Stormy Daniels testifies in Trump’s hush money trial

Former President Donald Trump sits in court while adult film actress Stormy Daniels testifies on Tuesday.

Adult film star Stormy Daniels dished out salacious details of her sexual encounter with former President Donald Trump in 2006 from the witness stand on Tuesday, describing how they met at a celebrity golf tournament and what she says happened when she went to Trump’s Lake Tahoe hotel room.

In a mostly casual and conversational tone, Daniels recounted details from the floors and furniture in Trump’s hotel room to the contents of his toiletry kit in the bathroom. At one point in court, Daniels threw back her arm and lifted her leg in the witness box to re-create the moment she says Trump posed on his hotel bed for her, stripped down to his undergarments.

But some details Daniels described were so explicit that Judge Juan Merchan cut her off at several points. And Trump’s lawyers argued that Daniels had unfairly prejudiced the jury, asking Merchan to declare a mistrial. The judge denied the request but added that some of the details from Daniels were “better left unsaid.”

Here are takeaways from Day 13 of the trial:

Hush money came after “Access Hollywood” tape controversy: Daniels would go on to describe how she stayed touch with Trump, even coming to briefly see him at Trump Tower to talk about the “Celebrity Apprentice” reality show. Daniels said that in 2015 after Trump began running for president, her then-publicist Gina Rodriguez tried to sell her story. But Rodriguez didn’t find much interest until after the “Access Hollywood” tape of Trump was released in October 2016 – eventually leading to the discussions with AMI and then Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000 not to go public with her case.

Judge denies Trump’s mistrial motion: Trump’s lawyers argued the judge should declare a mistrial after the morning of salacious testimony from Daniels. Trump still vehemently denies the allegations, his attorney Todd Blanche said, arguing there was no way to “un-ring that bell” for jurors who have now heard unfairly prejudicial testimony. Blanche argued that the testimony had nothing to do with the district attorney’s case about falsifying business records.

Defense accuses Daniels of lying for profit: Trump attorney Susan Necheles didn’t take long to challenge Daniels’ story in cross-examination, accusing the adult film actress of hating Trump.

Daniels’ body language was tense and her tone notably shifted as Necheles attempted to dismantle her credibility. Daniels gave short, terse answers to many of her questions, defiantly responding “false” and “no” while disputing Necheles’ assertions that she had made up details in her story or that she was trying to extort Trump.

Read more takeaways from Tuesday’s testimony

During the mid-morning break, Judge Juan Merchan called defense attorney Todd Blanche to the bench and ordered him to speak to former President Donald Trump about his “contemptuous” behavior during Stormy Daniels’ testimony Tuesday.

“I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually and that’s contemptuous,” Merchan said to Blanche, according to the court transcript. “It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that.”

Merchan said he decided to speak to Blanche at the bench because he did not want to embarrass Trump. “You need to speak to him. I won’t tolerate that,” Merchan said.

Blanche again said he would talk to Trump.

Merchan then described Trump’s inappropriate behavior. 

“One time I noticed when Ms. Daniels was testifying about rolling up the magazine, and presumably smacking your client, and after that point, he shook his head and he looked down. And later, I think he was looking at you, Mr. Blanche, later when we were talking about “The Apprentice,” at that point he again uttered a vulgarity and looked at you this time,” Merchan said.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels testifies on Tuesday.

Here are the highlights from Tuesday in court:

Two witnesses on the stand: Adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Sally Franklin, the senior vice president and executive managing editor for Penguin Random House publishing group. 

Here’s what to know about their testimonies: 

Sally Franklin: The publishing executive was first on the stand and she testified for 46 minutes as a records custodian, pursuant to a subpoena. 

Stormy Daniels: Before the jury was called in on Tuesday, the defense renewed its objection to her testimony. Judge Juan Merchan said he agreed with Trump’s attorneys that she has credibility issues, but that’s why the prosecutors need to be given a chance to establish her credibility. He ruled it’s fine to elicit that Trump and Daniels had sex. “That’s fine. But we don’t need to know the details,” he said. 

What’s next: The defense indicated it will continue cross-examining Daniels on Thursday. Court is dark on Wednesday. Prosecution has also said it will do a round of re-direct. 

Prosecutors zeroed in on the hush money payment at the center of the case against Donald Trump as Stormy Daniels took the stand today.

Here’s a timeline CNN compiled of key events in the case that Daniels was asked about:

See a full timeline and read up on the key players in the case below:

Judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely postponed Donald Trump’s classified documents trial in Florida, citing significant issues around classified evidence that would need to be worked out before the federal criminal case goes to a jury. 

In an order Tuesday, Cannon canceled the May trial date and did not set a new date.

Remember: The hush money criminal trial against former President Donald Trump is one of four criminal cases he faces while juggling his presidential campaign.

Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media on Tuesday.

Donald Trump called the prosecution’s hush money case against him a disaster in remarks outside of the Manhattan court on Tuesday.

“This was a very big day, a very revealing day as you see their case is totally falling apart. They have nothing on books and records and even something that shouldn’t bear very little relationship to the case — it’s just a disaster for the DA,” Trump said.

Trump did not discuss witness Stormy Daniels while he spoke to reporters.

The former president said he should be campaigning instead of sitting in court and thanked reporters for waiting outside the court all day.

Stormy Daniels is questioned on Tuesday.

Stormy Daniels testified for a total of 3 hours and 44 minutes today.

She’s expected to return to the stand Thursday to answer more questions from Trump’s attorneys.

Before the judge cut her off, attorney Susan Necheles asked Stormy Daniels whether the text messages between her then-agent Gina Rodriguez and Dylan Howard of the National Enquirer showed that she was trying to sell her story.

“I was pushing, I wanted to tell my story, yes,” Daniels says.

Judge Juan Merchan cuts off Trump attorney Susan Necheles to dismiss the jurors for the day.

“Alright jurors, let’s call it a day,” he says.

The jury is now seeing texts between National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and Stormy Daniels’ then-manager Gina Rodriguez from June 2016.

Howard wrote, “I thought she denounced it previously.”
Rodriguez responded: “she said she will do it under 2 conditions.”
Rodriguez texted: “she doesn’t want to go on record about it but will tell the story through a source.” She continued, “She’s had sex with him. She wants 100k”

Necheles asks Daniels to confirm by this time in 2016 that she’d previously denounced the allegations against Trump.

Daniels says she does not know who Howard is. “I don’t know what this is in reference to,” she says of the text exchange.

Daniels is being combative with these text messages, again complaining that she does not know the context of the messages.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now asking Stormy Daniels about why she was going to sell her story if she was so afraid after being threatened.

Necheles implies that Daniels wasn’t really scared, noting that after the supposed threat, Daniels “decided to do the opposite.”

“I was terrified,” Daniels says. “I just had to change my tactic because it was a new ballgame” now that Trump was a presidential candidate, she adds.

“The truth is you saw that opportunity to make money,” Necheles says.

“I saw the opportunity to get the story out. I didn’t put a price tag on it,” Daniels responds.

Donald Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles questioned Stormy Daniels about her finances related to Trump. 

Here’s the highlights: 

Making money: Necheles asked if Daniels has made “a lot of money” by “claiming to have had sex with President Trump for more than a decade.” Daniels testified, “I’ve been making money by telling my story about what happened to me.” She also said it cost her a lot of money as well. 

Paying Trump: Necheles asked if Daniels is hiding her assets because she doesn’t want to pay the judgments against her. Daniels denied that assertion. She later testified that she hoped she didn’t have to pay Trump “no matter what happens” in the trial. Daniels also denied setting up a trust for her daughter. 

Interaction with Gloria Allred: Daniels said her talent manager at the time arranged a conversation with attorney Gloria Allred in 2011 about whether she could sue Trump for money. She said she told her on the phone that she had sex with Trump and gave her more details in an in-person meeting. Necheles accused Daniels of making things up on the stand. 

Being threatened: Daniels discussed a 2011 incident where she said a man threatened her in a parking lot while she was on her way to a mommy-and-me class with her infant daughter. She said she thought at the time that Michael Cohen sent the man, but she was wrong. She said she couldn’t go through with the class following the incident. She also testified that she didn’t tell her husband or the father of the child about it.  

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is again challenging Stormy Daniels on the time she planned a news conference in 2016 but never went through with it.

“You are looking to extort money from President Trump,” Necheles asks.

“False,” Daniels says, raising her voice.

“That’s what you did, right?” Necheles follows up.

“False,” Daniels says again.

Susan Necheles is focusing again on the “threats” faced by Stormy Daniels.

“You had been told, ‘Don’t talk anymore…’” so then you decided to sell your story, Necheles asks incredulously.

The Trump attorney briefly returned to the thedirty.com story from 2011, asking whether Daniels authorized Keith Davidson to have the story taken down.

“All I know is I wanted it down,” she says, saying she never spoke to the gossip website about it.

Daniels says: “I was a much braver person in 2016 than I was in 2011.”

Necheles retorts that her story was worth a lot more in 2016 than 2011.

Judge Juan Merchan is back and Stormy Daniels is on the stand.

Before the jury entered, Trump attorney Susan Necheles confirmed that her cross-examination would continue into Thursday. Wednesday is an off day for the trial.

Merchan said court will end at 4:30 p.m. today.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said there will also be a redirect of Daniels.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks Stormy Daniels if she hated Michael Cohen when she made the allegation about the man threatening her in the car park.

And she added: Now you’re “buddies.”

Daniels says she wouldn’t call them “buddies.”

Given the tense atmosphere in the courtroom as Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles presses Stormy Daniels in various ways in order to damage the adult film star’s credibility, it’s worth remembering that at the beginning of the day Trump was angry about not knowing who today’s witness was.

Trump railed against the timing in which his team became aware of Tuesday’s witness in his criminal trial in an early morning Truth Social post that has since been taken down.

