact of the matter is, Ms. Necheles left a very misleading impression” that Daniels’ story had become “radically different” from what she said in the “60 Minutes” interview with Anderson Cooper in 2018.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass responds to the defense team’s motion for a mistrial by saying most of the allegations from Trump’s lawyers are “flat out untrue.”

“Starting with the fact that it’s a new account — this is not a new account,” Steinglass says.

“The claim of ambush is just nonsense,” Steinglass adds. “The claim of changing her story is also extraordinarily untrue.”

“There may be details stated in one form but not in another form,” Steinglass says, but he says that’s not unexpected.

Judge Juan Merchan pushes back at the defense’s arguments about anecdotes provided by Stormy Daniels during her testimony.

He is saying he sustained objections to many of the accounts that Trump attorney Todd Blanche now cites in his mistrial motion.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is saying that Judge Juan Merchan said they did not need to know the details of the alleged sexual encounter between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump, but “the people still asked.”

“The government wouldn’t stop,” Blanche says. “We didn’t know these questions were coming.”

“We were sitting here hearing that for the first time on the witness stand yesterday,” Blanche says.

Reading another line of testimony, Todd Blanche notes that Stormy Daniels said “there was an imbalance of power for sure” when referring to her allegation of a sexual encounter with Donald Trump.

Blanche says the jury has heard about a power dynamic and “none of that information goes to the motive of anybody in this case, including President Trump.”

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is continuing to suggest that prosecutors asked questions they shouldn’t have during Stormy Daniels’ testimony, such as what Daniels’ reaction was to seeing Trump when she left his bathroom before their alleged sexual encounter.

“It’s not relevant and it shouldn’t have been asked,” Blanche says.

“That is a description that is extremely prejudicial,” the Trump attorney argues, referring to questions intended to sway the jury’s emotions against a defendant.

The descriptions didn’t have anything to do with an arrangement involving Michael Cohen and the National Enquirer, which is the core issue at hand, Blanche argues.

Blanche argues that prosecutors “didn’t abide by the court’s rules” in their line of questioning.

He also points to the question about what their relative heights were.

“How is that relevant to that case? That is so prejudicial,” he argues.

Donald Trump’s legal team worked during the off day yesterday on their argument for a new motion for a mistrial, which attorney Todd Blanche is making now, CNN’s Kaitlin Collins reports.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche cites the spanking anecdote from Stormy Daniels in arguing for a mistrial.

“How that’s relevant to why we’re here especially when you weigh it with the prejudicial nature.”

He adds, again referring to the spanking anecdote:

“It almost defies belief that we’re here about a records case and the government is asking about an incident that happened in 2006,” Blanche says.

“This is not a case about sex” and not about whether the sexual encounter happened – something Blanche notes Trump continues to deny.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche argues that Stormy Daniels has changed her story by suggesting that this “completely made-up encounter with President Trump may not have been consensual.”

The questioning by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger got “way beyond the mere fact that it happened,” Blanche says.

After the judge denied the motion to modify the gag order, we are moving to the defense’s mistrial motion.

Todd Blanche renews Donald Trump’s motion for a mistrial saying now that the jury has heard Stormy Daniels’ testimony there’s no way this trial should go forward.

Judge Juan Merchan denies the defense’s motion to modify the gag order so Trump can talk about Stormy Daniels.

Judge Juan Merchan explains the reason for the gag order in the first place.

“The reason why the gag order is in place to begin with is precisely because of the nature of these attacks, the vitriol,” he says. “These were very real, very threatening attacks on potential witnesses.”

Judge Juan Merchan appears to be pushing back on the Trump team’s argument in favor of the former president being allowed to speak publicly about Stormy Daniels’ testimony.

“My concern is not just the protection of Ms. Daniels, or a witness who has already testified,” Merchan says. “My concern is protecting the integrity of the proceedings.”

The judge said witnesses who have not yet testified would watch Trump’s comments about Daniels if they were permitted, and that could influence their own testimony.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche responds to the prosecution’s argument about the gag order exception by saying “everything you’ve just heard is different in kind from our request.”

“You have Ms. Daniels, who came in yesterday and today and was allowed to talk about a completely different version of events,” Blanche argues.

Judge Juan Merchan stops him and asks what he’s specifically referring to.

Blanche reads Daniels’ testimony about the room spinning when she was with Trump in his hotel room.

“Help me understand how that’s an alternate set of facts,” Merchan says.
“One is about consent and one is not,” Blanche says.
“I don’t see what you’re referring to as a new set of facts, as a new theory of the case,” Merchan says, addressing the gag order.

Prosecutor Chris Conroy is citing Trump’s own words from his book shown in court earlier today that Trump believes in intimidating enemies.

“When you are wronged go after those people because it is a good feeling and because other people will see you doing it. Getting even is not always a personal thing. It’s just part of doing business.”

Prosecutor Chris Conroy says there have been “very real consequences for witnesses.” He said there have been custodial witnesses who’ve expressed fear about their safety.

“The fact that witnesses are brave enough to come in here under subpoena … shouldn’t expose them to this defendant’s barrage of threats that will put them and potentially their families in danger,” Conroy says.

Modifying the gag order mid-trial would “signal to future witnesses that they could be at risk as well,” he argues.

Trump has now scribbled two notes on green paper and handed them to his attorney Todd Blanche, as prosecutors argue against amending the gag order to exclude Stormy Daniels.

Trump’s team is trying to arrange an exception that would allow him to respond publicly to Daniels’ at-times explicit testimony.

Prosecutor Chris Conroy, during the discussion about the exception to the gag order, noted a time when Stormy Daniels’ home address was displayed accidentally on a screen during her testimony. “You could see the fear in her eyes.”

As Conroy is speaking, Trump is writing a note on a Post-it.

He passed it to Blanche when he finished.

Speaking for the prosecution, Chris Conroy is saying that “it seems as though the other side almost lives in an alternate reality.”

“If somebody wants to respond to something said in this room, that can happen in this room. It’s not supposed to happen out there,” Conroy says.

Conroy says there are people saying things “with the defendant in mind. I’m not in the position to say at his direction or anything close to that.”

In making his argument, Todd Blanche says Donald Trump will be “asked repeatedly over the next week or two about these new accusations of consent and of what happened that night.”

“He is not allowed to say, ‘I did not do that,’” for voters who are seeing this coverage, the attorney argues.

“We ask that President Trump be allowed to respond publicly to what happened in court the past day and a half,” defense attorney Todd Blanche says to Judge Juan Merchan.

He’s specifically asking for Trump to be permitted to comment on Stormy Daniels’ testimony and her story, in part to respond to media coverage.

“The press reporting over the past 24 hours about the current version of the story that we believe is completely false,” Blanche says. “It is significant.”

It’s Trump now “having to not respond to this new version of events that now deals very deeply with a very different issue than a sexual event that took place in 2006,” Blanche adds.

Remember: Judge Merchan has repeatedly found Trump in contempt of court for violating a gag order blocking the defendant from speaking out about potential witnesses, and most people in or associated with the court or the New York district attorney’s office.

On Monday, Merchan fined Trump $1,000 for the latest violation and ordered he pay the fine by close of business Friday. Last week, the judge fined Trump $9,000 for nine previous violations of the judge’s gag order.

Madeleine Westerhout, one of the chief gatekeepers to the president as his personal assistant at the White House, explained how she handled Trump’s personal checks, who he was talking to most and how he felt about the “Access Hollywood” tape. She has wrapped her testimony for today.

Here are the highlights of her testimony:

Who was Trump talking to most? Westerhout asked for a list of the contacts Trump most regularly spoke to. Among the 24 names given to the jury, prosecutors zeroed in on ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who are both big players in the alleged hush money scheme in this trial. Tennis great Serena Williams, football legend Tom Brady and conservative TV host Sean Hannity are some of the others on the list.

Trump’s personal expenses: Checks were sent from the Trump Organization to a White House employee and Westerhout would put them in a manila folder for Trump to sign, she testified. The checks for Trump’s personal expenses came in about twice a month, ranging from one check to a stack “maybe half an inch thick,” Westerhout said. After Trump signed them and put them in the folder, she said she would place them in a pre-labeled FedEx envelope to send back to the Trump Organization.

February 2017 meeting with Michael Cohen: The jury viewed a February 5, 2017, email from Westerhout to Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen. In the email, Westerhout asked Cohen for details he needs to provide to get clearance from Secret Service into the White House.

Some background on this: Prosecutors allege Cohen and Trump worked out the reimbursement at a February meeting in the Oval Office.

Stormy Daniels story: “I remember he was very upset by it,” Westerhout said of the story coming out. Trump and Cohen spoke around the time of the article, she added.

“Access Hollywood” tape: Westerhout said Trump was not as concerned about the “Access Hollywood” tape in 2016 as those around him. Defense attorney Susan Necheles got at the idea that the tape, which prosecutors say was key to the motivation that Trump wanted to keep Daniels quiet, did not concern Trump like it did those around him.

She got emotional about leaving the White House: Westerhout broke down in tears as she described the circumstances of her departure from the White House. She said some things she shouldn’t have and said she was “very regretful of my youthful indiscretion.” Westerhout abruptly left the White House in 2019 after sharing intimate details about the president’s family with reporters.

Why she wrote a book: Westerhout said she wrote “Off the Record: My Dream Job at the White House, How I Lost It, and What I Learned” because she felt Trump was not treated fairly.

