Judge Juan M. Merchan rejects the mistrial request
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
“I don’t believe we’re at the point where a mistrial is warranted,” he said.
The judge said he agreed with Blanche that Daniels said more at times than she should’ve, but he blamed the defense for not objecting more vigorously when she was testifying.
“I agree there are some things that would’ve been better left unsaid,” Merchan said, noting the “witness was a little difficult to control.”
Merchan said there were guardrails in place and that he sustained most of the defense’s objections — but that there should have been more.
At one point, Merchan noted, he objected on his own — rather than waiting for a defense objection — to stop Daniels from giving more detail than she should have.
Trump’s lawyers ask for a mistrial following morning testimony from Stormy Daniels
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
Following the lunch break, Trump’s lawyers are saying that Daniels ran afoul of rules established for her taking the witness stand. This is the first time the Trump team has asked for a mistrial.
Defense lawyer Todd Blanche said Daniels’ testimony about the alleged sexual encounter with Trump and her detailed account of a preceding conversation and other meetings with Trump had “nothing to do with this case and is extremely prejudicial.”
Blanche argued “the court set guardrails for this testimony” but it was “just thrown to the side.”
“This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from,” he said, adding that it is also “unfair” as Trump has to go out on the campaign trail later today.
A post published to Trump’s Truth Social account just before court resumed read: “THE PROSECUTION, WHICH HAS NO CASE, HAS GONE TOO FAR. MISTRIAL!”
Trump returns to court
The former president waved as he walked through the hallway but did not respond to shouted questions from reporters.
Mayor Eric Adams said that the city’s jail system will be ready if it has to house a former American president
The New York City mayor said during his regular Tuesday briefing at City Hall that correction officials have discussed the possibility of having to house Trump at Rikers Island following Monday’s warning from Judge Juan M. Merchan that he’s prepared to send the former president to jail if he’s found, yet again, to be in contempt of court at his hush-money trial.
“We have to adjust to whatever comes our way,” Adams said, declining to elaborate. “We don’t want to deal with hypotheticals, but they’re professionals. They’ll be ready.”
No news outlets were interested in her story until the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, said Daniels
Daniels said she was in the best financial shape of her life, directing 10 films a year, when she authorized her manager Gina Rodriguez to shop her story during the 2016 presidential election cycle. Daniels said she had no intent of approaching Cohen or Trump to have them purchase her story. “My motivation wasn’t money, it was to get the story out,” she testified prior to the lunch break.
Initially, she did not receive any interest from news outlets. But that changed after the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in October 2016, a month ahead of the election. Daniels testified that she learned from Rodriguez that Cohen was interested in purchasing her silence.
“They were interested in paying for the story, which was the best thing that could happen because then my husband wouldn’t find out but there would still be documentation,” Daniels said.
Daniels testified that when she was approached with Cohen’s $130,000 offer: “I didn’t care about the amount, I just wanted to get it done.”
‘I’d rather make the money than somebody make money off of me’
Before the break, Daniels testified that a few years after “The Apprentice” possibility died and she had stopped talking with Trump, she learned from her agent in 2011 that the story had made its way to a magazine. She said she agreed to an interview for $15,000 because “I’d rather make the money than somebody make money off of me, and at least I could control the narrative.”
The story never ran, but later that year, she was alarmed when an item turned up on a website. In the interim, she said, she’d been threatened to keep silent by a stranger in a Las Vegas parking lot.
Daniels has previously made that claim and produced a composite sketch of the man, which Trump called “a total con job.” Daniels sued Trump over that comment, calling it defamatory; her suit was dismissed in 2018, and she was ordered to pay Trump nearly $293,000 for his attorneys’ fees and another $1,000 in sanctions.
Daniels said her agent proposed getting the online item taken down, and it was.
The trial has broken for a lunch break
Trump gave a fist pump to reporters as he left the courtroom.
In their final meeting, Daniels and Trump barely talked about her potential ‘Apprentice’ appearance
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
Daniels testified that she last saw Trump in June 2007 at his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She recalled spending about two hours there — highlighted by Trump’s fascination with the Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week,” which was on the TV, and little news about her chances of appearing on “The Apprentice.” Daniels testified that she spurned Trump’s advances and that he told her, “I miss you,” and wanted to get together again.
Asked if Trump ever told her to keep things between them confidential, she testified: “Absolutely not.”
Daniels said she spoke with Trump several more times by phone and that he eventually told her he wouldn’t be able to put her on “The Apprentice.” She testified that Trump told her “someone high up’s wife overruled” the idea. In her 2018 book, “Full Disclosure,” Daniels wrote that Trump had told her that actress Roma Downey — the wife of show producer Mark Burnett — had objected to her being on the program.