“I have just recently been told who the witness is today. This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare,” the deleted post said.

Before the jury came in Tuesday morning, Necheles renewed the defense team’s objection to Daniels testifying.

“We want to renew our objection this morning. We’re informed the second witness will be Stormy Daniels. We want to renew our objection to her testifying, particularly about any details of any sexual acts,” she said.

Prosecutors have made a point of not sharing witness plans with Trump, citing his various social media posts attacking potential witnesses.

The court is taking a short afternoon break. Stormy Daniels is expected to resume her testimony soon.

Donald Trump pursed his lips and exhaled as he walked down the aisle.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles continues to ask Stormy Daniels about her testimony that she was threatened in 2011 by a man in a parking lot.

“This man never existed, did he?” Susan Necheles asks.

“He absolutely existed,” Daniels says.

Necheles then asks if the story was made up.

“None of it’s made up,” Daniels says.

Daniels says that Michael Avenatti hired a sketch artist to recreate a description of the man and offered $100,000 to whoever could identify him.

Stormy Daniels is now testifying that she told the story about her sexual encounter with Trump on a radio show in 2007.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles clarifies that she wrote names down on a paper of famous people she’d slept with.

Daniels says she mentioned Lake Tahoe and a hotel room which was “obviously” about Trump.

Necheles asks Daniels whether she told Anderson Cooper, “I never told this story publicly before because I was threatened.” She says that’s correct.

Susan Necheles asks Stormy Daniels if she believed Michael Cohen sent “that man in the garage,” referring to a 2011 incident where Daniels says a man threatened her in a parking lot while she was on her way to a mommy-and-me class with her infant daughter.

Daniels says that’s what she thought at the time, but she was wrong.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is drilling down on what Stormy Daniels did afterward being threatened in 2011.

Necheles is challenging Daniels with her own words in her book “Full Disclosure,” in which she wrote that she did the exercise class after the man allegedly threatened her in the parking lot.

Daniels says it was “incorrect” that she had suggested she went to her exercise class. She says she went into the bathroom with her daughter and lied claiming her baby had a “blowout.”

On the stand she said, “There’s no way I could’ve possibly done the class as scared as I was.”

Stormy Daniels is being asked about the time she was threatened by a man in Las Vegas.

She confirms she didn’t tell anybody about the story until 2018 when she agreed it was “probably” in an interview with Anderson Cooper.

“I kept all of it secret from my husband,” Daniels says.

“Your daughter’s life was in jeopardy and you did not tell her father,” Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks.

“Right,” Daniels replies.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now asking Stormy Daniels about her statements about being threatened in 2011.

Necheles asks it it’s true that she didn’t tell anyone about the supposed threat. Daniels says. that she told her close friends.

“You didn’t tell your husband, father of child?” Necheles asks.

“Correct,” Daniels said.

Attorney Susan Necheles asks Stormy Daniels whether she told E! Online in 2011 that the story about her having sex with Donald Trump was “bullsh*t​.”

Daniels responds she was “asked what I thought about all of this stuff and I thought it was bullsh*t.” She paused before softly using the expletive.

She says the assessment did not refer to having sex but to the story.

Necheles pushes back by asking whether Daniels if her assessment was based on who would pay her money.

She acknowledges, when asked by Necheles, that this was the same time she was trying to sell her story to In Touch for $15,000.

Defending her motivations, Daniels says with a shrug:

“I did “60 Minutes” with Anderson Cooper and they gave me zero.”
Necheles responds, “We’ll get to that.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles suggests Stormy Daniels had to talk about her sexual encounter with President Trump to make money.

“It taught you if you want to make money about President Trump, you better talk about sex,” Necheles asks.

“No, although that does seem to be the case. Sadly,” Daniels says.

“You learned from that, did you not, that a story about President Trump that doesn’t include sex will make you no money, right?”

“It taught me that I should tell the truth and not trust people” I did not think I should trust, Daniels says.

In her book “Full Disclosure,” Stormy Daniels wrote that she told an “extremely abbreviated” version of her story in the phone conversation with Gloria Allred and left out details about sex with Donald Trump.

“I did not tell her all the sex details. I did not trust her. She wanted me to accuse him of force, basically rape, I did not want to continue that conversation,” Daniels said.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles suggests Daniels is making this up as she sits on the stand.

Daniels shoots her a look, cocking her head and says “No.”

Allred’s response: In a statement Tuesday evening to CNN, Allred cited attorney client privilege in the case of Daniels, but also defended herself saying, “There are no circumstances in which I have ever advised a client or a potential client to make false allegations.”

This post has been updated with Allred’s response to Daniels’ testimony.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is confronting Stormy Daniels with a document, which is a page from her book “Full Disclosure.”

“You told Gloria Allred that you did not have sex with President Trump?,” Necheles asks.

“No I did not say that, I said that I did,” Daniels says. They then showed Daniels the document.

Trump is leaning forward to read it on his monitor, too.

“Yes during that phone conversation. When I met her in person later I told her everything,” Daniels says.

Necheles suggests Daniels is making this up as she sits here on the stand.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is showing jurors the cover of Daniels’ book “Full Disclosure.”

Susan Necheles asks Stormy Daniels about whether she spoke to attorney Gloria Allred in 2011 about whether she could sue Donald Trump for money. 

After a pause, Daniels testifies, “I don’t remember what was talked about in that conversation.”

“I also told her I had sex with Donald Trump.”

Her talent manager at the time – who also brought the story to AMI – arranged the conversation with Allred in 2011, she says.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is questioning Stormy Daniels about her finances related to Trump.

“You’ve been making money by claiming to have had sex with President Trump for more than a decade,” Necheles asks.

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

“That story has made you a lot of money, right?” Necheles asks.

“It’s also cost me a lot of money,” Daniels says.

“Isn’t it true that you are hoping that if Donald Trump is convicted, you’ll never have to pay him?” Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks Stormy Daniels, referring to the legal fees Daniels owes Trump.

“I hope I don’t have to pay him no matter what happens,” Daniels says.

The questioning remains focused on Stormy Daniels’ finances.

“Isn’t it true that you’ve been hiding your assets because you don’t want to pay the judgment against you?” Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks. “No,” Daniels said.

Daniels also denied setting up a trust for her daughter.

After a brief trip by the attorneys to the bench, Trump attorney Susan Necheles confirms that Stormy Daniels didn’t fill out her spouse’s income on the form.

“I won’t fill out information that endangers my family or my daughter,” Daniels says.

Necheles then asks:
“Do you have bank accounts?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell that on the form?”
“I didn’t fill out this form.”

Daniels says the form went to her attorney who’s been handling it and didn’t send it to her to sign.

Donald Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles began cross-examining adult film star Stormy Daniels Tuesday afternoon and things have been tense. Here’s what they’ve covered so far: 

Daniels testifies she hates Trump: Necheles asked Daniels if she hated Trump. “Yes,” Daniels said. Necheles then asked Daniels if she wants Trump to go to jail. “I want him to be held accountable,” Daniels answered. When Necheles asked again, she said she would want him to go to jail “if he’s found guilty.” 

Daniels owes Trump $560,000: Necheles asked the question confirming Daniels owes Trump about $560,000 in legal fees after she had filed and lost a defamation suit against him. Daniels conceded, “I’ve chosen not to pay while it’s still pending, yes.” Necheles noted there are three court orders ordering Danniels to pay Trump and asked if she’s not going to pay. Daniels replied, “I don’t know.” 

The attorney also highlighted tweets from Daniels calling Trump names. Daniels said she did that “because he made fun of me first.” In a leading question, Necheles said if it was right that someone started it but both continued it. Daniels said that was correct. 

Remember: Defense attorneys can cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses and typically aim to discredit their testimony. Witnesses’ responses are considered evidence, but not the questions posed by an attorney. 

Daniels appears tense as she answers questions from Trump’s legal team — a noticeable shift from the casual conversational tone she had during direct examination with prosecutors earlier today. 

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is trying to get into evidence a form partly filled out that asks for details about Stormy Daniel’s finances.

It’s a form she’s required to fill out describing her assets.

Daniels said publicly in interviews, including with Jeff Toobin, that she wouldn’t fill it out, and she’d go to jail before filling it out.

Now on the stand, Daniels says she wouldn’t fill it out because it asked questions about her daughter.

Necheles asked her to confirm the form only asks for her daughter’s name. Daniels says she didn’t know.

Trump is looking closely at the form on the screen that Necheles is trying to enter into evidence.

Stormy Daniels appears tense as she answers questions form Trump’s legal team.

It’s a noticeable shift from the casual conversational tone she had during direct examination with prosecutors earlier today.

At one point when Judge Juan Merchan sustained an objection to a question from Trump attorney Susan Necheles, Daniels shook her head.

Trump is not as engaged in the cross-examination as he was before lunch, when he appeared to be telling his attorneys to object. He’s reading documents as they come on the screen but otherwise sitting back in his chair.

Stormy Daniels is sitting with her arms crossed.

Stormy Daniels was next asked about another tweet about Donald Trump in 2022 where she said “I’ll never give that orange turd a dime.”

Daniels said that the tweet is “in retaliation for what he said to me, yes.”

Necheles confirmed, “You call him names all the time.”

Daniels said, “yes.”

“Because he made fun of me first,” she added.

“One of you started it but you both continued it, right?,” Necheles asked.

“Correct,” Daniels said.

The jury is not revealing anything on their faces as Daniels is being cross-examined.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles notes there are three court orders ordering Stormy Danniels to pay the former president. She asks Daniels if she cares about the court order. “Of course, I care,” she responds.

“You are not going to do that, right?” Necheles then asked.
Daniels’ replied, “I don’t know.”

Stormy Daniels confirms that she’s aware there is a case against her in Florida in which Trump is trying to collect the legal fees.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is asking Stormy Daniels about a March 2022 tweet, in which she wrote, “I will go to jail before I pay a penny?”