“I thought it was real important to share with the American people the man that I got to know,” she said.

Karen McDougal will not be testifying, according to defense attorney Todd Blanche.

‘The People informed me they no longer intend to call Ms. McDougal,” he says.

Madeleine Westerhout testified for 1 hour and 13 minutes. She will be back on the stand on Friday.

Two members of the public were removed from the courtroom by security.

The jury has left. There’s now a 10-minute break before a discussion of the defense’s motions.

Madeleine Westerhout smiled at Donald Trump as she walked out of the room.

The jury is being dismissed for the day.

There will still be motions from Trump’s side to go through after the jury leaves.

When asked, former Trump assistant Madeleine Westerhout testifies that Trump is very close to his family and his wife.

She’d see Trump talking on the phone with his wife when he was in the Oval Office, Westerhout says.

She also recalls hearing him say, “Honey come over to the window.” The former assistant explained there was a window in the residence where Melania Trump could wave to the president in the Oval Office.

They’d stand by the window and wave to each other, Westerhout said, smiling.

Madeleine Westerhout, under cross-examination, says she enjoyed working for Donald Trump.

“He never once made me feel that I didn’t deserve that job and that I didn’t belong there. Especially in an office filled with older men he never made me feel like I didn’t belong there. He was a really good boss. “Westerhout says.
“I found him very enjoyable to work for.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles confirmed with Madeleine Westerhout that Trump wasn’t the Republican National Committee’s preferred choice in 2016. “Oh no,” she said with a small laugh.

“Always some event that everybody said that’s it,” Necheles said while clapping her hands, “He’s not going to win.”

Westerhout agreed, saying, “Yes.”

Defense attorney Susan Necheles is asking about the “Access Hollywood” tape and notes there was consternation. “There was always some event that everybody said that’s it, he’s not gonna win?” she asks. “Yeah,” Madeleine Westerhout says.

“And everybody around would be freaking out?” Necheles asks. “Yeah.”

“Not President Trump?” she followed up. “No,” Westerhout says.

Necheles was getting at the idea that the Access Hollywood tape, which prosecutors say was key to the motivation that Trump wanted to keep the Stormy Daniels story quiet, did not concern Trump like it did those around him.

Madeleine Westerhout, who has grown emotional while recounting the events leading up to her leaving the White House, said she wrote a flattering book because she still felt positively toward Trump.

“I didn’t have anything negative to say, so why would I write it,” she testifies.

Madeleine Westerhout is talking about her book, “Off the Record: My Dream Job at the White House, How I Lost It, and What I Learned.”

“I thought it was real important to share with the American people the man that I got to know,” she says, tearing up again.
“I don’t think he’s treated fairly and I wanted to tell that story.”

Westerhout’s book was published by Center Street, an imprint that specializes in conservative media. Other authors include Kristi Noem, Newt Gingrich and Ben Carson.

Madeline Westerhout broke down in tears as she described the circumstances of her departure from the White House.

She noted that she said some things she shouldn’t have and said she was “very regretful of my youthful indiscretion.”

“I’ve grown a lot since then,” she said as she started tearing up.

Judge Juan Merchan handed her a tissue.

Westerhout abruptly left the White House in 2019 after sharing intimate details about the president’s family with reporters.

She’s continuing to fight back tears as Donald Trump attorney Susan Necheles takes the stand for her cross-examination.

Madeleine Westerhout recalled Trump’s relationship with Melania Trump.

“There was really no one else that could put him in his place too. He was my boss but she was definitely the one in charge. I just remember that… thinking that their relationship was really special. They laughed a lot when she came into the Oval Office,” she added.

Madeleine Westerhout recalls that Donald Trump and Michael Cohen spoke around the time of the Stormy Daniels story.

Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold asks Madeleine Westerhout if she recalls the Stormy Daniels story coming out.

“I remember he was very upset by it,” Westerhout says of the story.

Another email is being displayed in court. This one is between Madeleine Westerhout and longtime Trump assistant Rhona Graff about buying a picture frame for a family photo.

“Please note that the frames are on the pricey side.. about $650 minus %15 discount. (Does) DJT wans to spend that much?” Graff emailed Westerhout.

“We may have made the executive decision without his approval,” she says, adding, “sorry sir” — directed at Trump — and shrugging her shoulders.

She says “I don’t recall any other instances like this” where Trump weighed in on expenses at this price point. It was for a photo of his mother, Westerhout recalls.

Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold has Madeleine Westerhout read a handwritten note Rhona Graff wrote on an invoice for the Winged Foot Golf Club asking if he wanted her to look into suspending the membership for 4 to 8 years.

Written in black sharpie: “Pay–” At the bottom, “ASAP,” which is underlined in sharpie next to Trump’s “short signature,” Westerhout says.

This was included in the stack of checks so he individually approved the invoice, Mangold confirms with Westerhout.

Winged Foot is a golf course in Westchester County, New York.

Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold is asking about Madeleine Westerhout’s understanding of how Donald Trump’s personal expenses were handled.

“Checks were sent from the Trump Organization to an employee at the White House and I brought them in for the president to sign,” Westerhout testifies.

She says she would take a manila folder with a stack of checks to Trump when she received them. “I didn’t really dig around in the folder but I believe there were invoices attached to some of the checks sometimes,” she adds.

She says it was “consistent” that the checks were regularly sent, adding, “maybe twice a month.”

Asked how many checks she would receive at a time, Westerhout says, “Sometimes there was one, sometimes there was a stack, maybe half an inch thick. I never counted them.”

“I can’t speak to the ones I didn’t see him sign,” she says.

Westerhout said after Trump signed the checks, “he would give the folder back to me” and she would put them in a pre-labeled FedEx envelope to send back to the Trump Organization.

Madeleine Westerhout testified that Donald Trump liked using oxford commas while describing how she would often take diction from the former president.

This is actually important to show that Trump was actually quite involved in matters that involved his name, CNN anchor Audie Cornish said.

“I joked earlier about fonts and now we’re talking about the oxford comma, but there’s an actual point to this, which is to say he was always involved if his name was on it,” Cornish said.

Details like this adds to the prosecutions argument that Trump would had to known about the details surrounding the alleged hush money payments.

Madeleine Westerhout emailed Rhona Graff in January 2017 asking her to send a photo to Allen Weisselberg, who was the chief financial officer for the Trump Organization.

“He sent to his family and wanted Allen to see it as well. First time boarding Air Force One!”, Westerhout wrote in the email, referring to Donald Trump.

The jury is now seeing a text thread between Madeleine Westerhout and longtime aide Hope Hicks from March 2017.

“Hey - the president wants to know if you called David Pecker again?” Westerhout wrote.

The former Trump assistant says she doesn’t remember the events surrounding the text, and adds it wasn’t unusual for her to send a message like this to Hicks.

Remember: Hicks testified earlier in the trial, and this exchange came up during her testimony as well.

Pecker is a key figure for his role in helping “catch and kill” the story from Stormy Daniels about Trump.

Madeleine Westerhout, the former director of Oval Office Operations, was one of the chief gatekeepers to the president as his personal assistant. She and Trump exchanged smiles throughout her testimony.

Here are the highlights of her testimony so far:

Who is she? Westerhout was the Trump White House’s real-world equivalent of Sue in “Veep” or Mrs. Landingham in “The West Wing.” From her desk directly outside the Oval Office, she observed almost every coming and going over more than two and a half years. These days, she said she’s now a chief of staff to a chairman of a geopolitical consulting firm.

Her responsibilities: After Trump was elected, Westerhout said she worked out of Trump Tower and was responsible for helping schedule interviews for high-level staff. The media dubbed her “The Greeter Girl.” She and Rhona Graff worked together closely.

Trump talked to “a lot” of people: When asked how many people Trump would usually speak with in a day, Westerhout said “a lot.” She added that she took calls for Trump as early as 6 a.m. until late at night after she went to sleep.

How Trump preferred to work: Westerhout testified Trump’s preferences for how he worked in the White House. Here’s what she said:

Trump’s attention to detail: From Westerhout’s experience working with Trump, she said the former president liked to keep things organized. Trump “had a lot of papers” and often brought a lot of things back and forth between the residence, Air Force One and Marine One, she added. He was “attentive to things that were brought to his attention,” she said.

Tweets: Trump wrote and posted his own tweets, Westerhout said. “My recollection there were certain words he would like to capitalize, words like ‘country,’ and he liked to use exclamation points,” Westerhout said. Trump would review hard copies of the post drafts and make handwritten edits, Westerhout said, saying she would fix and reprint them with his edits.

Reaction to the “Access Hollywood” tape: When the 2016 tape came out, Westerhout said she remembered it “rattling RNC leadership.” She testified that she recalled conversations about how to replace Trump on the presidential ticket, “if it came to that.”

CNN’s Betsy Klein and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this post.

The jury is now being shown an email dated February 5, 2017. It’s from Madeline Westerhout to Michael Cohen, and it’s about a meeting.

“We’re confirmed for 4:30 pm on Wednesday,” the email reads.

In the email, Westerhout asked Cohen for details he needs to provide to get clearance from Secret Service into the White House, including his social security number, date of birth and city and state of residence.

“Mr. Cohen was coming in to meet with the president,” she says about why she sent that email, though she also said she doesn’t remember the meeting specifically.

Some background on this: Prosecutors allege Cohen and Trump worked out the reimbursement at a February meeting in the Oval office.