‘It was very brief, he was very busy’
Daniels said she next saw Trump for a meeting inside Trump Tower set up by his assistant, Rhona Graff. “It was very brief, he was very busy,” she remembered, describing Trump as carrying out multiple meetings at once.
At their meeting, Trump told her that he “wanted to say hi,” Daniels testified, and that he was still working on getting her on ‘The Apprentice.’ He offered her two tickets to the Miss USA beauty pageant, which she accepted.
Graff testified earlier in the trial that she recalled seeing Daniels once at Trump’s office, but didn’t remember the date. Graff said she assumed Daniels was there to discuss potentially being a contestant on one of Trump’s “Apprentice” shows.
Daniels wanted to maintain her relationship with Trump due to the possibility of a TV appearance
In January 2007, Daniels said she brought two friends to a vodka release party sponsored by Trump in Los Angeles.
Inside a VIP booth, Daniels said she was introduced to another of Trump’s friends — a woman she later learned was Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with Trump. The former president also denies this claim.
Daniels testified that Trump repeatedly propositioned her to go home with him that night, but that she declined his advances. At the same time, she said, she didn’t want to close off the possibility of appearing on “The Apprentice,” which Trump had suggested was possible.
“I wanted to maintain that sort of relationship,” she said. “The chance to be on ‘The Apprentice’ was still up in the air, and it would’ve been great for my career.”
Daniels describes subsequent encounters with Trump
Daniels said Trump’s bodyguard called her the next day to tell her that Trump wanted to see her again, and she agreed to meet him in a bar or club in her hotel. She found him with NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Daniels said that Trump introduced her to the football player but seemed largely preoccupied during her 10 minute visit in the loud space. She said he would continue to think about the possibility of her appearing on one of his “Apprentice” show, she told jurors. (Roethlisberger declined to comment on Daniels’ description of the evening in her 2018 book.)
After returning home the next day, Daniels told many people she’d met Trump and gone to his room but informed only a few close confidantes about the alleged sexual encounter, she said. In the months after, she said, Trump called her frequently with “an update — or non-update” on the “Apprentice” possibilities.
“He always talked about when we could get together again, did I miss him, and he always called me honeybunch,” she testified, adding that she always put him on speakerphone and many of her colleagues heard the calls — without telling him.
Daniels notes power imbalance between her and Trump
Before they had sex, Daniels said Trump was between her and the door. She said she didn’t feel physically or verbally threatened, though she knew his bodyguard was outside the suite and there was what she perceived to be an imbalance of power: Trump “was bigger and blocking the way,” she testified.
“The next thing I know was: I was on the bed,” Daniels recalled.
Daniels describe sexual encounter with Trump
Daniels testified that she ended up having sex with Trump on the bed of his hotel suite.
After multiple discussions with the judge and Trump’s lawyers out of the earshot of jurors, prosecutor Hoffinger navigated her questioning about the encounter with exceeding caution.
She instructed Daniels to keep her answers brief and free of extra details.
Trump’s lawyers repeatedly objected as Daniels described certain details, and Judge Merchan repeatedly shot down Daniels’ attempts to describe the encounter in more vivid detail — striking several of her answers from the official court record.
Asked if Trump used a condom during the encounter, Daniels said, “No.” Daniels said the encounter was “brief” and when it ended she was shaking.
“He said, ‘Oh it was great, let’s get together again honey bunch,’” Daniels continued. “I just wanted to leave.”
Jurors looked on, riveted, as Daniels discussed the sexual encounter.
Trump has denied having sex with Daniels.
Eric Trump posts from the courtroom
Eric Trump posted on X that he is in the courtroom “Sitting front row attempting to figure out how any of this garbage from 20 years ago relates to ‘legal’ bills submitted by a long time personal attorney being booked as a ‘legal’ expense.’” He accused the prosecutors of being “giddy by this salacious show.”
‘I thought you were serious about what you wanted’
“I thought, ‘Oh my God,’ what did I misread to get here?” Daniels testified. “Because the intention was pretty clear. Somebody stripped down in their underwear and posed on the bed, waiting for you.”
Daniels said Trump told her: “I thought we were getting somewhere, we’re talking. I thought you were serious about what you wanted. If you ever want to get out of that trailer park — I was offended because I never lived in a trailer park.”
As Daniels described the bedroom encounter, Trump hung his head, eyes cast downward, away from the witness box.