“Correct,” Daniels says.

“You tweeted ‘I will go to jail before I pay a penny,’” Necheles asks Daniels. Prosecutors objected to introducing the tweet into evidence. They’re at the bench.

Trump leaned forward to look at the tweet on his screen.

She posted this around the time the Court of Appeals ordered her to pay the legal fees to Trump

“That is me saying I will not pay for telling the truth,” Daniels says.

“My motivation was because I was telling the truth.”

Member of the jury are continuing to take notes as the cross-examination of Stormy Daniels continues.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles re-asks the question confirming Stormy Daniels owes the former president about $560,000 in legal fees.

And she says that in California there is a 10% interest that accrues.

“You didn’t take any money out of your pocket and pay it to President Trump, did you?” Necheles asks. “No,” Daniels says

“You have money right?” Necheles asks.

“We all have money,” Daniels says.

“You’re choosing not to pay President Trump, right,” the attorney asks.

Daniels concedes, “I’ve chosen not to pay while it’s still pending, yes.”

Stormy Daniels pushes back about the outcome of the defamation case with Donald Trump. 

“He prevailed but I was not found to have lost,” she says.

Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles confirms with Daniels, however, that Trump was awarded roughly half a million dollars in legal fees after the case was dismissed.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is challenging Stormy Daniels on her tweets about Trump and this case.

Necheles asks Daniels about a tweet she sent saying she would dance if Trump is “selected” to go to jail. Daniels laughs as she looks at the tweet. Daniels is mincing words with Necheles.

She says it’s because of the word selected. “It isn’t because you think this is all funny?” Necheles asks. No, Daniels says.

Stormy Daniels returned to the stand after Donald Trump’s legal team unsuccessfully moved for a mistrial. She outlined how the previous hush money deal fell apart because the funds weren’t paid on time and how the deal was revived.  

Here’s what to know about her latest testimony:  

A new NDA: After the previous deal fell apart because the funds weren’t paid on time, Daniels testified she signed a new nondisclosure agreement on October 28, 2016. After legal and agent fees, Daniels said she ended up with about $96,000. About a week later, the Wall Street Journal ran a story about American Media Inc.’s “catch and kill” deals involving Daniels and Karen McDougal. Daniels said she couldn’t respond to the WSJ’s request for comment because of the NDA. 

WSJ published a story about her payment: Daniels said she again chose to respect the NDA and not respond to WSJ when they reached out for a second story in January, which was about her $130,000 payment. This story, she testified, turned her life into “chaos.” After the story published, InTouch Weekly magazine published the story about her interview from 2011, which she didn’t want out there and didn’t get paid for as she was originally promised. 

Denying her denial: She testified that she didn’t want to sign a January 10, 2018, statement denying the sexual encounter with Trump because it wasn’t true. She said she had signed the statement in a way that was in a way that she had never signed her name before as a “tip off” to Jimmy Kimmel, whose show she was about to appear on. 

“You want him to go to jail,” Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked again.

“If he’s found guilty, yes,” Stormy Daniels said.

“Am I correct that you hate President Trump?” Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks Stormy Daniels

“Yes,” Daniels says.

Necheles then asks Daniels if she wants Trump to go to jail.

“I want him to be held accountable,” she says.

Stormy Daniels just leaned over the witness box and asked the court reporter if it was better for the court reporter as she said she was trying to talk slower for her.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles started her cross-examination by asking Stormy Daniels, “You rehearsed your testimony here, right?” “No,” Daniels said.

Nechels is reading Daniel’s words back to her. “You agreed you were subjected to grueling prep sessions which included brutal mock cross examination?”

Daniels is raising her voice

“It is not rehearsing my testimony,” Daniels says.

Necheles asks Daniels whether she was untruthful when she says she was subjected to mock cross-examination. “I was incorrect, I did not know what true court would be like,” Daniels says.

She says on the stand that the prep sessions were “difficult” because it was “painful” to discuss her memories.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is starting her cross-examination of Stormy Daniels.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Daniels,” Necheles says.

Remember: Defense attorneys can cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses and typically aim to discredit their testimony. Witnesses’ responses are considered evidence, but not the questions posed by an attorney. Read more about the stages of the trial.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is walking to the podium to begin cross-examination of Story Daniels after prosecutor Susan Hoffinger finished her questioning.

Stormy Daniels says Donald Trump has called her “sleazebag” and “horseface” multiple times.

The prosecutor has displayed Trump’s “‘Horseface’ case” post on Truth Social from March 15, 2023.

She’s now reading Trump’s post aloud.

Daniels says the post, in which the former president says he hadn’t seen or spoken to Daniels since a photo on a golf course 18 years ago, is false “because I met with him numerous times after that and spoke to him on the phone countless times.”

Stormy Daniels says she was not paid to appear or participate in her documentary, called “Stormy.”

But the production company paid her $125,000 for the licensing rights to her material and book. She said she’s been paid $100,000 so far.

Daniels said she started on the documentary in 2018 before she was subpoenaed in this case.

When asked why she did the documentary, she said, “To get the truth out, same as the book.” She adds, “An updated account.”

To note: Trump’s team had subpoenaed NBC and Daniels in connection with the documentary. It was released on March 18, one week before the original start date of this trial. The judge quashed the subpoenas.

Stormy Daniels brought up her former lawyer Michael Avenatti during her testimony.

Avenatti represented Daniels as she went public with allegations that she received a $130,000 payment just before the 2016 presidential election to silence her allegations of an affair with then-candidate Donald Trump. Trump has denied the affair.

On the heels of the publicity over the hush-money scandal, Avenatti helped Daniels ink a $800,000 book deal. Prosecutors said Avenatti stole nearly $300,000 of the advance by fabricating a letter purportedly from Daniels redirecting payments from the book publisher to an account under Avenatti’s control.

More background: In 2022, Avenatti was sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $11 million in restitution for embezzling millions of dollars from four of his clients and obstruction. Avenatti pleaded guilty earlier that year to four counts of wire fraud for each client he stole from and one count of endeavoring to obstruct the administration of the Internal Revenue Code. Prosecutors said he obstructed the IRS’ effort to collect $5 million in unpaid payroll taxes for Tully’s Coffee.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is asking Stormy Daniels why she went on Michel Cohen’s “Mea Culpa” podcast.

“Because I wanted him to apologize to me,” Daniels says.

Asked if Cohen apologized, Daniels says “he did.”

Asked why she went on Cohen’s podcast again, Daniels says “because we had a good rapport,” and he wanted to ask specific questions about the Michael Avenatti case.

Stormy Daniels says she has not yet paid all of the legal fees the courts say she owed Trump.

She says she has not paid them because she did not have the means and she did not think it was fair.

Adult film star Stormy Daniels is testifying about a Wall Street Journal story that ran four days before the 2016 election.

That story broke the news that the publisher of the National Enquirer agreed to pay $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. The tabloid then declined to publish the story, a process known as “catch and kill.”

Daniels said she couldn’t respond to the WSJ’s request for comment because of an NDA she had signed.

Prosecutors are attempting to establish what was happening within Trump campaign headquarters in the hectic weeks before the election. The WSJ story ran just weeks after the “Access Hollywood” tape, which caught Trump making lewd statements about women, was released.

Stormy Daniels is asked whether Michael Avenatti is still her lawyer.

“No,” Daniels says with emphasis.

“Because I fired him and then later he was found guilty of stealing from not just myself but several other clients.”
“He was disbarred and is in prison,” she adds with a smirk.

Some background: Avenatti was sentenced in December 2022 to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $11 million in restitution for embezzling millions of dollars from four of his clients and obstruction.

Stormy Daniels says she did the “60 Minutes” interview despite understanding there was a risk of violating the nondisclosure agreement.

Prosecutors are now jumping back to April 2018 when Michael Avenatti filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump.

Daniels said she did not want Avenatti to file a defamation case against Trump on her behalf. “It just seemed really risky,” Daniels testified.

Daniels added that the defamation lawsuit didn’t feel like it was “something that could be won” and that it didn’t seem “worth it.”

Daniels gave a nod to the litigation around her book with Avenatti. “I found out later Michael Avenatti did some editing as well,” Daniels said about her book.

The defamation claim had to do with a tweet from Trump calling a sketch of the man Daniels said threatened her in the parking lot a “con job” and nothing to do with the sexual encounter or payoff.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks whether Stormy Daniels included “every detail of what occurred in the room” with Donald Trump.

“Not every detail, no,” Daniels says.

Daniels said she wrote the book “so that my daughter would have an account from her mom’s own words about what I had been through, and the reason why I did the things I did.”

Trump is leaning back and is less engaged with his attorneys as Stormy Daniels talks about the aftermath of the hush money deal.

Before her “60 Minutes” appearance, Michael Avenatti filed a lawsuit in March 2018 trying to get Stormy Daniels out of the nondisclosure agreement with Donald Trump.

By the fall of 2018, Michael Cohen and Donald Trump agreed not to enforce the NDA, Stormy Daniels confirms.

Daniels says she published a book after being freed of the NDA, titled “Full Disclosure.” She says the book is about her life, and it includes some descriptions of Trump.

The prosecutor is asking Stormy Daniels about statements made by Michael Cohen,

Daniels was asked whether certain public statements upset her.

“Yes,” Daniels says. “He could talk about it and I couldn’t.”

Daniels said she then went on “60 Minutes” to speak with Anderson Cooper “to get my story out.”

Stormy Daniels testified that Michael Cohen in February 2018 was publicly saying she had a relationship with Trump “and he was the fixer.” She used air quotes and shrugged as she said fixer.

Trump shook his head then commented to his attorney reacting to this.

Stormy Daniels said she hired Michael Avenatti to get her out of the nondisclosure agreement “so I could stand up for myself.”

After the publication of the Wall Street Journal article on January 12, 2018, InTouch Weekly magazine published the story about her interview from 2011, Stormy Daniels says.