One of Trump’s attorneys, Susan Necheles, is whispering to him. He is leaning over and looking forward at the screen in front of him.

As the court reviews a list of Trump’s most regular contacts that was sent to former assistant Madeleine Westerhout during the transition to the White House, prosecutor Rebecca Mangold has zeroed in on two key names.

Ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen both appear on the list, and are pivotal players in the alleged hush money scheme as laid out by the prosecution.

Mangold asks Westerhout whether Cohen and Trump had a close relationship.

“At that time, yes,” she says.

Jurors are being shown the contact list Rhona Graff provided to Madeleine Westerhout, with the phone numbers redacted.

Here’s who is on the list:

David Pecker, Bill O’Reilly, Charles Kushner, Matt Calamari, Jack Nicklaus, Tiffany Trump, Joe Scarborough, Nelson Peltz, Phil Ruffin, Lou Rinaldi, Jeanine Pirro, Ike Perlmutter, Robert Trump, Maryanne Trump Barry, Allen Weisselberg, Steve Wynn, Serena Williams, Ari Emanuel, David Friedman, Jerry Falwell, Sean Hannity, Tom Barrack, Tom Brady, Pam Bondi.

The jury is being shown an email.

On January 24, 2017, Madeleine Westerhout asked Rhona Graff to send her contacts of those Donald Trump most frequently spoke to.

Westerhout emailed Graff on January 24, 2017:

“Could you have the girls put together a list for me of people that he frequently spoke to? I don’t want to have t bug you all the time - even though I will still call often :).”

Donald Trump just wrote a note and passed it to one of his attorneys, Susan Necheles, as his former assistant is testifying.

Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold asks ex-Trump assistant Madeleine Westerhout whether the former president used social media while in the White House.

“He did, yes,” Westerhout says, adding that he posted tweets himself.

Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino also had access to Trump’s Twitter account, she testifies. She does not believe anyone else had access.

Scavino might post an event video recap without Trump seeing it, but Westerhout said, “The president did like to see the tweets that went out.”

“My recollection there were certain words he would like to capitalize, words like ‘country,’ and he liked to use exclamation points,” Westerhout says.

Trump would review hard copies of the post drafts and make handwritten edits, Westerhout continues. She’d fix them and reprint it with his edits.

Rhona Graff was Madeleine Westerhout’s point of contact at Trump Tower when she had any questions.

“Especially the first few months I think Rhona and spoke at least weekly, sometimes daily. That trickled off as I grew into the role and the contacts shifted over more to the White House side,” she said.

She said they coordinated his contacts, his calendar, his golf schedule and his personal mail, among other things.

“It’s my understanding that he liked to use the Oxford comma,” Madeleine Westerhout says.

Trump smiled at that comment.

“My understanding is that he was attentive to things that were brought to his attention” even during busy periods, Madeleine Westerhout said.

Madeleine Westerhout, a former personal assistant to Donald Trump at the White House, is helping prosecutors establish a chain of command for the alleged hush money payments, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said.

“So, this is the chain of command, the chain of custody, and this actually links up nicely with Ms. (Rebecca) Manochio’s testimony earlier. You have the checks being cut in New York at Trump Tower —$35,000 a month —made out to Michael Cohen, labeled as attorneys fees or attorney retainer, which is sort of the heart of the crime here, FedEx down to the White House to Madeleine Westerhout and obtains the signatures and sent back up,” Honig explained.

While these details may seem mundane, the details are critical in order for the prosecution to lay this our clearly, Honig notes.

“This goes, really to the heart of the crime,” Honig said. “Knowledge issues are going to be on Michael Cohen, but the who, what, when, how were the payments made – that’s what they’re establishing now.”

Madeleine Westerhout confirmed that in her experience Donald Trump typically liked to read things before signing them.

Asked if Donald Trump paid attention to details, former assistant Madeleine Westerhout says, “In my experience, yes.”

“To my understanding, the president knew where things were and he kept things organized,” she says, adding that he “had a lot of papers” and often brought a lot of things back and forth between the residence, Air Force One and Marine One.

Trump preferred to sign things himself, Madeleine Westerhout testifies.

“He liked to use Sharpies or, I believe, a Pentel felt-tip pen,” she says.

Madeleine Westerhout is providing details about working for the former president.

She says they kept the resolute desk “pristine” for meetings and Trump spent his time going over documents in the dining room.

“It was really his working office,” Westerhout says.

Trump preferred hard copy documents, his former close aide Madeleine Westerhout testifies.

She says Trump did not use a computer or have an email address to her knowledge.

Madeleine Westerhout says that when calls were screened for the president, they would typically come to her if Donald Trump was in the Oval Office.

If he was in the Oval Office the calls would come to her first, she says.

Jurors are paying attention this testimony. Their eyes are bouncing from the prosecutor to to Madeleine Westerhout as she answers questions.

Madeleine Westerhout says he would take calls as early as 6 a.m. and would be taking calls “late into the night” after she had gone to bed.

Asked how many people Trump would typically speak to in a day, Madeleine Westerhout says, “a lot.”

Donald Trump threw his head back slightly with a smile at the comment.

Madeleine Westerhout’s title was special assistant to the president and executive assistant to the president, she testifies.

Her focus was the president. Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold asks whether that was her only focus. “I tried to have it be my only focus,” she says, with a bit of a laugh.

Westerhout has glanced in the direction of the defense table a couple times as she’s testified.

She worked in the White House until August 2019, for about 2 and a half years.

“At some point, I switched to the desk that was further away, but it had a line of sight to the Resolute desk. That was more helpful for the president and I to communicate,” she said.

Trump she said, “liked speaking to people in person or on the phone.”

Madeleine Westerhout testifies that in the first few months of the Trump presidency, no one else sat closer to Trump.

Westerhout adds that Hope Hicks also sat in the area with her during her time working in the White House.

A map of the first floor of the West Wing is being shown to the jury.

Madeleine Westerhout’s office was in the “outer Oval Office,” which is where the president’s secretaries or assistants sat, she says.

Madeleine Westerhout recalls her then-boss asked her if she wanted a job sitting outside the Oval Office.

With a big smile looking at the jury Westerhout said, “Yes I do. That sounds like a really cool job.”

Donald Trump is sitting back in his chair watching Westerhout and smiles again as she describes being offered the job.

“I knew I was going to sit outside the Oval Office and I didn’t really care what my title was,” she testifies.

Trump is craning his neck to look at Madeleine Westerhout as she testifies.

Westerhout, who sat the closest to Trump in the White House through much of his presidency, adjusted her language at one point, first referring to him as “President Trump” and then correcting herself to say “Mr. Trump.”

After Trump was elected, Madeleine Westerhout worked out of Trump Tower and helped schedule interviews for high-level staff roles for the administration.

She was nicknamed by the media “The Greeter Girl.”

Westerhout said she worked “seamlessly” with Rhona Graff who still maintained Trump’s schedule. Graff was “integral” in helping the Republican National Committee team schedule interviews for Trump during the transition, Westerhout says. 

Madeleine Westerhout is asked if there were discussions about replacing Donald Trump on the presidential ticket after the “Access Hollywood” tape.

“It’s my recollection there were conversations about how to, if it was needed, how it would be possible to replace him as the candidate if it came to that,” she says.

Madeleine Westerhout is being asked about the “Access Hollywood” tape.

“At the time I recall it rattling RNC leadership,” she says.

Trump is leaning forward with his hands on the table looking toward Madeleine Westerhout as she testifies.

Madeleine Westerhout says she’s now a chief of staff to a chairman of a geopolitical consulting firm.

She was compelled to appear by subpoena, and says her lawyer is “graciously taking this case pro bono.”

Madeleine Westerhout is smiling and speaking toward the jury as she’s describing that she worked for former President Donald Trump at the White House.

“I am now, yes,” she says when asked if she was nervous to testify, letting out a small giggle.

Trump gave a big smile, lifting his chin and looking at Westerhout when she said she was nervous.

Westerhout looked at Trump and smiled after she spelled her name.

More context: She left her role at the White House after she revealed details about his children at an off-the-record dinner with reporters in Bedminster, New Jersey. From her desk directly outside the Oval Office, she observed almost every coming and going over more than two and a half years.

Madeleine Westerhout, the former director of Oval Office Operations, is the next witness in the trial.

She was one of the chief gatekeepers to the president as his personal assistant – the Trump White House’s real-world equivalent of Sue in “Veep” or Mrs. Landingham in “The West Wing.” From her desk directly outside the Oval Office, she observed almost every coming and going over more than two and a half years.

Tracey Menzies, a vice president at HarperCollins, gave short testimony and spoke about one of the books Donald Trump co-authored. 

Who is she? Tracey Menzies is a vice president of creative operations and production at HarperCollins, a publishing company. She testified as a custodian of records for Harper Collins, which was subpoenaed. 

What did she bring up to the stand? Menzies is holding a book, “Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life,” by Donald Trump and Bill Zanker. Menzies said Trump narrated part of the audio book. “Donald Trump’s words, or at least the writing, is in a serif font, and Zanker’s is in a non-serif,” she said.

She read excerpts from Trump’s book: Here are some of the themes from the book excerpts Menzies read on the stand. Read the full quotes from Trump’s book here.

Cross-examination of Tracey Menzies is over and she is off the stand.

She testified for about 14 minutes.