Daniels continues to describe her encounter with Trump
Daniels testified that, after a while, she had to use the bathroom. When she was finished, she said, she found Trump sitting on the bed wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt.
“When I exited, he was up on the bed, like this,” Daniels testified, feigning reclining with her knees up on the witness stand.
“At first it was just startled, like jump scare. I wasn’t expecting someone to be there, minus a lot of clothing,” Daniels testified. She said it suddenly felt like the room was spinning, like blood was draining from her hands and feet.
Judge Merchan scolds the prosecution
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
Before Daniels returned to the stand, the judge admonished Hoffinger, the prosecutor, about the “degree of detail” she had elicited from Daniels, saying there was no need to get into the design of the floor in the hotel room foyer or the various subjects covered in her conversation with Trump. “The degree of detail that we’re going into here is just unnecessary,” Merchan said.
Trump returns to the courtroom
He gave a small wave as he went inside.
Trump suggested putting Daniels on ‘The Apprentice’
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
Prior to the morning break, Daniels testified that she and Trump spoke for about two hours in his hotel suite before they were supposed to go to dinner. During the conversation, she said, he dangled the idea of putting her on his TV show “The Apprentice.”
Daniels testified that Trump pitched the allure of a porn star competing on the show — which had yet to spawn its celebrity version — and said it would be a chance for her to show the world that, as a writer and director, she’s “more than a dumb bimbo.”
Daniels said she doubted the show’s network, NBC, would ever let it happen and that she feared her lack of business acumen would make her an easy out. She said she enjoyed her work making adult films and wasn’t ashamed of it, but she had designs on writing and directing music videos and more mainstream productions. “They have bigger budgets and better catering,” she quipped on the witness stand.
Daniels said her takeaway was that being on the show could position her to “be taken seriously as a writer and director.”
“He’s like, ‘This is your chance for somebody to see you and maybe give you that opportunity,’” Daniels said. “He pitched it as a win-win.”
Court stops for morning break
Trump did not speak to reporters as he left for the break, ignoring shouted questions about Daniels, but raised a fist.
Daniels discusses Melania Trump
Daniels testified that she briefly asked about Trump’s wife while in the hotel room, calling her very beautiful. Trump responded that they did not sleep in the same room, she said. As Daniels was describing the scene, Trump shook his head at the defense table and appeared to say something under his breath.
Trump inquired about the business of pornography
By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ
After Trump changed into his suit, Daniels testified that she and Trump sat down at a dining room table in the penthouse. He started asking her about her childhood and her career — extending questions about the production of adult films, how much is scripted versus improv, whether performers have unions and how testing for sexually transmitted diseases works in the industry.
“He was very, very interested in a lot of the business aspects of it, which I thought was very cool,” as most people just ask about “the sexy stuff … the salacious things,” Daniels said.
Trump is listening to Daniels’ testimony with a pained expression on his face, muttering at times to lawyers on either side of him.
In his penthouse hotel room, Trump greeted Stormy in pjs
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
Per instructions from Trump’s bodyguard, Daniels said she took an elevator up to the penthouse level of the hotel where Trump was staying. She said she exchanged pleasantries with the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, outside the door before entering.
Schiller had told her the plan was for her and Trump to go down to one of the hotel’s restaurants for dinner. She said she entered a foyer with black and white tile floors, mahogany furnishings and a big floral arrangement. She said she called Trump’s name and said, “Hello,” and Trump entered the foyer “wearing silk or satin pajamas that I immediately made fun of him for.”
“I said, ‘Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas,’” Daniels recalled, referring to the late Playboy owner. Trump then left her to quickly change into a suit. She said Trump’s hotel suite was three times the size of her apartment.
‘What could go wrong?’
By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ
During their interactions in the gift room, Daniels testified that Trump remembered her as “the smart one” and asked her if she wanted to go to dinner. She testified that Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, took her number.
Daniels said she accepted Trump’s invite because she wanted to get out of a planned dinner with her adult film company colleagues, some of whom she “didn’t want to be around — catfights,” she said with a chuckle.
She said her then-publicist suggested in a phone call that Trump’s invitation was a good excuse to duck the work dinner and would “make a great story” and perhaps help her career. “What could possibly go wrong?” she recalled the publicist saying.
Jurors are shown a now-famous photo of Daniels and Trump at the 2006 celebrity golf tournament
Daniels said the posed image was taken in a “gift room” where tournament sponsors, including the adult film company for which she then worked, distributed freebies to the players.
Daniels IDs Trump in the courtroom
As is standard in court proceedings, Daniels was asked if she saw Trump in the courtroom and to identify him.