She didn’t want it out there and didn’t get paid for it in 2018 as she was originally promised, Daniels testifies.

Earlier today, she described doing an interview with the celebrity gossip magazine.

She explained that she was supposed to be paid $15,000 for the article but that In Touch never ran the story in 2011.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now focusing her questioning on Jimmy Kimmel’s show.

“I was not to discuss the relationship or NDA. It was to give an example of how I could go on and do promotions and things and not break the DNA,” Daniels said.

Daniels recounted how she met with Keith Davidson and others in her hotel room before the show.

Looking at her January 30, 2018, statement denying the sexual encounter, she said it was handed to her by Davidson while she was getting ready for the show.

Daniels said she signed “Stormy Daniels” in a way she had never signed her name before as a “tip off” to Kimmel.

Daniels said the statement was false.

After the Wall Street Journal story ran on January 12, 2018, Stormy Daniels said her life turned into “chaos.”

“Suddenly I was front and foremost everywhere,” she says. “People on the front lawn.”
“Blew my cover, I guess, for lack of a better way of explaining it,” she says.

Stormy Daniels is now addressing the January 10, 2018 statement denying the sexual encounter with Donald Trump. Daniels said she didn’t want to sign it because it wasn’t true.

She was asked if it was “not true in details.”

“Correct,” Daniels says.

Stormy Daniels says Wall Street Journal reporters reached out to her again in January 2017 as they were about to publish a story about her $130,000 payment.

Daniels says she didn’t respond to them because she was under the non-disclosure agreement.

“I was respecting that and didn’t want to comment,” she says.

Stormy Daniels says 2016 was probably her best year ever, as she rattles off several highlights from that year.

The jury is being shown the November 4, 2016, Wall Street Journal story about American Media Inc.’s “catch and kill” deals involving Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

Before the article came out, WSJ reporters reached out to Daniels for comment. She said she didn’t respond.

“Because I had a NDA,” Daniels said, referring to the nondisclosure agreement.

Stormy Daniels testifies she signed the new hush money deal.

After attorney Keith Davidson and her agent Gina Rodriguez took their fees, she ended up with “approximately $96,000,” she said.

Stormy Daniels is now describing how the deal was revived, saying she signed a new nondisclosure agreement with the date changed.

She signed the NDA and side letter on October 28, 2016, she says.

The side agreement says that Donald Trump is referred to as David Dennison. Daniels confirms she understood the agreement to be with Trump.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is asking Stormy Daniels to read an email her then-attorney Keith Davidson sent Michael Cohen on October 17, 2016.

The email demands payment by 5 p.m. PST that day. Jurors saw this email before during Davidson’s testimony

Daniels says she authorized Davidson to cancel the deal “because the funds hadn’t been sent.”

In the email, Davidson told Cohen that his client deemed the settlement deal canceled and that Davidson no longer represented her.

The prosecutor began with a question to Stormy Daniels about delays in the promised payment from Michael Cohen in 2016.

The jury is back and prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is back on the podium to continue direct questioning of Stormy Daniels.

Stormy Daniels walked in and looked at the back of Trump’s head. He was facing forward. She is seated as we wait for the jury.

Trump glanced over in her direction as she walked past him.

The motion for a mistrial is part of a wider strategy for the defense in the hush money trial against Donald Trump, CNN Chief Legal Correspondent Paula Reid said.

The motion was put forth because Trump was not happy about Stormy Daniels testimony, but despite the judge denying it, this plays into a bigger strategy.

“This will preserve the issue for their appeal and remember, that is the overarching strategy. We’ve said from day one, assert every objection, preserve every single option so that if this doesn’t go your way, if your client is convicted, try to overturn this on appeal through death by a thousand cuts,” Reid said.

Judge Juan Merchan says it will take some more time to hash out the language of the limiting instruction for the jury.

“With consent of defense counsel,” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger stepped out to give instruction to the witness to stay focused while answering questions, Merchan says, referring to Stormy Daniels.

Lawyers are at the bench while attorney Todd Blanche is still talking to Donald Trump with his hand covering his mouth.

The lawyers appear to be hashing out language for a limiting instruction to the jury.

Trump is chatting with attorney Emil Bove at the defense table. Todd Blanche whispered something to him when he returned.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels’ testimony in the morning has been fairly smooth, but coming back from lunch break, it may get a little bumpy, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said. 

“Already her testimony about her motivations have been a little bit contradictory. She said at one point, I only wanted to tell my story. She said another point, I didn’t want it to come out. Later on, she ends up denying that she ever had sex with Donald Trump. She’s now denied that denial. So they’re going to have to get through this terrain here,” Honig said. 

However, she is a key witness for the prosecution. 

“What they just want to establish is she had this story. It’s on the brink of the election happening in 2016, and there was this agreement in place to keep her silent. And in her understanding, Donald Trump — even though she didn’t negotiate it with Donald Trump — [he] was the beneficiary,” Honig explained. 

Remember: The hush money payment on its own is not a crime. Michael Cohen sent the payment to a trust for Daniels’ then-lawyer Keith Davidson. It’s the payments Trump made to Cohen, which prosecutors allege was reimbursement for paying off the adult-film star ahead of the election, that are at the heart of the 34 charges of falsifying business records. 

Trump attorney Susan Necheles tells Judge Merchan that once he signaled he thought Stormy Daniels’ testimony had gone too far, the defense started to consistently object.

“But up until that point, we really had felt your honor had ruled at the bench that they were allowed to do what they were doing.”

Merchan responded: “I think that I signaled to you and to the prosecution that we were going into way too much detail.”

Judge Juan Merchan reiterates that he will give a limiting instruction to the jury about Stormy Daniels’ testimony of being threatened in 2011.

Judge Juan Merchan also says he was surprised there weren’t more objections from Trump’s team during Stormy Daniels’ testimony.

“The defense has to take some responsibility for that,” he says.

“When you say ‘the bell has been rung,’ the defense has to take some responsibility for that,” Merchan adds, referring to Trump attorney Todd Blanche’s argument for a mistrial in which he asked “how do you unring a bell?”

Judge Juan Merchan, in denying the mistrial, acknowledged Stormy Daniels was difficult to control and some questions didn’t need to be asked.

“Whether these are new stories or not new stories the remedy is on cross examination,” Merchan says, noting that he objected himself when he felt the defense hadn’t.

Judge Juan Merchan said, “As a threshold matter, I agree Mr. Blanche, that there were some things that probably would’ve been better left unsaid.”

Todd Blanche argues:

“I don’t think anybody, anybody, can listen to what that witness said, think that has anything to do with the charges, and the entire testimony is so prejudicial that you run the very high risk of the jury not being able to focus on the evidence that actually does matter,” he says.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger says the story that Stormy Daniels told “is an exhibit, if you would, of what Mr. Trump” didn’t want to get disclosed.

Hoffinger says they’d be fine with a limiting instruction to the jury but this testimony from Daniels was necessary to speak to her credibility.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger says the defense’s “statement that this is an entirely new story is not accurate.”

“At the end of the day, your honor, this is what the defendant was trying to hide in terms of the payoff in 2016 before the election,” Hoffinger says.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche responds:

“That misses the point. The point of the argument is that the reason why this evidence in theory is admissible over our objection is because these are in theory the facts presented to (Keith) Davidson and (Michael) Cohen so they could evaluate whether to enter into an NDA and supposedly the facts and details to be kept from the American people in 2016.”

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger says Stormy Daniels’ testimony was necessary to show Donald Trump’s motive for the hush money scheme and cover-up.

Daniels’ salacious story “is precisely what the defendant did not want to become public,” she says.

Hoffinger said Trump’s team “opened the door” to this by introducing into evidence a text message that referenced the threat Daniels said she received in 2011.

“It was incumbent upon us to bring out those details in the direct” to rehabilitate her testimony after the defense attacked her credibility with previous witness, attorney Keith Davidson.

Hoffinger says the prosecution was “extremely mindful about not eliciting too much detail about the initial act.”

Attorney Todd Blanche is arguing that Stormy Daniels’ testimony “makes it impossible to come back from.”

“This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from — not even talking about the fact that we’re talking about somebody is going to go out and campaign this afternoon,” Blanche says.

“This has nothing to do with the reason why we’re here, your honor,” he adds.

“She testified today about consent, about danger, and that’s not the story she was peddling. Sorry, that’s not the story she was selling ” at the time of the non-disclosure agreement, Blanche says.

Blanche notes that media outlets were already reporting at lunch about Daniels narrative questioning consent.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is saying “we believe, regrettably, that there should be a mistrial,” and that Stormy Daniels’ testimony in any new trial should be excluded or limited.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said Stormy Daniels’ testimony is “highly probative of defendant’s intent” and Trump’s “motive for paying this off.”

“This is not new. This is not a new account,” Hoffinger said.

Toddy Blanche says Stormy Daniels is telling a different story.

“She talked about a consensual encounter with President Trump that she was trying to sell. … and that’s not the story she told today,” the attorney says.

He says that the judge was aware there would be an issue establishing “guardrails” for the testimony.

“But now we’ve heard it. And it is an issue. How can you unring the bell?” Blanche says.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche says Stormy Daniels repeatedly testified about purported meetings with Donald Trump, and “with every single one, she qualified that it was in an open place, a public place.”

“What’s the jury to do” with that? he asks.

Blanche says there was no other reason for prosecutors to elicit that testimony beyond to cause Trump “embarrassment.”

“It’s so prejudicial in a case about a NDA and whether there were false records” at the Trump Organization, Blanche says.

In his argument for a mistrial, Todd Blanche says the defense attorneys can’t think of a way to properly remedy the testimony Stormy Daniels gave to the jury this morning.

“A lot of the testimony this witness talked about today is way different than the story she was peddling in 2016,” he says.