Donald Trump leaned forward to look at the screen when his attorney Todd Blanche asked Tracey Menzies to show the names of those thanked in this book.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking Tracey Menzies to confirm generally book covers are designed and developed for sales.

She confirms they are designed “to help sell the book, but they’re also done very closely with the author.”

Blanche follows up and asks whether she picked the excerpts to read or if the prosecution did. “I did not pick them,” Menzies says.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking Tracey Menzies whether was part of publishing this book.

“No, I was not,” she says.

She is looking at excerpts on six pages.

Prosecutors have wrapped up their direct questioning of Tracey Menzies. The defense team is now starting the cross-examination.

Prosecutors are using Harper Collins custodian of records Tracey Menzies’ testimony to present the jury with more excerpts from the book “Think Big: Make it Happen in Business and Life.”

The portions read by Menzies for the court include:

The jury is now seeing excerpts from the book “Think Big: Make it Happen in Business and Life.”

Tracey Menzies is reading an excerpt being shown to the jury:

Like with Trump’s other books, prosecutor Rebecca Mangold is asking about the prominence of Donald Trump’s name on the cover of the book “Think Big: Make it Happen in Business and Life.”

Tracey Menzies notes Trump’s name is larger than his co-author, Bill Zanker.

Different sections of the book are written by the different authors, Menzies says.

“Donald Trump’s words, or at least the writing, is in a serif font, and Zanker’s is in a non-serif,” she says.

An investor in the shell company that merged with Trump Media was found guilty Thursday of insider trading, according to federal prosecutors. 

Bruce Garelick, who served as a director at the shell company, was accused of using secret knowledge of the impending deal with Trump Media to trade and tip off others.

Those trades paid off as shares of the shell company, Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), spiked in October 2021 on news of the blockbuster deal to bring Truth Social owner Trump Media public. 

Garelick was among three men who were arrested and charged last June in the insider trading case. The other two, Florida venture capitalist Michael Shvartsman and his brother Gerald Shvartsman, pleaded guilty last month to participating in the insider trading scheme.

Prosecutors have not alleged that former President Donald Trump, the chairman and leading shareholder of Trump Media, had any involvement in the scheme.

Tracey Menzies holds up a copy of Trump’s book “Think Big: Make it Happen in Business and Life” so the courtroom can see it.

She says Trump narrated a part of the audio book.

Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold is questioning Tracey Menzies of Harper Collins.

Donald Trump is whispering with his attorney Susan Necheles as Menzies begins testifying.

Menzies is testifying as a custodian of records for Harper Collins which was subpoenaed.

Tracey Menzies, who works at Harper Collins, is the next witness.

She is the senior vice president of production and creative operations.

She has a book with her on the witness stand.

Now that Rebecca Manochio has finished her testimony, we’re waiting for the next witness in the Donald Trump hush money trial.

“It will just be a minute,” Judge Juan Merchan says.

Trump is leaning back in his chair, staring straight ahead.

Rebecca Manochio, a bookkeeper who works at Trump Organization, testifies about how she handled Donald Trump’s personal checks through the organization and how the process worked.

Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, is done testifying after a brief period of cross-examination from the defense.

The prosecution used Manochio to submit invoices, documents and emails as evidence.

Trump appeared to smile at Manochio as she walked past him out of the courtroom.

She testified for about 35 minutes.

Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, is testifying about how Trump had personal expense checks sent to him in Washington, DC, when he was president.

Similarly, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump also had her personal expense checks sent down to DC for her to sign while she was involved in the White House before they were sent back, Manochio confirms.

Under cross-examination, bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio confirms her understanding that Donald Trump is the only person who could sign his personal checks.

She says no business expenses were sent to him the same way.

Attorney Susan Necheles asks whether “it was all the checks for all of his personal expenses” sent to Trump. “Correct,” Manochio says.

“It was no business expenses that were being sent to him?” Necheles asks. “Correct,” she said.

“These were all personal bills that had to be paid promptly, right?” Necheles asks. “Yes,” Manochio says.

The defense asks Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio, “You didn’t really interact with President Trump, right?”

“No,” Manochio responds.

Donald Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles is at the podium to begin cross-examination of Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio.

Donald Trump is back in the courtroom. He didn’t speak on his way in but did a fist bump.

The former president is scanning the rows. He just met the eye of two sketch artists and smiled in their direction.

Trump is also holding a large stack of articles, and he showed them to his attorneys as they wait for the jury to enter.

Trump’s legal team is all smiles.

Prosecutors are also back. They’re entering the courtroom.

Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench.

New York prosecutors introduced documents into evidence this week that they say establish Donald Trump’s knowledge of “falsifying business records” to cover up his repayments to his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who paid Stormy Daniels “hush money” in 2016. 

CNN has transcribed some of the handwritten notes in the exhibits, and what prosecutors say they hope to establish for the jury. 

Click here to see some of the documents that have been submitted as evidence. 

Witness Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, testifies on Thursday.

Rebecca Manochio, a bookkeeper who works at Trump Organization, is testifying about how she handled Donald Trump’s personal checks through the organization and how the process worked. She was on the stand until a court lunch break.

Here are the highlights so far:

Who is she? Trump Organization junior bookkeeper Manochio says she has worked at the company for 11 years. “I worked at a supermarket and then I got a job at the Trump Organization” in 2013, she said

Her responsibilities: Manochio said she worked as an assistant to former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg for eight years and sat outside his office. She said she attached invoices to checks for Weisselberg to sign. She also worked for former executive Jeffrey McConney, who was controller at the time — he already testified about how Michael Cohen’s payments were listed in Trump’s financial documents.

How Trump paid personal expenses: Trump’s personal expenses were handled by the Trump Organization, and he paid his expenses by check. When Trump was in the White House, Manochio says she would FedEx checks to Trump once a week.

Sending the checks to the White House: Manochio testified that she often sent 10 to 20 unsigned checks to Washington and they came back signed by Trump, typically in a few days. If a check was missing, she would as if Madeline Westerhout at the White House if she had it. When the checks came back to Manochio with the backup invoices attached, she would send them to Deborah Tarasoff in the organization’s accounting department, she said. 

Getting emails and invoices into evidence: The prosecution is using this bookkeeper’s testimony to get emails and invoices into evidence, focusing on a series of correspondence regarding Trump’s personal checks from 2017. Several invoices show packages shipped from Manochio to Keith Schiller, the Trump Organization’s former head of security.

Why it matters: The documents outline how Trump’s personal checks were dealt with around the time of the hush money payments. Documents show they were facilitated in Washington, DC, by the bodyguard Schiller and then by the personal aide John McEntee, once Schiller left.

Court is now in a lunch break for about an hour.

Cross-examination of bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio will start after lunch.

One of Donald Trump’s attorneys, Todd Blanche, is raising three issues with the judge:

Judge Juan Merchan says the trial will break at 4 p.m. ET, and they will take it up then after the jury leaves.

Prosecutors are now showing Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio another FedEx invoice.

In this one, Manochio sent a package to the personal address of John McEntee, a Trump White House aide.

The customer reference code on the invoice changed to “AW” from “DT” when she sent packages to McEntee. Asked why, Manochio says, “I just like to switch it up,” with a smile and a laugh.

Manochio is testifying about these FedEx receipts because Trump would not stipulate that these were official records kept at the Trump Organization.

The prosecution continues to use Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio to introduce documents as evidence, focusing on a series of correspondence regarding Trump’s personal checks from 2017.

Several invoices show packages shipped from Manochio to Keith Schiller, the Trump Organization’s former head of security.

“Did you ever send anything to Keith Schiller other than checks to sign?” the prosecution asks the bookkeeper. “No,” Manochio says.

Prosecutors then show an email from John McEntee, a Trump White House aide, from September 7, 2017. It shows that he asked to get in touch with Manochio because with Schiller leaving the company, he would need Trump’s personal checks mailed to him.

Why it matters: These documents outline how Trump’s personal checks moved around his inner circle — and the crux of this case comes down to how the former president’s team handled a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.

Documents show they were facilitated in Washington, DC, by the bodyguard Schiller and then by the personal aid McEntee, once Schiller left.

There’s no claim that only the checks related to then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen went through this channel.

Bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio is being used now to get Trump Organization emails and FedEx invoices into evidence.

The jury is currently being shown a FedEx invoice from May 29, 2017.

Manochio is listed as the sender of the invoice. Keith Schiller, who served as the Trump Organization’s director of security, is the recipient.

The checks were sent to Schiller’s home address in Washington, DC, the bookkeeper said.

It was sent with FedEx’s Priority Overnight service, as “always,” Manochio said.

Remember: Legal analysts have noted that issues of standard record-keeping are central to this case, so prosecutors will call some witnesses primarily to produce things like documents, ledgers and invoices.

A junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization is testifying about Donald Trump’s finances when he was in the White House — something that is central to the charges the former president faces of falsifying business records.

Daniels just finished her testimony where she discussed the details of their sexual encounter in 2006 and how the hush money payment unfolded years later.

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said that while the testimony of the bookkeeper, Rebecca Manochio, isn’t likely to stick in the jury’s head as much as Daniels, what she is saying is more relevant to the charges.

“This is really the crux of the charged crime,” Honig said.

Stormy Daniels was on the stand for 6 hours and 10 minutes over two days of testimony.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger began her redirect of Daniels and focused on the non-disclosure agreement, an Anderson Cooper interview and more. Trump attorney Susan Necheles returned to ask questions to close things out.