Before answering, Daniels shuffled in her seat for a beat, looking around the courtroom. She pointed toward Trump, describing his navy suit coat, and said he was sitting at the defense table.
Trump looked straight forward, lips pursed, as he was identified.
Trump and Daniels met at a celebrity golf tournament
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
Daniels’ testimony quickly shifted to the celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe where she met Trump in 2006. The adult film studio she worked for at the time was sponsoring one of the holes on the golf course. She said they initially had a “very brief encounter” when Trump’s group passed through. She recalled him chatting with her about the adult film industry and her directing prowess, remarking that she must be smart if she’s making films.
Daniels describes her prolific, decades-long career
Daniels testified that she started appearing in adult films at age 23 and soon was writing and directing them, as well. She said she has directed over 150 such films and has won a roster of porn industry awards.
Daniels is upbeat and voluble on the stand so far, speaking over the prosecutor’s questions occasionally and laughing at times as she recounts her wide-ranging resume. She has been asked by Hoffinger twice to slow down so that a court stenographer can keep up.
Jurors listen attentively as Daniels testifies about getting into adult films
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
One juror smirked when she mentioned one of the ways into the industry was by winning a contest, like “Miss Nude North America.” Many jurors take notes, alternating their gaze from Daniels on the witness stand to prosecutor Hoffinger at a lectern behind the prosecution table.
A young Daniels balanced school and extracurricular dancing
Daniels testified that she did ballet growing up, and then an acquaintance got her into exotic dancing while she was in high school. “I started dancing on the weekend, which was pretty cool because I didn’t have to miss any classes,” Daniels said.
As Daniels described her childhood and early work experience, Trump whispered frequently in the ear of his attorney, Todd Blanche. Otherwise, his gaze has been cast down at his desk.
Daniels begins testimony by talking about her upbringing
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is asking Daniels about her upbringing in Louisiana. Daniels talks about having grown up poor and wanting to become a veterinarian.
Stormy Daniels is sworn in
Daniels walked briskly to the witness stand, not looking at Trump, before being sworn in.
Trump stared straight forward as Daniels entered the room, turning his head slightly in her direction as she approached the stand.
Stormy Daniels takes the stand
“The people call Stormy Daniels,” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said.
The porn actor was paid $130,000 in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential race to keep quiet about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in July 2006. Trump denies having sex with Daniels.
At the time of the payment, Trump and his campaign were reeling from the Oct. 7, 2016, publication of the never-before-seen 2005 “Access Hollywood” footage — in which he boasted about grabbing women without their permission.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, paid Daniels through a shell corporation he created, and the deal was finalized on Nov. 1, 2016, just a week before Election Day.
Prosecutors say payments from Trump reimbursing Cohen were falsely — and illegally — logged as legal fees in order to cover up their actual purpose. Trump’s lawyers contend the payments were legitimate legal expenses.
Lawyers confer with Judge Merchan after book publisher leaves the stand
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
Trump sits at the defense table, lawyer Emil Bove in his ear, while the rest of the defense team are at the bench conferring with prosecutors and the judge.
Additional quotes from Trump’s books are entered into the record
Over the objections of defense attorneys, prosecutors are introducing additional excerpts from one of Trump’s books, “How to Get Rich,” including an epigraph from Trump’s mom and a page thanking the book’s co-writer, Meredith McIver.
The line of questioning seems designed to undercut the defense’s suggestion, made on cross-examination, that the books were written by a ghostwriter, with little involvement from Trump.
“Are quotes attributed to an author’s mother typically written by a ghost writer or the author?” Mangold asked.
“The author,” Franklin replied.
Posting runs in the family: Eric Trump tweets from court
Donald Trump’s son Eric Trump posted on X about the case while sitting in court with his father, calling it “unbelievable” that a former president and candidate “is being tried for 34 felonies (based on a bookkeepers entry who never spoke with the President and sat in New York while he was in the Oval Office 240 miles away from Washington DC).”
Trump’s billionaire mindset
Testimony moved on to excerpts from Trump’s 2005 “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire,” including sections in praise of penny-pinching (“I call it financial smarts”) and keeping a close eye on bills.
When Trump lawyer Todd Blanche got his chance to cross-examine Franklin, he underscored that Trump worked with a writer on the manuscripts.
‘If someone screws you, screw them back’
Prosecutor Becky Mangold is having Franklin read excerpts from the 2004 volume “Trump: How to Get Rich” that get at Trump’s approach to business. The readings appear to be designed to show that Trump was hands-on at his company and willing to retaliate against those he perceives have done him wrong. Among the excerpts: “If you don’t know every aspect of what you’re doing, down to the paper clips, you’re setting yourself up for some unwanted surprises,” and, “For many years, I’ve said that if someone screws you, screw them back.”