Blanche is raising parts of her testimony including that she said she “blacked out,” didn’t wear a condom when one was required by her employer, the bodyguard outside, their height difference, and the power dynamic.

Trump is writing on a notepad as his attorney Todd Blanche moves for a mistrial. Trump has pushed the notepad to Blanche.

“We move for a mistrial based on the testimony of this witness,” said Trump attorney Todd Blanche says following this morning’s testimony from Stormy Daniels.

He says the court set “guardrails” and her testimony went over them.

“A lot of the testimony that this witness talked about today is way different than the story she was peddling in 2016,” Blanche says.

Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench.

Donald Trump walked down the center aisle of the courtroom.

His eyes lingered at court sketches as he walked past them.

Prosecutors have entered the courtroom following today’s lunch break. Testimony is expected to resume soon.

Donald Trump has been accused of taking part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election and an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, which included the hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to hide an affair. 

Before the lunch break, Daniels got into the details of the non-disclosure-agreement she entered into with Trump and briefly touched on the payment, which is at the heart of the charges.

Prosecutors allege that Trump allegedly disguised the transaction as a legal payment and falsified business records numerous times to “promote his candidacy.” Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied the affair with Daniels.

Stormy Daniels testified for roughly two hours before the court’s lunch break. After describing details of a sexual encounter, Daniels detailed meeting Karen McDougal, seeing Trump a few times in 2007 and what happened when the “Access Hollywood” tape came out.

Here’s what to know about her latest testimony:

They met again in 2007: Daniels met with Trump at the launch of his Trump vodka brand, she testified. “I wanted to maintain that sort of relationship because the chance to be on the ‘Apprentice’ was still up in the air.” Trump gave her a kiss and shook her friend’s hand, she said, adding that it was a public event with hundreds of people there. It was at this same party where Trump introduced her to his friend, who she later learned was Karen McDougal, who also had an alleged affair with Trump..

She didn’t tell her boyfriend: Daniels testified she met with Trump along with her publicist, whom she was dating at the time. She said she didn’t tell her boyfriend about the sexual encounter with Trump because she was “ashamed.” (Trump has denied the affairs).

Why she stopped taking his calls: After meeting Trump in person, once at Trump Tower and once at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where her boyfriend waited outside, Daniels said she didn’t see Trump again. Trump eventually called 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.

Selling her story: After Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape came out in 2016, Daniels said she had conversations with her then-publicist Gina Rodriguez about selling her story. “My motivation wasn’t money. It was to get the story out,” she said. Daniels later learned from Rodriguez that Trump and Michael Cohen were interested in buying her story.

Note: This marks a shift in her motivations. Daniels wanted to get her story out in 2015, but in 2016, she decided the deal from Trump and Cohen was best, she testified.

A $130,000 agreement: Daniels says Trump and Cohen offered her $130,000 for her story, adding the agreement was a nondisclosure agreement, which benefited Trump. Daniels said she wanted it done quickly. She said, if it wasn’t done before the election, “I wouldn’t be safe or that he wouldn’t pay and there would be a trail to keep me safe.” The payment, however, came late, she said.

No glances exchanged: Daniels did not look at Trump as she exited courtroom. Attorney Todd Blanche was whispering into Trump’s ear when she walked out.

Stormy Daniels is questioned during Donald Trump's hush money trial on Tuesday.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels took the stand Tuesday morning in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial.

She detailed her alleged one-night stand with Trump as she was questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger. Trump has denied the affair.

Before Daniels’ testimony, Sally Franklin was on the stand. Franklin, who works for publishing group Penguin Random House, was called to the stand by prosecutors to introduce excerpts from Trump’s books into evidence.

Cameras are not allowed inside the courtroom during proceedings, but these sketches help give an idea of what it looked like.

Daniels testifies on Tuesday.

The jury on Tuesday was shown a photo of Daniels next to Trump. In the photo, he was wearing a yellow golf shirt and a red hat.

Daniels answers questions from the prosecution on Tuesday.

Sally Franklin was called to the stand by prosecutors to introduce excerpts from Trump's books into evidence.

Stormy Daniels exited the courtroom again without looking at Trump.

Attorney Todd Blanche was whispering into Trump’s ear when she walked out.

Judge Juan Merchan is excusing jury for lunch. They’ll be back around 2 p.m. ET today.

Stormy Daniels said she was not paid on October 14, 2016, like she was supposed to.

“I didn’t know why it was late, he just kept making excuses,” Daniels testified.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked who was making excuses.

“Trump to Cohen to Davidson,” Daniels said.

“It wasn’t a financial delay, so it made me more concerned that something bad was going to happen. And if wasn’t done before the election, it was never going to happen,” Daniels said.

Stormy Daniels has been testifying for roughly two hours so far.

Stormy Daniels is now explaining the side letter agreement that used fake names — Peggy Peterson for Daniels and and David Dennison for Trump.

Daniels says signed “Stephanie Clifford” under the line Peggy Peterson aka Stephanie Gregory Clifford aka Stormy Daniels. Remember, Stephanie Clifford is Daniels’ real name.

The side letter agreement has previously been shown during her former lawyer Keith Davidson’s testimony.

The agreement included a handwritten list of nine names of people Daniels told about the encounter with Trump. Daniels confirmed she wrote the list.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is having Stormy Daniels read the side letter agreement email her then-attorney Keith Davidson sent to Michael Cohen on October 11, 2016.

The jury saw this email during Davidson’s testimony.

Daniels is asked if she wanted the story out by October 14, which was the deadline in the email

The email expressed dissatisfaction with a delay of funding the agreement. Daniels says she wanted the agreement done quickly because she was concerned about the threat from the Las Vegas man.

“Absolutely,” Daniels says, saying if it wasn’t done before the election, “I wouldn’t be safe or that he wouldn’t pay and there would be a trail to keep me safe.”

Stormy Daniels says Donald Trump and Michael Cohen offered her $130,000.

But “I didn’t care about the amount,” she says, adding that at the time, her financial situation was “the best its ever been.”

She says the agreement was a nondisclosure agreement, and that Trump was the beneficiary of the NDA.

Stormy Daniels said she learned from Gina Rodriguez that Donald Trump and Michael Cohen were interested in buying her story.

She learned of this in October, after the “Access Hollywood” tape, Daniels says.

“They were interested in paying for the story,” Daniels says of Cohen and Trump.

“Which was the best thing that could’ve happened… “because then I’d be safe and the story wouldn’t come out,” she testified.

She is describing a shift in her motivations. When she first agreed to have Rodriguez sell her story in 2015, it was to get the story out. But then when she got the offer from Trump and Cohen, she says she decided that was best. She is still citing the threat from the Las Vegas man who threatened her in a parking lot.

Stormy Daniels is testifying that in 2016, her then-publicist Gina Rodriguez’ focus was to sell her story to news outlets.

Asked if she thought about approaching Trump himself or Michael Cohen to have them pay for the story, Daniels says “no.”

“My motivation wasn’t money. It was to get the story out,” she says.

After the “Access Hollywood” tape came out, Stormy Daniels says she had conversations with her then-publicist Gina Rodriguez about selling her story.

She started to describe the conversations but Judge Juan Merchan sustained an objection to that answer.

After Donald Trump began running for president in 2015, Stormy Daniels confirms that her publicist Gina Rodriguez reached out and said she could sell the story of Daniels’ affair with Trump.

Daniels says “lots of people” reached out to her.

But before the “Access Hollywood” tape came out, Rodriguez was not successful in selling the story, she says. 

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is asking Stormy Daniels about the 2011 dirty.com post.

Daniels said she never heard of the website and she wanted the post taken down.

Daniels said she was told about the post from Gina Rodriguez. She said she was concerned about it because she had been threatened.

“Very much so. I had been threatened and I didn’t want the person who threatened me and my baby thinking that I had done it,” Daniels said.

Keith Davidson helped them get the post removed, Daniels confirmed. This is consistent with Davidson’s testimony earlier in the trial.

Hoffinger asked if Davidson was successful at removing the post.

She testified, “I assume so because it came down.”

Stormy Daniels said she was approached by a man in the parking lot of a shopping center in Las Vegas in June 2011 when she was with her infant to go to a mommy and me class.

“He approached me and threatened me not to continue to tell my story,” Daniels said.

Daniels said she was “scared.”

She confirms she didn’t tell law enforcement and didn’t tell her daughter’s father about the threatening interaction in the parking lot, and she never told him about the original encounter with Trump either.

Stormy Daniels has testified in detail about her first encounter with Donald Trump once the two were in a hotel room at a celebrity golf tournament:

Trump on bed: Daniels said she was “startled” when she saw Trump on the bed in a T-shirt and boxers upon leaving the bathroom after attempting to call a friend. “At first I was just startled, like a jump scare. I wasn’t expecting someone to be there.”

“The intention was pretty clear:” On that evening, Daniels testified she was not threatened, but Trump was “bigger and blocking the way,” making her very aware of what she described as an “imbalance of power.”

What happened in the hotel room: Daniels provided a detailed account of what happened next to the court. She said she removed her clothing and was in “missionary position” with Trump. Afterwards, she said she “left as fast as I could.”

No confidentiality concerns: Daniels said Trump did not express concern about his wife, Melania, nor did he ask Daniels to keep the encounter confidential.

But, “I told very few people that we had actually had sex because I felt ashamed that I didn’t stop it,” Daniels added.

Objections about her memory: Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger tried to ask Daniels about her memory, leading to an objection by Trump attorney Susan Necheles. Just before that, Trump had gestured or tapped Necheles on the arm, prompting her to object a few times during Daniels’ testimony about her memory.

They met the next day: Daniels testified she met Trump at a night club the next day. Trump was at a table with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger when she approached them. “He introduced me as ‘his little friend Stormy’ to ‘Big Ben,’” she said.