Here’s what the prosecution asked:

The NDA made her feel safer: Hoffinger went through Daniels’ motivation for entering into the non-disclosure agreement, including her fear for her safety. Daniels also recalled being told about being safer hiding in plain sight.

“Something won’t happen to you if everyone is looking at you,” Daniels said.

What she didn’t tell 60 Minutes: Hoffinger asked Daniels if she told “every single detail” to Anderson Cooper. Daniels said, “No.” After an objection and a sidebar, the line of questions continued.

“In terms of the context, you did tell Anderson Cooper that you had sex with Mr. Trump?”
Daniels agreed.

The social post’s aim: Daniels said she thought Trump’s Truth Social post was aimed at her. “If you go after me, I’m coming after you,” it reads. She said she thought it was about her, as it was right after Trump filed a lawsuit against her in Florida.

Telling the truth cost her: Prosecutor: While Daniels has made money with Trump story, it has also cost her, Hoffinger said. Daniels said now she’s had to hire security and move her daughter to a safe place to live, in addition to the money she owes Trump in attorneys fees.

Here’s what the defense asked:

Social media exchanges: Daniels defended herself when Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked about the back-and-forth exchanges with strangers on social media. “I was defending myself,” Daniels said.

“I never attack anybody first. Same with Mr. Trump. I didn’t say anything negative about him until he said it about me,” Daniels said.

Bookeeper Rebecca Manochio is testifying that she often sent 10 to 20 checks at a time.

Manochio says she sent the checks unsigned and they came back from Washington signed by Donald Trump, typically within a few days.

The checks were sent back to her at the Trump Organization, Manochio says.

If she didn’t get a check back, Manochio said she would reach out to Madeline Westerhout at the White House. “She would just look for it and see if she had it,” Manochio says of Westerhout when a check was missing.

When the signed checks came back to her, the backup invoices were still attached to them, she says.

When she received the checks back from Washington, she would give them to Deb Tarasoff, Manochio says. Tarasoff, who worked in the Trump Organization accounting department, testified on Monday.

Trump organization Rebecca Manochio is testifying that Trump’s personal expenses were handled by the Trump Organization and he paid his expenses by check.

When Trump was in the White House, Manochio says she would FedEx checks to Trump once a week.

Rebecca Manochio is testifying about her responsibilities while working for former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.

She worked as an assistant to Weisselberg for eight years and sat outside his office. Weisselberg and Trump would interact “every” day, Manochio says.

Manochio says she attached invoices to checks for Weisselberg to sign.

She also worked for former executive Jeffrey McConney who was controller at the time. When asked what a controller is, Manochio said she didn’t know. Earlier in the trial, McConney was called to the stand and testified about how Michael Cohen’s payments were listed in Trump’s financial documents.

Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio says she has worked at the company for 11 years.

“I worked at a supermarket and then I got a job at the Trump Organization” in 2013, she says. 

She was compelled to testify via subpoena, and is answering questions from prosecutor Rebecca Mangold.

Trump is turned toward Manochio and is watching her while she testifies.

The next witness to testify is Rebecca Manochio, who works at the Trump Organization as a junior bookkeeper.

Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold is questioning Manochio.

Stormy Daniels was on the stand for 6 hours and 10 minutes over two days of testimony.

Prosecutors do not seem phased by the defense’s cross-examination of Stormy Daniels, CNN Chief Legal Correspondent Paula Reid said.

“It’s clear that the prosecutors didn’t think what happened on cross-examination this morning damages the actual part of this case, Reid said.

The prosecutors saw what happened on Tuesday and this morning during Daniels testimony and decided “this isn’t going to make or break us, let’s clean this up quickly and then move on,” Reid explained.

CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins also said, “It’s not clear really at all what today accomplished in terms of this case and this argument and what we heard from Stormy Daniels.” Collins added that she’s not sure if the line of questioning from the defense today will sway jurors.

Stormy Daniels is off the stand. Her testimony is over, and she’s now leaving the courtroom.

Before she stepped down, Daniels said, “Thank you, sir” to Judge Juan Merchan on the bench above her.

Prosecutor Susan Necheles is going back to Stormy Daniels’ tweets and written attacks from users.

Necheles asks whether that on Twitter, strangers “post nasty things, right?”

“You engage in these kind of back-and-forths with these strangers all the time?” Necheles asks. “Sure,” Daniels says.

“I was defending myself,” Daniel says.

“I never attack anybody first. Same with Mr. Trump. I didn’t say anything negative about him until he said it about me,” Daniels says.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is back to ask Stormy Daniels another round of questions.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is recounting Stormy Daniels’ comment on direct examination, saying that while she’s made money with her story about Trump, it’s also cost her.

Daniels says now she’s had to hire security and move her daughter to a safe place to live, in addition to the money she owes Trump in attorneys fees.

Stormy Daniels testifies that she is telling the truth about Trump.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks, “Have you been telling lies about Mr. Trump or the truth about Mr. Trump?”

“The truth,” Daniels says.

Stormy Daniels said she didn’t testify before the grand jury.

“You had nothing to do with the charges in this case?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks.

“I did not,” Daniels says.

Hoffinger notes that defense attorney Susan Necheles had suggested Daniels was responsible for Trump’s indictment.

A post from Donald Trump’s on Truth Social post is being shown to the jury.

“If you go after me, I’m coming after you,” it reads.

Daniels says she thought it was aimed at her because it was right after Trump filed a lawsuit against her in Florida.

The prosecution is going back through some of Stormy Daniels’ tweets, attempting to show that some of her negative messages about Trump had been in response to those hateful posts.

In one tweet, Daniels said of Trump: “I’ll dance down the street” when he is “selected” to go to jail. The defense had shown this tweet and highlighted how Daniels appeared to be celebrating the former president’s legal trouble.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now showing the tweet Daniels was responding to when she wrote that message.

The Twitter user called Daniels a “disgusting degenerate prostitute,” and said Trump would be “selected by a landslide in 2024,” adding: “Good luck walking down the streets after this!”

“These are tame, actually,” Daniels says, of more tweets being shown to jurors from random people attacking her.

This sketch by CNN's Jake Tapper shows Stormy Daniels on the witness stand on Thursday, May 9. At the bottom right is defense attorney Susan Necheles.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles wrapped up her cross-examination of Stormy Daniels after a morning of volleying back and forth. Here’s how it ended: 

Last time she talked to Trump: Daniels confirmed she last spoke to Trump in 2007.

Remember: Trump called Daniels in 2007 to tell her he’d been “overruled” and couldn’t get her on “The Apprentice” — after that Daniels said she stopped taking his calls. The one exception, she said, was when he told her he didn’t know Jenna Jameson would be on the show. That was the last time she said she spoke to Trump.

She doesn’t control what gets published: Throughout today’s proceedings, Necheles brought up interviews Stormy Daniels gave about Trump with various publications — including Vogue, In Touch and Slate — over the years. Necheles called out apparent discrepancies in Daniels’ recounting of events. Daniels said she doesn’t control what parts of her quotes are ultimately published.

“Sometimes I give too many details,” Daniels said, raising her eyebrows.

She doesn’t understand the Trump charges: Daniels testified she doesn’t “really understand” what Trump is charged with. “There’s a lot of indictments,” she said with a shrug, adding that she doesn’t know anything about Trump’s business records.

The final question: In Necheles’ final question to Daniels, she asked “you never had an affair with President Trump but realized you could earn money” by claiming you did.

Judge Juan Merchan sustained an objection to the question, ending the cross-examination.

Donald Trump attorney Susan Necheles is objecting after the prosecution asked, “In terms of the context, you did tell Anderson Cooper that you had sex with Mr. Trump?”

Daniels agrees.

Lawyers are in another sidebar.

Trump is writing on a notepad.

Donald Trump is chatting with Todd Blanche, gesturing with his hands and leaning over to whisper in his attorney’s ear, as lawyers are in a sidebar.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles objected to admitting something into evidence related to an interview, prompting the sidebar.

This sketch by CNN's Jake Tapper shows Stormy Daniels on the witness stand on Thursday. At the bottom right is defense attorney Susan Necheles.

CNN’s Jake Tapper is in the courtroom today and has been making sketches of the proceedings.

Cameras are not allowed inside the courtroom, so sketch artists have given us a glimpse of what it’s like.

Here are a few more sketches today from Tapper and sketch artists Christine Cornell and Jane Rosenberg.

Daniels on the stand.

Necheles cross-examines Daniels on Thursday.

This is Daniels' second day on the stand. She began her testimony on Tuesday.

Daniels was cross-examined for a total of three hours and six minutes.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is focusing on Stormy Daniels’ “60 Minutes” interview.

“You didn’t tell every single detail to Anderson Cooper, did you?” Hoffinger asks.

“No,” Daniels says in a soft voice.

Hoffinger also shows the InTouch article in 2011 and says it was “lightly edited,” noting again that Trump attorney Susan Necheles did not mention that during cross-examination.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is going through prior testimony from Stormy Daniels, trying to illustrate that the defense left a lot of information out of their lines of questioning.

Hoffinger is showing the jury texts between ex-National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and Daniels’ publicist Gina Rodriguez, which we originally saw Tuesday.

“I thought she denounced it previously,” Howard said to Rodriguez in the text messages, in reference to her story with Trump.

“She never did,” Rodriguez writes back.

But Hoffinger notes the defense did not show that last text from Rodriguez during cross-examination.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is walking through Stormy Daniels’ motivation for entering into the non-disclosure agreement, including her fear for her safety.