The first witness of the day: Sally Franklin
Franklin is an executive at Penguin Random House. One of its imprints published a couple of Trump’s books, “Trump: How to Get Rich” and “Trump: Think Like a Billionaire.”
Judge Merchan will allow limited testimony detailing Daniels’ alleged sexual encounter with Trump
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
The judge agreed with the prosecution that the details will be necessary because of the porn actor’s credibility concerns and past denials. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said that prosecutors intend to establish that Daniels and Trump did have intercourse but that the testimony “will not involve descriptions of genitalia” or other seamy details.
Defense seeks to bar Stormy Daniels from speaking about ‘details’ of her alleged encounter with Trump
After court got underway, Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked that Daniels — who is expected to appear as a witness today — be barred from testifying about “the details” of her alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Necheles said it’s irrelevant to “a case about books and records.”
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger countered that the details are important to buttress Daniels’ credibility, which the defense has questioned. Hoffinger assured Judge Merchan that the description of the alleged sexual act would be “really basic” and would not “involve any details of genitalia.”
Trump has denied having sex with Daniels.
The scene from the courtroom
By MICHAEL R. SISAK
Trump had a tight-faced expression as he stepped into the courtroom. He peered at the reporters sitting in the gallery as he made his way to the defense table. He then turned and looked at his entourage, including son Eric and lawyer/spokesperson Alina Habba, as they filed into the gallery rows behind him.
Shortly after, Judge Juan M. Merchan took the bench.
Trump addressed reporters before entering the courtroom
He read from a piece of paper that he said had statements of people commenting about the case’s weakness on television.
He then started defending the action at the heart of the case, the contested “legal expense.”
“We didn’t put it down as construction costs,” he said. “The legal expense that we paid was put down as legal expense. There’s nothing else you could say.”
Monday’s testimony, from Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, had focused on whether money paid to Michael Cohen — reimbursing him for payments to Stormy Daniels — was correctly logged as a legal expense.
Who were Monday’s witnesses?
The jury on Monday heard from two witnesses, including a former Trump Organization controller who provided a mechanical but vital recitation of how the company reimbursed payments that were allegedly meant to suppress embarrassing stories from surfacing and then logged them as legal expenses in a manner that Manhattan prosecutors say broke the law.
Trump posts about congestion pricing en route to the courthouse
Donald Trump is diving back into local New York City news, posting on his social media network a complaint about a plan to charge a $15 toll to most drivers entering Manhattan’s central business district. “What office tenant or business would want to be here with this tax,” Trump said.
Trump leaves Trump Tower
The former president waved to onlookers across the road as he entered his motorcade, headed to the courthouse.
An attorney for Stormy Daniels says the porn actor is expected to appear as witness in Trump hush money trial today
FILE – Adult film actress Stormy Daniels arrives at the adult entertainment fair “Venus” in Berlin, Oct. 11, 2018. Convicted California lawyer Michael Avenatti wants leniency at sentencing for defrauding former client Stormy Daniels of hundreds of thousands of dollars, his lawyers say, citing a letter in which he told Daniels: “I am truly sorry.” (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
Clark Brewster tells The Associated Press that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is “likely” to be called as a witness in the trial Tuesday.
Trump said earlier Tuesday that he was “recently told” who the witness would be on Tuesday and complained he should’ve been given more notice.
Tracking Trump criminal investigations
Looking to understand the different cases faced by Donald Trump? Read the AP’s guide.
Catch and kill? Hush money? Making sense of Trump hush money trial terms
Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial is full of terms you don’t typically hear in a courtroom.
Centering on allegations Trump falsified his company’s records to conceal the nature of hush money reimbursements, it’s the first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president and the first of Trump’s four indictments to go to trial. It also has some unique terminology.
Michael Cohen has yet to be called
FILE – Michael Cohen arrives at New York Supreme Court, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, in New York. Former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen says he unwittingly passed along to his attorney bogus artificial intelligence-generated legal case citations he got online before they were submitted to a New York judge. Cohen made the admission in a court filing unsealed Friday, Dec. 29, in Manhattan federal court as a judge decides whether to punish one of Cohen’s lawyers, who cited the fake cases in a submission to the judge. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Prosecutors are continuing to build toward their star witness, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money payments. He is expected to undergo a bruising cross-examination from defense attorneys seeking to undermine his credibility with jurors.