Post-encounter: Daniels testified that she began to speak with Trump often, at times once a week. She said Trump started calling her “honey bunch,” which she described as “weird.” (Trump has denied the affair.)

Stormy Daniels is now describing how she ended up doing an interview with In Touch Weekly magazine.

Trump yawned as she explained that she was supposed to be paid $15,000 for the article. In Touch never ran the story in 2011.

Stormy Daniels said she did not see Donald Trump in person again after this meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

He eventually called to tell her he’d been “overruled” and couldn’t get her on “The Apprentice.” She stopped taking his calls after that, except one time when he called to tell her he didn’t know (former adult actress) Jenna Jameson would be on “The Apprentice.”

She said he thought she’d be mad. “I didn’t care,” she said on the stand.

That was the last time she said she spoke to Trump.

Stormy Daniels says she went to meet Donald Trump at his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel while her boyfriend, who was also her publicist, waited outside.

When she left, Daniels says that Trump told her he wanted “to get together again, miss you, the usual.”

When asked again if Trump told her to keep it confidential or seemed like he wanted to hide their relationship, Daniels said, “absolutely not.”

Trump is watching her in the courtroom, but makes no visible reaction.

Stormy Daniels is testifying that she met with Trump along with her publicist, whom she was dating at the time.

“Had you told your boyfriend at that time what exactly happened in the hotel room at that point?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks.

“Not the sexual part,” Daniels says.

When Hoffinger asks why not, Daniels says, “Because I was ashamed.”

Stormy Daniels is recalling the times she met Trump, including seeing him again in the summer of 2007 in Los Angeles.

It came together “the same way it always did,” Daniels says. “He’d call from a New York number or Keith’s number or Rhona’s (Graff),” she said, adding that “he said he had it almost sorted out for the show” — something he’d say every time he called to get together with her.

Stormy Daniels said that Donald Trump invited her and her assistant to an upcoming pageant he was involved in and gave her tickets to attend.

She confirms she attended the Miss USA Pageant in Hollywood.

Donald Trump invited her to meet with him in Trump Tower, Stormy Daniels says. She was in New York City for something else at the time, she says, so she didn’t fly to New York just to meet Trump.

She says she also invited Trump to come to a show where she was performing. “It was a public place, lots of witnesses,” Daniels said.

Daniels says when she arrived at Trump Tower, she met with Rhona Graff and then she and her assistant were brought into his office.

The meeting was very fast, she says. Trump told her again, “I’m still working on the ‘Apprentice’ thing. I got some push back; I pushed back.”

Stormy Daniels says that at the 2007 party, Trump asked if she had plans that night.

She says she lied and told him she and her friend were “flying out on a girls’ trip” that night.

At Donald Trump’s vodka launch party, Stormy Daniels says Trump introduced her to his friend Karen. She later learned it was Karen McDougal, she testifies.

Stormy Daniels met with Trump in 2007 at the launch of his Trump vodka brand, she testified.

Daniels said she agreed to meet Trump “for the same reasons.”

“I wanted to maintain that sort of relationship because the chance to be on the ‘Apprentice’ was still up in the air. It would have been a great thing. It was a public place,” she said.

Daniels said that she met Trump at his VIP booth. “He leaned over and gave me a kiss and shook my friend’s hand,” she said.

Daniels said that hundreds of people were at the event.

Donald Trump gave Stormy Daniels his assistant Rhona Graff’s phone number around the summer of 2006, Daniels says.

She recalled writing it on a piece of paper by her bed then later entering it into her phone.

The jury is shown a contact from Daniels’ phone. It is “D Trump Rona,” a reference to Graff.

Remember: Graff testified that she recalled entering Daniels cell phone number into Trump’s Trump Organization contacts. She was listed in Trump’s system as “Stormy.”

That contact was just displayed to the jury, and Daniels confirmed that is her phone number.

Judge Juan Merchan interjected as Stormy Daniels started off on a tangent about her publicist, saying it was good she had dinner with Donald Trump.

Merchan told Daniels to listen to the question and answer the question.

Stormy Daniels says in the weeks after they met, she began speaking with Trump often, at times once a week.

“I’d always put him on speaker phone,” she says, noting that “dozens and dozens of people” heard her on the phone with Trump. She adds that she didn’t tell him when he was on speaker phone.

Daniel also notes that Trump called her “honey bunch,” which she says was “weird.”

When asked why she continued to speak to Trump after meeting him she testified, “My publicist thought it was a good idea to continue the conversation with him about the television show.”

Stormy Daniels says she told her friend Keith about the encounter. He was a photographer and she rented her house from him, describing him as a close friend.

She then went on to list several other friends she told.

“I told lots and lots of people that I had gone to his room and I met him. It wasn’t a secret at all,” Daniels says. “The sex part I told very few, very close people.”

During her meeting with Trump at the nightclub, Stormy Daniels says she convinced two-time Super Bowl champion Ben Roethlisberger to let her try on his Super Bowl ring.

Trump had been at a table with Roethlisberger when she approached them.

Stormy Daniels testified she met Trump at a night club the next day.

His bodyguard Keith Schiller called her and asked if she would meet with Trump again, and she agreed because it was in public.

Trump was at a table with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger when she approached them.

“He introduced me as his little friend Stormy to ‘Big Ben,’” she said. Daniels confirmed he addressed the football player as “Big Ben.”

“Did you see Mr. Trump again in Tahoe the next day?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks, moving on from questions about Stormy Daniels’ memory of the encounter.

“Yes,” Daniels says.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger tried to ask Stormy Daniels about her memory, leading to an objection by Trump attorney Susan Necheles.

The judge asked them to come to the bench.

Hoffinger had asked Daniels if there were things she remembered later about the encounter.

While the attorneys are still at the bench, Trump’s attorney Emil Bove and Trump are in a conversation at the defense table, as they have been during most side bars today.

Donald Trump has gestured to his attorney Susan Necheles or tapped her arm, prompting her to object a few times during Stormy Daniels’ testimony about her memory.

He is engaged with the defense as Daniels’ direct examination continues.

Stormy Daniels testified that Donald Trump did not express concern about his wife Melania when they had the encounter.

Daniels confirmed he also didn’t ask her to keep it confidential.

“I told very few people that we had actually had sex because I felt ashamed that I didn’t stop it,” Daniels said.

Stormy Daniels says she remembers sitting at the end of the bed. She says “it was really hard to get my shoe on because my hands were shaking so hard.”

“I just left as fast as I could. That was it,” she says.

Stormy Daniels continues to testify about her interaction with former President Donald Trump.

In the hotel room: Daniels said she had a “very brief” conversation with Trump about his wife, Melania. She recalled Trump saying, “We don’t sleep in the same room.” Trump closed his eyes, shook his head and murmured to his attorneys at the defense table as she said this. Daniels testified that once she got into Trump’s room, she tried to call a friend, putting her on speaker.

Magazine cover: Trump showed Daniels a magazine cover he was pictured on and she testified that she told him she hadn’t seen it.

“Not like I made a habit of reading financial magazines as a 27-year-old stripper,” she says on the stand.
Daniels says she snapped at him. “Are you always this rude? Are you always this arrogant and pompous? You don’t even know how to have a conversation,” she recalls.

She testified she spanked him with the magazine “right on the butt.”

Celebrity Apprentice: Daniels says Trump mentioned there may be a spot for her on “Celebrity Apprentice,” telling her she “should go on his television show.”

Stormy Daniels is describing what happened next in the hotel room.

“I had my clothes and my shoes off. I removed my bra. We were in missionary position,” Daniels says.

Asked if she remembers how her clothes came off, she says no. “Next thing I know I was on the bed,” she testifies.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is trying to elicit more details, but the objections are sustained.

Stormy Daniels says she was not threatened but Donald Trump was physically larger.

“There was an imbalance of power for sure. He was bigger and blocking the way. I was not threatened verbally or physically,” Daniels said.

Daniels estimated Trump was “definitely several inches taller, and much larger,” putting her hand above her head to measure.

Donald Trump is looking straight ahead with a scowl on his face for much of the questioning about the hotel interaction.

“The intention was pretty clear, somebody stripped down to their underwear and is posing for you,” Stormy Daniels testified.

“He stood up between me and the door. Not in a threatening manner. He didn’t come at me, he didn’t rush at me. Nothing like that,” Daniels said.

“When I exited he was just up on the bed, like this,” Daniels said, lifting her leg up from her chair.

Stormy Daniels says she “felt like the room spun in slow motion” when she left the bathroom.

“I felt the blood leave my hands and my feet almost like if you stand up too fast,” Daniels says. “I thought, ‘oh my God, what did i misread to get here?’”

“At first I was just startled, like a jump scare. I wasn’t expecting someone to be there, especially minus a lot of clothing,” she says of Trump, who she says was sitting on the bed in boxers and a T-shirt.

Stormy Daniels is testifying about visiting Trump’s hotel room and then going into the bathroom to call her friend again.

She said the call was going straight to voicemail.

While in the bathroom, she looked through his toiletry bag.

“There was a leather looking toiletry bag on the counter with products and stuff in it,” Daniels says. “I did look and I’m not proud of it,” Daniels says, adding, “‘Ooh, I wonder what’s in here?’” She continues, “The toiletries were Old Spice and Pert Plus. I thought that was amusing and odd.” She added there was also a gold manicure set.

“Mr. Trump had come into the bedroom and was on the bed,” she says, adding that he was wearing a boxer and T-shirts.

Stormy Daniels is still on the stand and has spoken for about an hour.

Here’s what to know about her testimony so far:

She refused Trump’s dinner offer: When Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, asked Stormy Daniels if she would have dinner with Trump, she refused, she testified. “F no,” Daniels says she replied. (Daniels, in court, said the letter F, not an expletive.)

Contact info shared: After declining Trump’s dinner invitation, his bodyguard gave Daniels his contact information, she said. Schiller took her cell phone number and messaged her — the jury saw a photo of the contact saved in Daniels’ phone as “Keith Trump.” Daniels said she didn’t know Schiller’s last name at the time.