Daniels recalls being told about being safer hiding in plain sight.

“Something won’t happen to you if everyone is looking at you,” Daniels says, noting it was one of the reasons she signed the NDA.

Hoffinger follows up: “You were also happy to take the money?”

“We’re all happy to take money. It’s just a bonus,” Daniels says

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is beginning the redirect.

“Almost good afternoon, Ms. Daniels. How are you?” she starts off.

Stormy Daniels was cross-examined for a total of three hours and six minutes. The direct was two hours and 36 minutes.

Donald Trump is talking to his lawyer Emil Bove while attorneys are at the bench.

Stormy Daniels looked at her watch, stretched her arm and played with her hair while waiting for re-direct to begin.

The defense’s cross-examination is now over. Attorneys are at the bench before re-direct.

In her final question to Stormy Daniels, Trump attorney Susan Necheles says “you never had an affair with President Trump but realized you could earn money” by claiming you did.

Judge Juan Merchan sustained an objection to the question, and then the cross-examination wrapped up.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks Stormy Daniels if she knows what Donald Trump is charged with.

“I don’t really understand. … I’m just here to answer the question asked to me,” she says.
“There’s a lot of indictments,” she says with a shrug.

Necheles asks Daniels if she knows anything about Trump’s business records.

“I know nothing about his business records, no, why would I?” Daniels responds.

Throughout today’s proceedings, Trump attorney Susan Necheles has brought up interviews Stormy Daniels gave about Trump with various publications — including Vogue, In Touch and Slate — over the years.

She has singled out apparent discrepancies in Daniels’ recounting of events and pressed the witness about them repeatedly.

This just came up again, with Necheles challenging Daniels on what exactly she told Vogue in a 2018 interview.

Daniels says she doesn’t control what parts of her quotes magazines ultimately include in an article based on her interviews.

“Sometimes I give too many details,” she said, raising her eyebrows.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels: “You last spoke with President Trump in 2007?”

“Yes,” Daniels says.

“And that’s a long time ago, right?” Necheles asks.

“Yes, ma’am,” Daniels responds.

The back-and-forth between Trump attorney Susan Necheles and Stormy Daniels continued with Necheles questioning if Daniels fabricated the story about her encounter with Trump. The exchange volleyed up until a late-morning court break.

Here’s the latest in Daniels’ testimony:

‘Trying to trick me:’ As one point in the exchange while being questioned about the $100,000 Daniels made from a documentary with NBC, Daniels told Necheles, “You’re trying to trick me into saying something that’s not entirely true.”

A tweet fired up the exchange: Necheles asked Daniels if she would be instrumental in putting Donald Trump in jail. The defense referenced a tweet from Daniels, which read: “Exactly! Making me the best person to flush the orange turd down.”

Daniels responded, “I don’t see instrumental or jail anywhere in that; you’re putting words in my mouth.”

Drinking champagne and selling merchandise: Daniels testified she tweeted about Trump’s indictment. When people asked how they could support her, she said she shared a link to her store. The defense highlighted several items from Daniels’ website for the jury, including a “Stormy Saint of Indictments” candle and #TeamStormy shirts. Daniels also confirmed she was drinking champagne to celebrate Trump’s indictment.

Her story was challenged: Necheles challenged Daniels on her story, saying it “has changed a lot over the years,” citing Daniels’ description of the floors in Trump’s hotel room. The Trump attorney also asked if Daniels fabricated the story about the encounter with Trump, which Daniels denied.

She wasn’t drugged or threatened: Daniels stood by her comments in a 2018 interview with Slate, maintaining she was not abused by Trump. “I was not physically threatened or drugged,” she said.

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.

This sketch by CNN's Jake Tapper shows Stormy Daniels on the witness stand on Thursday, May 9. At the bottom right is defense attorney Susan Necheles.

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.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now asking Daniels about her meeting with Trump and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger at the nightclub, questioning how long the meeting lasted.

Daniels has testified it was about 10 minutes, but Necheles says Daniels wrote in her book it was an hour.

“Mr. Trump left first,” Daniels says now, saying he was there “maybe 10 or 15 minutes.” She clarifies she stayed later with Roethlisberger.

Defense attorney Susan Necheles is questioning why Stormy Daniels didn’t say that Donald Trump stood in front of her in a 2018 Vogue interview.

Necheles again says, “Your story has completely changed.”

With a look of exasperation and a smile, Daniels raises her voice saying, “No!”

“You’re trying to make me say that it changed but it hasn’t changed,” she says.

Defense attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels about her testimony on Tuesday when Daniels said Trump’s actions made her feel like she had to have sex with him.

“My own insecurities made me feel that way,” Daniels says.

She went on, “He did not put his hands on me. He did not give me any sort of drugs or alcohol and he did not hold a weapon or hold me or threaten me.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now focusing on a 2018 interview with Slate, asking Stormy Daniels whether she told the publication “there was no abuse with what happened with President Trump and you were not a victim.”

“Yes,” Daniels says.

In that interview, Necheles says that Daniels said the worst thing Trump did was “break promises he never believed he would fulfill,” including buying her a condo in Florida and getting her on the Celebrity Apprentice.

“You didn’t say anything about feeling faint, when this happened?” Necheles asks, of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

“No, because the question was (about) what Mr. Trump did. And Mr. Trump did not drug me. That was how I felt,” Daniels responds.

Necheles has also asked about whether Daniels described a power imbalance, or being scared because of a body guard, in her previous recounting of the story.

Daniels says she maintains, “I was not physically threatened or drugged.”

Susan Necheles is now confronting Stormy Daniels with what she told In Touch in 2011 about the encounter with Donald Trump.

In that article, Daniels said Trump told her “come here” and they started kissing on the bed. Daniels confirms Trump did say “come here.”

“You made all this up, right?” Necheles asks.
“No,” says Daniels.

Necheles says that Daniels didn’t say Trump stood up in the In Touch interview. “This is an abbreviated version,” Daniels reiterates, also saying she wasn’t trying to get money at the time.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is continuing to press Stormy Daniels on the hotel room encounter.

“This wasn’t the first time in your life someone made a pass at you,” Necheles says.

“No, but it is the first time they had a bodyguard standing outside the door,” Daniels says. She adds that Trump was twice her age and bigger than her.

Trump lawyer Susan Necheles is suggesting that Stormy Daniels sees naked men and women in these movies all the time, questioning whether it was surprising to her to see a man in boxer shorts and a T-shirt to the point she felt like she was going to faint.

Daniels is pushing back, saying, “If I came out of the bathroom and saw an older man in his underwear that I wasn’t expecting to see there, yeah.”

Trump lawyer Susan Necheles is now focusing on what happened when Stormy Daniels entered the hotel room, questioning that she has said Donald Trump was sprawled out on the couch watching television and that he greeted her.

“He did both. He greeted me in the foyer. I assumed he was watching television because he definitely wasn’t getting dressed,” Daniels responds.

Necheles asks why she didn’t say that in the 2011 InTouch interview.

“No, I did not. Like I said, it was a shorter interview,” Daniels says.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks if they’re going to take a morning break. Judge Juan Merchan says he’d like to go a longer.

Trump attorney Necheles is now moving on to questions about whether Stormy Daniels walked to the hotel or took a car.

“The details of your story keep changing, right?” Necheles asks.

“No,” Daniels says. She testifies she took a car from a tattoo shop to Trump’s hotel, and says “I don’t know how a car was called.”

We’ve heard a lot about dinner — namely, whether it was eaten or not when Trump and Stormy Daniels met — as Trump attorney Susan Necheles zeroes in on what she argues is an inconsistency in Daniels’ story.

“So you’re saying, when you said, ‘We had dinner,’ you didn’t mean that, right?” Necheles asks.

Daniels has repeatedly argued that saying the two met to “have dinner” doesn’t necessarily mean they ate.

Necheles again presses Daniels about dinner.

“Yes, like I said it was dinner time in the room,” Daniels says.

Daniels has further testified, appearing exasperated, that when she goes to someone’s house “for dinner,” it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to eat.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles has hammered Stormy Daniels in cross-examination to establish some of the ways the porn star gained publicity and money from her story going public.

Here are the highlights:

Denying the relationship: In a January 2018 statement, Daniels denied a sexual encounter with Trump. Later that same month, Daniels put out a second statement denying the relationship, but she said she did not release it after she signed it. Daniels says was pushed to sign the statement by Michael Cohen via Keith Davidson, adding, “I never spoke to Michael Cohen directly.”

Going public about sex with Trump: Necheles asked Daniels if she eventually wanted to publicly announce she had sex with Trump.

“No. Nobody would ever want to publicly say that. I wanted to publicly defend myself,” Daniels testified.

She benefitted from the publicity: Necheles asked a series of questions to establish examples of how Daniels benefitted from the story. A 60 Minutes interview and appearances on CNN and The View brought Daniels publicity, Necheles said. Daniels argued her then-lawyer Michael Avenatti arranged her appearances, but she said “he took everything else for himself. Daniels also negotiated a $800,000 book contract.

More ways she benefitted: Necheles continued to drill down on how Daniels “capitalized” on the moment after coming forward with her story. Here’s what Necheles outlined:

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now pressing Stormy Daniels about her 2018 interview with Anderson Cooper.

During the interview, Cooper asks Daniels if they went out for dinner. She says no. He asks if they had dinner in the room. She says yes. Daniels says it was dinner time but they didn’t eat dinner.

“We did not have any food. I did not eat any food. I maintain that in every interview. That has not changed,” Daniels says.
“When you said to Anderson Cooper you didn’t really mean you had dinner, you meant something else?” Necheles asks.
“We had dinner time in the room,” Daniels said.

“Your words don’t mean what they say, do they?” Necheles asks. Judge Juan Merchan then sustained an objection.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks whether she made “a big deal” about not getting dinner when going to Donald Trump’s hotel room.

Necheles is reading a few different interview accounts from over the the years, including Daniels telling Jimmy Kimmel she was “very food-motivated,” so she stayed in the hotel room because she was holding out for dinner.

Necheles then asks whether Daniels said the opposite in her 2011 InTouch interview.

“I never said we ate,” Daniels says. Necheles is now bringing up the article for Daniels to review.

Daniels defends herself: “My story’s the same.”

“I’ve maintained that I didn’t see any food,” Daniels. “It was dinner but we never got food.”

“All of these interviews I would have talked about the food,” Daniels adds.

Trump lawyer Susan Necheles is focusing repeatedly on Stormy Daniels’ comments for a 2011 article in the gossip magazine InTouch about a dinner with Trump.

Daniels has pushed back as Necheles tries to highlight potential discrepancies in her story, saying the article wasn’t meant to be a perfect record of events.

“This is an entertainment magazine. This is short and frivolous. It’s an abbreviated, entertaining version of the events,” Daniels says of the interview.

Necheles asks if Daniels was telling the truth in her 2011 interview.

“It is minus some details,” Daniels responds.

Judge Juan Merchan just told Trump lawyer Susan Necheles to give Stormy Daniels time to answer each question.

The two are going back and forth so quickly they’re stepping on each other’s sentences.

Necheles has been pressing Daniels, and Daniels often pushes back on the attorney’s account of events.

Stormy Daniels is now being asked about how Donald Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller asked her to have dinner with Trump.

Defense attorney Susan Necheles asks, “(That’s a) totally different story than you told in 2011, isn’t it?”

Necheles asks her to confirm she told InTouch magazine that Trump personally asked her to dinner. Daniels says on the stand that she doesn’t remember saying.

Daniels says, “I didn’t specify. I left out the names of all the other people not to get them involved.”

In that interview, Daniels said at the time that “he came to talk to me and asked me for my number and I gave it to him.”

Daniels also told the magazine in 2011 that he said, “I want to come talk to you later.”

CNN anchor Jake Tapper is in court during Stormy Daniels’ testimony in the hush money trial.

Tapper drew the following sketch of Daniels.

This sketch shows Stormy Daniels in the courtroom on Thursday, May 9.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is challenging Stormy Daniels on the specific description she gave of the floors of Trump’s hotel room that she testified to earlier during direct examination.

“That had been part of your prep. That you were supposed to include certain details in your testimony, right?” Necheles asks, calling out a moment when prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Daniels if she mentioned the tile floors.

Necheles says that Daniels’ story “has changed a lot over the years, right?” “No,” Daniels responds.

About the direct examination: Hoffinger asked Daniels if she had mentioned the floors. Daniels now confirms yes, certain details were a part of her prep for trial.

Necheles is suggesting that they prepared her to “match” her testimony to things she wrote in her book.

Daniels is pushing back on that saying, “it’s the same story, my story hasn’t changed when it comes to those details.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels about her history making porn movies.

“You have a lot of experience of making phony stories about sex appear to be real,” Necheles says.

“Wow,” Daniels says with a pause. “That’s not how I would put it. The sex in the films is very much real just like what happened to me in that room.”

They’re sparring over whether Daniels made up the story with Donald Trump.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now going over Stormy Daniels’ venture to create a show about the paranormal. She asks Daniels if she has claimed her house in New Orleans is haunted.

Daniels confirms the venture, adding they brought in experts.

“It was a lot of interesting and unexplained activity,” she says. “A lot of the activity was completely debunked as a giant possum,” she adds with a laugh.

During the cross-examination of Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump’s defense team pointed out that Daniels profited from merchandise related to Trump’s indictment — an interesting point given that the former president has also fundraised from his indictment, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said.

“They are going after Stormy Daniels because she confirmed that the day that Trump was indicted she was drinking champagne” and she posted a link to a store that sells merchandise related to the case, Collins explained.

Meanwhile, Trump has fundraised off every one of his indictments, Collins noted.

“They brag about how much money he has made and raised when he has been indicted, each time he has been indicted, and so it is notable that now the defense is going after Stormy Daniels because she was also trying to make money,” she said.

The merchandise in question: The defense has highlighted several items from Daniels’ website for the jury, including a “Stormy Saint of Indictments” candle and #TeamStormy shirts.

Susan Necheles, Trump’s attorney, asked whether Daniels was bragging with the candle that she got Trump indicted.

“No, I’m not bragging. I think it’s funny,” Daniels said.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking whether Stormy Daniels plans to keep making money off of Trump.

“I plan to continue to do my job and to fund my extraordinary legal bills,” Daniels says. 

Stormy Daniels turned a question around to highlight Donald Trump’s own efforts to sell merchandise based on his criminal indictment.

“You’re celebrating the indictment by selling things from your store?” Necheles asks.

“Not unlike Mr. Trump,” Daniels responds.

Remember: The former president has turned his criminal indictments into fundraising opportunities, including in the form of t-shirts featuring his mug shot from his case in Georgia.

The merchandise in question: The defense has highlighted several items from Daniels’ website for the jury, including a “Stormy Saint of Indictments” candle and #TeamStormy shirts.

Necheles asks whether Daniels is bragging with the candle that she got Trump indicted.

“No, I’m not bragging. I think it’s funny,” Daniels says.

There’s also a $30 comic book called “Political Power: Stormy Daniels.”

“Keep in mind I didn’t write this comic book,” Daniels says, laughing. But she confirms she’s selling it.

As Stormy Daniels testifies about the merchandise she sold after Trump’s indictment, Trump is leaning forward on the defendant’s table. He’s got a frown on his face.

Stormy Daniels confirms on the stand that she was drinking champagne celebrating Trump’s indictment.

When Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks whether she’s selling items in her story about how she got the president indicted, Daniels responds, “I got President Trump indicted?” raising the inflection in her voice to sound surprised.

Stormy Daniels returned to the stand Thursday after more than 3.5 hours of testimony on Tuesday. Donald Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles resumed her cross-examination, starting with the non-disclosure agreement Daniels signed.

Here are the highlights:

She wanted her story out: Daniels said that she didn’t want money from Trump, she said – she just wanted her story out there. “I was asking to sell my story to publications to get the truth out,” Daniels says. This testimony reiterates what she said on the stand Tuesday.

Other news outlets wanted the story: Necheles asked Daniels if she remembered talking to Slate magazine about the affair. Daniels said she talked to a reporter about the non-disclosure agreement with Cohen, just as a backup to the NDA. “Numerous people wanted to publish the story,” Daniels said with a small laugh. Necheles pressed, asking if other outlets were willing to pay her money for her story. Daniels said, “No”

The paper trail: Daniels maintains she took the nondisclosure agreement “to get my story protected by a paper trail so my family wouldn’t get hurt when the story came out.” The cross-examination heated up when Necheles asked if publishing her story in Slate, instead of signing an NDA, would also have produced a paper trail. “With a target on my back and my family’s,” Daniels replied.

She didn’t yell at her attorney: Daniels said she “never yelled at Keith Davidson on the phone,” referring to a call between her former lawyer and Michael Cohen in April 2018. On the call, Davidson gave Cohen a heads up about the public claims that Daniels’ then-publicist Gina Rodriguez’s boyfriend was going to make to the press. Daniels said the transcript noted that Rodriguez’s boyfriend was going to tell the story, not that she was.

“When Trump was indicted in this case, you celebrated on Twitter by repeatedly tweeting and pushing merchandise you were selling in your store right?” defense attorney Susan Necheles asks Stormy Daniels.

“I tweeted about him being indicted, yes. People asked how they could support me so I tweeted the link to my store,” Daniels said.

Necheles is now showing the tweets in question to the jury, including one that had the link to Daniels’ store.

“That was you shilling your merchandise, right?” Necheles asks.

“That is me doing my job,” Daniels responds.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles wants to introduce another tweet where Stormy Daniels is responding to someone else’s tweet.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked to approach the bench. The objection was sustained.

Trump again was chatting with attorney Todd Blanche.

Donald Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles asks Stormy Daniels if she said she’d be instrumental in putting Trump in jail.

“Show me where I said I’d be instrumental in putting President Trump in jail,” Daniels responds.

The defense references a tweet from Daniels where she wrote: “Exactly! Making me the best person to flush the orange turd down.”

“Pretty sure this is hyperbole, if somebody is going to call me a toilet … I can say I’m going to flush somebody,” Daniels says of the tweet.

Pushing her about the tweet, Necheles says, “You don’t want to admit you meant President Trump.”

“Oh I absolutely meant — uh — Mr. Trump,” Daniels says as she took a pause and didn’t say “President” Trump.

The back-and-forth between Trump attorney Susan Necheles and Stormy Daniels continues.

As one point in the exchange while being questioned about the $100,000 Daniels made from a documentary with NBC, Daniels says, “You’re trying to trick me into saying something that’s not entirely true.”