Her publicist encouraged her to go to dinner with Trump. “What could possibly go wrong,” Daniels said her publicist told her, giggling as she spoke on the stand.

Trump wore satin pajamas: Daniels took an elevator to the penthouse floor and met Schiller, who was waiting outside the door, she said. The door was cracked open, so she went in.

Schiller told her they’d meet at the hotel and they could go downstairs, as there were a lot of restaurants in the area. But Trump was wearing satin pajamas when she arrived at the suite, she said.

“Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas?” Daniels said, confirming that she was referring to Hugh Hefner, founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine.

She told Trump to change, so he returned wearing a dress shirt and dress pants.

What they discussed: Daniels said Trump asked her to chat with him so they could get to know each other, as it was a bit early for dinner. “I told him where I grew up. He asked about my family, do I have brothers and sisters? I don’t,” Daniels said. She added that she told him about the conditions she grew up in as a child.

Questions from Trump: Trump had a lot of questions about how Daniels got involved in the adult entertainment business, she said, including asking her how she segued from being a porn star to writing and directing. Her sexual health came up and Daniels volunteered that she had not tested positive for STDs.

Questioning is picking back up with the hotel interaction between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump.

Daniels said she drank a couple of bottles of water while they were talking, noting that’s all they were drinking.

Stormy Daniels is back on the stand and prosecutor Susan Hoffinger has resumed questioning.

Daniels avoided looking at Donald Trump while walking back into the room. She is fixing her hair, which is falling out of a clip.

Trump was looking at papers in front of him with his attorney Susan Necheles as Daniels came in.

Judge Juan Merchan tells prosecutors he thinks “the degree of detail we’re going into here is just unnecessary.”

“When she comes back to the stand, we can move it along more quickly,” Merchan says, referring to when Stormy Daniels takes the stand again.

The judge has returned following the morning break, and court is back in session.

Stormy Daniels in her testimony alluded to how Donald Trump’s status compared to hers created an intimidating power dynamic, CNN Chief Legal Correspondent Paula Reid said.

Daniels explained how the hotel room was bigger than her past three houses.

“She also testified that she came from a poor background, which added to the asymmetrical power dynamic between the two,” Reid noted.

The jury has been excused and the court is taking its morning break.

Stormy Daniels walked past Trump’s table without looking over. He also didn’t appear to look at her. Trump was talking with his attorney Emil Bove.

Stormy Daniels says she and Trump talked for about two hours.

“Did you sense any red flags or concerns about being there?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks.

“No,” Daniels says.

Stormy Daniels said she called one of her friends from Donald Trump’s hotel room, putting her friend on speaker.

Some of the jurors are taking notes as Stormy Daniels testifies. One of them is occasionally holding his head.

The testimony has now turned to the possibility of Stormy Daniels being on “The Celebrity Apprentice.”

Daniels recalls that Donald Trump told her that she “should go on his television show.”

“I said: ‘Even you don’t have this much power.’ He said: ‘You remind me of my daughter because she’s smart, blonde and beautiful and people underestimate her.’ The way he framed it did actually make perfect sense,” Daniels said.

She recalled being concerned that she couldn’t win and that would hurt her image and the stereotype she felt she represents. “What if I lose on the first episode?” she recalls asking. Trump then suggested he could tell her the challenges ahead of time, she says.

Daniels is describing her mindset at the time, saying she has “nothing against the adult entertainment industry. I have no shame, that’s who I am. But I also wanted to direct other, bigger things.”

Trump showed Stormy Daniels a magazine cover he was pictured on and she testified that she told him she hadn’t seen it.

“Not like I made a habit of reading financial magazines as a 27-year-old stripper,” she says on the stand.

Daniels says she snapped at him. “Are you always this rude? Are you always this arrogant and pompous? You don’t even know how to have a conversation,” she recalls. She testified she spanked him with the magazine “right on the butt.”

Trump mouthed something to himself as she told the story, looking annoyed.

Stormy Daniels said she “really wanted” to ask Donald Trump about pro wrestling when they met.

“He was friends with the owner of the company,” Vince McMahon, she said.

She laughed on the stand as she recalled comparing the adult film industry to wrestling like World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). “It’s real but it’s not,” she said.

Daniels recalled that Trump at the time was involved in a bet with McMahon, where if he lost he would have had to shave his head.

“Donald Trump has always been very famous for his do,” she says. But he assured her it was all predetermined.

Trump is slumped in his chair and sitting back facing forward as Daniels testifies.

Stormy Daniels shrugs as she mentions she had a “very brief” conversation with Trump about his wife, Melania.

She says she asked Trump about Melania and told him she was very beautiful. She recalls Trump saying, “We don’t sleep in the same room.”

Trump closed his eyes, shook his head and murmured to his attorneys at the defense table as she said this.

Stormy Daniels says that while talking to Trump in the hotel, she volunteered that she had not tested positive for STDs.

Daniels says she chose to work for adult film company Wicked Pictures because it was a “condom-mandatory company.”

“At the time you had to be tested every 30 days,” she says. “Even when I worked with my husband, I had to use a condom, even though I’m allergic to condoms, latex.”

Stormy Daniels is testifying that Trump inquired about her work and asked how she got involved in the adult entertainment business.

“He asked how I got involved in the adult entertainment business,” Daniels says. “He was very interested in how I segued from just being a porn star to writing and directing.”

“He asked about the business aspects of it. Are there any unions, do you get residuals, how are people paid. Do you get health insurance. What about testing. Are you worried about STDs?” she recalls.

“He was very interested in a lot of the business aspects of it, which I thought was very cool,” she says.

She says other people “want to know the sexy stuff, the dirty stuff, they want to know the salacious things. These were very thought-out business questions.” 

Stormy Daniels says Donald Trump asked her whether she had children, was married or had a boyfriend.

She says she told him that she did not.

Stormy Daniels is describing how it was not yet dark outside when she arrived at the hotel for dinner with Trump.

She says she recalls Trump saying it was a bit early. “Do you mind talking just a bit to get to know each other?” Daniels recalls Trump asking.

“I told him where I grew up. He asked about my family, do I have brothers and sisters? I don’t,” Daniels says.

“Did you talk to him at all about the conditions of your childhood,” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks.

“Absolutely,” Daniels says.

Donald Trump is engaged with the testimony, watching Stormy Daniels on the screen in front of him.

Stormy Daniels often looks over at the jury as she testifies describing the hotel room in detail.

Daniels is using her hands expressively as she outlines the setting and where things were in the hotel room.

Daniels has a very conversational and casual tone, but she is speaking very quickly. The prosecution has asked her to slow down at least four times so the court reporter can keep up.

Stormy Daniels said she called Donald Trump’s name as she arrived at the hotel suite.

“I called his name. I said, ‘hello’ and he came from one of the main areas of the hotel suite,” she testified.

Trump was wearing satin pajamas, she said, adding that she immediately made fun of him. “Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas?” Daniels said, confirming that she was referring to Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner.

She told Trump to change, Daniels said. He returned wearing a dress shirt and dress pants.

Daniels said the foyer of the penthouse suite had black-and-while tile and a “big, beautiful wooden table” in the middle of it. She said there were flowers on the table.

Stormy Daniels, describing her dinner with Trump, says the hotel room door was cracked open when she got there. She says she walked right in. Keith Schiller, Trump’s bodyguard, told her Trump was waiting for her, she says.

“I didn’t really have any expectations,” Daniels says, noting that Schiller told her they’d meet at the hotel and that they could go then downstairs, as there were a lot of restaurants in the area.

“That was my only expectation,” she says.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger again once again asks Stormy Daniels to slow down for the court reporter. She continues to talk quickly as she recounts her story.

Stormy Daniels says she was trying to get out of a dinner with everyone from her company and that was the reason her publicist encouraged her to go to dinner with Trump instead.

“So I arrived and I went upstairs. Keith (Schiller) had given me very specific instructions to take a certain elevator to the penthouse floor. So I did so and I went up to that level. That’s where I met Keith, who was waiting for me outside the door,” Daniels testifies.

Daniels says after she declined Trump’s dinner invitation, his bodyguard Keith Schiller took her cell phone number and then messaged her.

The jury is seeing a photo of Schiller’s contact entry in her phone. He’s saved as “Keith Trump.”

Daniels says the contact was “Keith Trump” because she didn’t know Schiller’s last name at the time and he worked for Trump. “I do that a lot” to help identify contacts, she says.

She said she had another dinner, but her publicist encouraged her to go to dinner with Trump.

“What could possibly go wrong,” Daniels recounts her publicist telling her, giggling as she spoke on the stand.

Stephanie Clifford – better known as Stormy Daniels — has taken the stand in former president Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

Here’s what to know about her testimony so far:

Jurors took notes during her testimony – but were not reacting to her laughs and sometimes blunt testimony.

When Stormy Daniels speaks of Trump, she is calling him “Mr. Trump.”

The jury is seeing a photo of Trump standing with his golf club wearing the same yellow shirt and red hat.

“It is a photo of Mr. Trump on the golf course,” Daniels says of the photo.

Donald Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, asked Stormy Daniels if she would have dinner with Trump, she testifies.

“F no, ” Daniels says she replied.

She was then asked to clarify because she said it softly. Daniels says, “NO, but with an expletive in front.”

Donald Trump takes a photo with Stormy Daniels in this photo from Daniels' MySpace account.

The jury is being shown a photo of Stormy Daniels next to Donald Trump. He’s wearing a yellow golf shirt and a red hat.

Trump is shuffling through papers in front of him as the photo is shown on the screen for jurors.

Stormy Daniels will testify about how her story became more valuable during the 2016 election cycle and that will be key to the hush money case, CNN legal analyst Karen Friedman Agnifilo said.

Right now, the prosecutors are establishing the fact that Daniels interacted with Donald Trump on various occasions.

“Yes, they only had sex once, but there were multiple times that they would meet up, that they would talk on the phone and that there were promises that she’d be on ‘The Apprentice,’” Agnifilo said.

Later on in the testimony Daniels is expected to discuss when “there came a time to negotiate this NDA, she’ll talk about how she tried to sell this story years before but there was no market for it, but then around the time of the election that’s when it became much more valuable to her — to Trump — to be able to sell her story, so I think it’s key,” Agnifilo explained.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks Stormy Daniels to identify Donald Trump in the courtroom.

She darts her head around the witness stand and then spots him.

Daniels points and says he is in the “navy blue jacket.”

Trump appeared to look in her direction as she pointed to him but made no visible reaction.

Stormy Daniels said all she knew about Trump is that he was a golfer and had a reality show “that I had never seen” called “Celebrity Apprentice.”

She was 27 at the time of their meeting.

Daniels says she was introduced to him as a director. “You direct, too, you must be the smart one,” she says he told her.

Daniels says she later saw Trump in the gift room at the tournament. Later at the gift shop she says Trump remembered her. “He remembered me specifically… that I was the smart one,” she said, putting her hands in air quotes.

Trump is staring straight ahead as Stormy Daniels testifies about meeting him at a golf tournament.

He appears to be watching her on the camera feed in front of him.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is now directing her questioning to July 2006.

Stormy Daniels said she was working at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. She was still working for an adult film picture company.

Daniels testified that she met Trump at that tournament. “It was a very brief encounter,” she said.

She cracked a joke about the adult film company’s sponsorship of one of the holes of the golf course. The jurors did not laugh.

Trump has denied the affair with Daniels.

Stormy Daniels is now talking about a “draft Stormy” campaign for Senate in Louisiana against former Sen. David Vitter, even though she wasn’t serious about running for Senate.

“David Vitter never actually would debate me,” she says.

Stormy Daniels was asked if she discussed Trump on her podcast, specifically regarding politics.

“Yes, of course,” she says.

Daniels says she no longer hosts the podcast because she was fired. “I was reluctant to just continue talking about that one narrative, you know, this case,” she says.

Stormy Daniels says she also had a podcast called “Beyond the Norm.” She said, “it’s everything that is beyond the norm,” while looking at the jury.

The jury is not reacting to her laughs and at times blunt testimony.

Stormy Daniels is now listing the mainstream movies she appeared in, including “40 Year Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up.”

She says she has also appeared in music videos, including ones for Maroon 5 and Rob Zombie.

Stormy Daniels says she has written a book called “Full Disclosure” and is in the process of finishing up two other books set to come out next year. 

Stormy Daniels appears very relaxed on the stand, leaning on the chair’s arm, gesturing as she speaks and laughing casually as she recounts her work experience.

Daniels was again asked to slow down because she’s speaking very quickly.

Stormy Daniels is explaining how she got into the adult film industry.

“I was honestly kind of scared to do it. (A friend) said I’ll do it with you. Just doing one you can say you’ve done it and it will bump you up in pay grade,” she says.

Daniels says she won 11 best director awards and two best screenplays.

Jurors are taking notes as Stormy Daniels testifies. Many of their faces are expressionless as they alternate between watching Daniels and prosecutor Susan Hoffinger.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks Stormy Daniels, “Did there come a time when you also worked in the adult film industry?”

“Yes,” Daniels says.

Stormy Daniels is testifying that you have to have a reason to be the “headliner” and explains “the way to do that is to pose for magazines or to do competitions or adult movies.”

Daniels says contests “are a real thing.”

“You can literally win Miss Nude North America,” she says.

She says she was 21 years old when she started posing for magazines.

Stormy Daniels said she started nude modeling at 21.

Daniels told the court that while working at the club, they had traveling entertainers come in and she decided she wanted to do that.

Attorney Todd Blanche whispered something to Donald Trump and smiled. Trump did not.

Trump is no longer looking in the direction of the witness stand, but at the monitor instead.

Stormy Daniels says she got into exotic dancing by accident. Her friend told her she was a dancer, which she thought was the same style she did, “which was ballet, jazz and tap. I was wrong, she was an exotic dancer.”

Through dancing, Daniels says she could “make more in two nights than I could shoveling manure eight hours a day.”

Stormy Daniels is speaking quickly, giving the court reporter a bit of trouble. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks her to slow down.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is beginning by asking Stormy Daniels about her background, even down to what clubs and hobbies she had in high school.

Daniels says she was “editor of my high school paper” and in 4-H club “because I love horses.”

“My mother was very neglectful; she would disappear for days at a time,” Daniels said. When she was 17, she moved out.

Stormy Daniels said she is testifying because she was subpoenaed.

She speaks quickly and is turning toward the jury as she answers questions.

Trump is glancing in Stormy Daniels’ direction repeatedly as she begins her testimony.

When introducing herself to the court, she identifies herself as Stormy Daniels.

When asked by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger, she says she prefers to be called Stormy Daniels, instead of Stephanie Clifford.

She appears to be wearing a black jacket, black top and dark pants.

Donald Trump was whispering to his attorney Todd Blanche before Stormy Daniels walked in. He was facing forward as she walked past him, and then he turned to look toward her as she got on the witness stand.

Eric Trump, who’s sitting in the courtroom today, turned his head to watch Stormy Daniels walk in.

Stormy Daniels’ testimony in the hush money trial against Donald Trump may not necessarily help prosecutors in terms of the key charges in the case, CNN Chief Legal Correspondent Paula Reid said.

“She’s a colorful witness. She was at the center of these hush money payments but I want to be realistic in terms of what she offers the prosecution,” Reid explained.

Daniels will be able to testify about the affair with Trump — which he has denied — and talk about the renewed interest in her story in late October 2016, after the Access Hollywood tape. She can help bolster the prosecution’s argument that suppressing her story was done to help Trump win the White House as well, Reid notes.

“But what she can’t help is the actual charges at the heart of this case, which are 34 counts of falsifying business records,” Reid said. “She doesn’t really have any knowledge of how Michael Cohen was reimbursed by the Trump Organization. So this is certainly a blockbuster day just in terms of the historical significance. But Stormy Daniels is unlikely to be able to make or break the prosecution’s case.”

In this file photo from 2018, adult film actress Stormy Daniels exits a courthouse in New York.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who is being questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger in Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, is a key figure in the controversy over a 2016 “hush money” payment allegedly made to Daniels on Trump’s behalf.

Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business documents related to the repayment of his one-time attorney Michael Cohen for payments made shortly before the 2016 election to cover up Trump’s alleged affair with Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims she had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006. The controversy surfaced in January 2018, when the Wall Street Journalreported on the $130,000 payment.

In “Stormy,” a documentary that was released on Peacock in March, Daniels said she agreed to accept the payment to protect her husband and daughter and so “that there would be a paper trail and money trail linking me to Donald Trump so that he could not have me killed.”

Prosecutors in New York have alleged that Trump sought to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election by suppressing negative information that would hurt his campaign. According to charging documents, Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”

Read more about Daniels and her role in the case.

Sally Franklin testified for a total of 46 minutes. 

Donald Trump is whispering to one of his attorneys, Emil Bove.

One lawyer has consistently stayed at the defense table with Trump while the other two lawyers go to the bench.

During the first few days of the trial, all of Trump’s attorneys usually went up to the side bar, leaving Trump alone at the table.

Sally Franklin is off the stand. Meanwhile, Judge Juan Merchan has called the lawyers to the bench.

Redirect is over and Trump attorney Todd Blanche is up again with another round of questions.

At least three jurors were seen writing in their notepads.

Sally Franklin is reading another excerpt from “Trump: Think Like A Billionaire.”

“Here’s something else about God that any billionaire knows. He is in the details and you need to be there, too. I couldn’t run a business any other way,” the book reads.

“No detail is too small to consider. I even try to sign as many checks as possible. For me, there’s nothing worse than a computer signing checks,” the book continues. “When you sign a check yourself, you’re seeing what’s really going on inside your business, and if people see your signature at the bottom of the check, they know you’re watching them, and they screw you less because they have proof that you care about the details.”

The jury saw additional quotes on a page from “Trump: Think Like A Billionaire,” including one on the epigraph page from Donald Trump’s father.

“‘Know everything you can about what you’re doing.”

— My father, Fred Trump’”

Rebecca Mangold also walks Sally Franklin through the acknowledgments page of Trump’s book, where the former president calls his ghostwriter, Meredith McIver, a “writer of many talents” who worked as an executive assistant at the Trump Organization, “stationed at a desk outside my office.”

“As you know, my door is always open, so Meredith has heard everything, and she’s taken good notes. She’s done a remarkable job of helping me put my thoughts and experiences on paper. I am tremendously grateful to her,” it continued.

More context: McIver also helped Melania Trump write her 2016 RNC speech, and later took the blame for lifting portions from Michelle Obama’s speech.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins contributed reporting to this post.

On redirect, prosecutor Rebecca Mangold highlights portions that would be written by Trump, not the ghostwriter. Trump chose the title of his book, according to an excerpt of the introduction shown to the jury.

“That’s what I decided to call it, because whenever I meet people that’s usually what they want to know from me. You ask a baker how he makes bread. You ask a billionaire how he makes money. ” 

An excerpt from an epigraph page in Trump’s book bears a quote from Mary Trump, Trump’s mother, Sally Franklin says.

“Trust in God and be true to yourself” is attributed to Mary Trump.

A quote from Donald Trump follows:

“When I look back, that was great advice, concise and wise at once. I didn’t really get it at first, but because it sounded good, I stuck to it. Later I realized how comprehensive this is – how to keep your bases covered while thinking about the big picture. It’s good advice no matter what your business or lifestyle. - DJT”

Franklin says these quotes are typically written by the author, not the ghostwriter.