Reminding the jury that Stormy Daniels is a stripper is not the best strategy for the defense, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said.

“The cross-examination is now officially meandering, right? They’re directionless in contrast to Tuesday where it was very direct,” Honig said. “Now we’re into this weeds of why the agreement, what her motivation was, she made money,” he noted.

Honig said that the defense instead should used the last 45 minutes of cross-examination to focus on how Daniels financially profited off this story, but right now what the defense is doing is ineffective.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles has been pushing Stormy Daniels through a series of questions about the monetary arrangement for a documentary she made with NBC.

Necheles asks about the $100,000 Daniels received from the documentary, to which Daniels replies: “A lot of it was footage that I had to reimburse cameraman for.”

They didn’t have to “get me to cooperate,” Daniels says of the filmmakers, “I started filming myself.”

Necheles also asks Daniels whether she had an “affair” with one of the documentary producers. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger objects, but Judge Juan Merchan overrules, allowing her to answer.

Daniels says she was separated from her husband and did begin dating one of the cameramen on the film. She says he stopped filming once they began dating.

Necheles asks Daniels whether she’s holding viewing parties at bars for the documentary and selling tickets.

“So it’s another way you’re making money off the documentary and the story?” Necheles asks.

Daniels says she hasn’t made any profit, that it’s covering her travel and other expenses.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels about her appearance on reality show “The Surreal Life.”

Necheles asked her to confirm that the story she wanted to share was that she “supposedly” had sex with Donald Trump.

“It was the full story about my life and what I went through because of this,” Daniels answers.

Donald Trump has been leaning back in his chair, closing his eyes for much of the testimony so far.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels about the advertising for the tour, specifically with a photo of Daniels and Trump from the golf course meeting.

Daniels raised her voice, “False, I have no control over how the club advertises.”

The club flyer using the widespread photo of Daniels and Trump at the Lake Tahoe golf tournament advertised: “He saw her live. You can too!”

Necheles follows up and asks whether she was selling herself on her tour to people who hated Trump. “I was not selling myself to anyone. I was preforming at clubs and whoever wanted to pay admission,” Daniels responds.

“The client at the clubs absolutely changed,” Daniels says, but again argues she was not selling herself and “just did the same job I always did.”

She testifies, “I never reposted anything that had this photo” and “I never used that tag line I hated it.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is continuing to drill down on how Stormy Daniels “capitalized” on the moment after coming forward with her story.

“You capitalized by doing a strip club tour, called ‘Make America Horny Again,” Necheles says. The name is a play on Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Daniels says she fought against the name: “I did not name that tour, and I fought it tooth and nail,” she says.

Trump’s attorney is continuing to ask Stormy Daniels questions about how much she benefited from going public with her story.

Attorney Susan Necheles asks Daniels to confirm whether after she gave a 60 Minutes interview for free, she got lots of publicity.

Daniels affirms, though she said it was “bad publicity.”

“A ton of publicity,” Necheles reiterates.

“Yes,” Daniels replies.

Necheles continues, asking whether Daniels was able to negotiate a book contract for $800,000, which Daniels confirms.

Daniels also acknowledges that her then-lawyer Michael Avenatti arranged her appearances on CNN and The View, but says “he took everything else for himself.”

“Now you have been paid almost $930,000, almost a million dollars for selling this story?” Necheles asks.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now asking Stormy Daniels if she eventually wanted to publicly announce she had sex with Trump.

“You wanted to make more money, right?” Necheles asks. “No, that’s why I did 60 Minutes for free,” Daniels responds.

On January 30, 2018, Stormy Daniels put out a second statement denying the sexual relationship with Donald Trump again.

“I didn’t release it,” Daniels says on the stand but acknowledges she signed it. This is the statement that Daniels says she signed her “Stormy Daniels” signature different than any other time previously.

“You understood in 2018 that President Trump was denying this relationship? And he wanted you to deny it as well?” Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks.
Daniels says was pushed to sign the statement by Michael Cohen via Keith Davidson, adding, “I never spoke to Michael Cohen directly.”

“(Trump) was not running for election at that point, right?” Necheles asks, noting there was no election in 2018. “He was already president, right? He was concerned about his family, right?”

“You understand that President Trump had a brand?” Necheles asks.

Laughing, Daniels says, “Brand? Yes.”

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger objected. The judge allowed Daniels to answer.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is reading a January 2018 statement from Stormy Daniels denying a sexual encounter with Trump.

Necheles reads, “Rumors that I had received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false.”

Daniels replies, “Correct, because it wasn’t a rumor, it was the truth.”

Trump’s attorney is now moving her line of questioning back to the January 2018 Wall Street Journal article about Stormy Daniels’ settlement agreement with Trump.

Daniels testifies that she signed a statement denying a sexual encounter with Trump two days earlier.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks Daniels to confirm she knew the article was coming out before it was published because the reporter reached out for comment.

Daniels says, “Keith Davidson said something was coming out.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels whether she understood this to be a matter negotiated by her lawyer and Michael Cohen.

“You understood this was a legal matter being settled with a legal contract, right?” Necheles asks.

“Yes,” Daniels says after a pause.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is going through the lines of the confidentiality agreement.

“The parties are agreeing that this would be kept confidential thereafter,” she asks.

“Right,” Daniels says.

This is the agreement between David Dennison and Peggy Peterson, the pseudonyms used for Trump and Daniels.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles pulls up Stormy Daniels’ settlement agreement from 2016.

Trump is leaning forward at the defense table and looking at the document on the screen in front of him.

Stormy Daniels says she “never yelled at Keith Davidson on the phone,” in reference to a call between her former lawyer and Michael Cohen in April 2018.

In the phone call, Davidson gives Cohen a heads up about the public claims that Daniels’ then-publicist Gina Rodriguez’s boyfriend was going to make to the press.

“I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he comes out and says, you know what, Stormy Daniels, she wanted this money more than you can ever imagine. I remember hearing her on the phone saying, you f**king Keith Davidson. You better settle this goddamn story. Because if he loses this election, and he’s going to lose, if he loses this election, we lose all f**king leverage, this case is worth zero,” Davidson told Cohen in the April 4, 2018 call.

Daniels says the transcript notes “that Gina’s boyfriend was going to go out and tell the story, not that I was going to go out and tell this story. … It sounds like a threat from Keith Davidson.”

Davidson testified earlier at trial that the former boyfriend was poised to give public statements in 2018 recounting his claims about Daniels’ statements to her lawyer when the deal was in limbo with Cohen in October 2016.

Some context: Five days after the surreptitiously recorded call between Cohen and Davidson, a search warrant was executed on Cohen’s apartment.

Trump is speaking with his attorney Todd Blanche while the other attorneys are at the bench.

He hasn’t had any noticeable reaction to the testimony so far today.

Judge Juan Merchan and attorneys from both sides are reviewing an audio recording from Keith Davidson who recorded conversations with Michael Cohen on April 4, 2018.

Stormy Daniels maintains she took the nondisclosure agreement “to get my story protected by a paper trail so my family wouldn’t get hurt when the story came out.”

“I wanted the truth to be printed with some paper trail,” she says.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks Daniels that even though she would have gotten her story out with Slate, she went with the NDA.

“This was a better alternative,” Daniels says.

Necheles challenged her that there would’ve been a paper trail if she published her story instead of signing an NDA and accepting a settlement.

“With a target on my back and my family’s,” Daniels says in response.

During Tuesday’s cross-examination, Donald Trump’s defense team in the hush money case was able to undermine Stormy Daniels’ credibility, but did not undermine her value in the trial, CNN chief legal correspondent Paula Reid said.

On Tuesday the defense highlighted Daniels’ inconsistent statements about her relationship with Trump, which put into question her motives, but “what she offers prosecutors is an account of what exactly happened allegedly between her and Trump. What was worth $130,000 between the ‘Access Hollywood Tape’ and election day. She cannot speak to the falsifying of business records,” Reid explained.

“So her value to the prosecutors, I don’t think was really undermined in the cross-examination, but her credibility certainly was,” Reid said. Reid also noted that Daniels is not the number one priority for the defense team. The priority and where the defense wants to spend most of their energy on is on the cross-examination of Michael Cohen, Reid said.

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig also spoke to what Daniels’ testimony ultimately adds to the case.

“A lot of what’s happening with Stormy Daniels, I would classify as atmospherics, right?” Honig said, but she’s still an important witness.

“If the jury believes her that’s crucial to the prosecution’s case that there was this extramarital sex in 2006. If they believe that Stormy Daniels is making this up, this really plays into the defense theory, ‘This was shakedown. Stormy Daniels was taking advantage of a moment in time, right before the election,’ when she had leverage to try to extract money for herself,” he said.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is giving Stormy Daniels with a document to refresh her memory.

Necheles asks if it’s correct that she told the Slate reporter that as an “alternative to being paid” for her silence she wanted to be paid for her story.

“I don’t remember saying that exactly, no,” says Daniels.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now asking Stormy Daniels about whether she recalls speaking to Slate Magazine about her affair.

Daniels confirms that she told Slate about the non-disclosure agreement with Cohen.

“He was my backup in case the non-disclosure fell through,” Daniels says.

“Numerous people wanted to publish the story,” Daniels says with a small laugh.

Necheles suggests Daniels wanted money from Slate. She notes that Slate wasn’t going to pay her for her story.

“But they weren’t willing to give you money right?” Necheles asks. “No,” Daniels says.