Stormy Daniels rejects Trump lawyer’s claim that she made up sexual story

During two hours of intense questioning by Donald Trump’s legal team on Thursday, Stormy Daniels fought off attacks designed to undermine her credibility and paint her as a liar and opportunist.

In a series of jokes directed at Trump’s lawyer, she told the court that if her account of having sex with the former president was a made-up story, “I would have written it better.”

The adult film star’s detailed account of a sexual encounter with the former president in 2006 came under intense scrutiny for seven hours over two days inside a Manhattan courtroom, where Trump is criminally accused of covering up $130,000 in payments intended to keep her quiet during the 2016 presidential election.

On Thursday, defense attorney Susan Necheles attempted to analyze Daniels’ testimony about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in a hotel room to find inconsistencies in her accounts of the meeting in interviews and in her book.

But Ms. Daniels appeared unfazed by the questioning, leaning comfortably on the stand and jokingly answering Ms. Necheles as if the questions were beneath her.

At one point, Necheles suggested that Trump showing up in his underwear asking for sex shouldn’t have surprised her because she would be used to seeing naked men in her line of work.

“You’ve acted and had sex in over 200 porn movies, right?” she said. “And are there naked men and women having sex in those movies? …But according to you, seeing a man sitting on a bed in a T-shirt and boxers was so disturbing that he became dizzy and almost fainted?

“When you’re not expecting a man twice your age, yes,” Mrs. Daniels replied.

Necheles often punctuated his line of questioning to directly ask whether Daniels was lying or “making this stuff up.”

“This was your career for over 20 years: writing, acting and directing sex films,” he asked. “You have a lot of experience making fake sex stories seem real, right?”

“Wow,” Mrs. Daniel responded, pausing to laugh.

“I wouldn’t say it like that,” he said. “The sex in those movies is very real, like in that hotel room.”

He added: “If that story wasn’t true, I would have written it to make it much better.”

The intense exchange between the adult film star and the former president’s lawyer occurred at a time when the New York County Criminal Court in midtown Manhattan was packed with reporters, one of the only days of the 14 days of the trial until the date the public Both knew who would appear on the witness stand and that the witness was one of the key figures in the case.

Thursday’s proceedings followed an extraordinary day of testimony on Tuesday from Ms. Daniels, who sat just feet from the former president and likely Republican presidential candidate as he was forced to listen to a story that he had allegedly spent dozens of thousands of dollars trying to keep hidden.

On Tuesday, Daniels recalled in detail the brief but disturbing sex she allegedly had with the former president after a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe nearly 18 years ago.

She often smiled and joked during her testimony before walking prosecutors moment by moment through her meeting with Trump, revealing what was supposed to be a dinner date turned into brief but nightmarish sex in a hotel room.

Defense attorneys repeatedly objected to the details of her testimony that day, and New York Judge Juan Merchán also intervened to stop her at times. Trump’s legal team sought a mistrial, arguing that her excessively detailed account was too prejudicial for jurors to reach a fair verdict.

The judge denied that motion, but agreed that Ms. Daniels said too much and was surprised that defense attorneys didn’t object to more. Trump himself was furious and was cursing loudly enough that the judge told his lawyers to rein him in, warning that his behavior also risked influencing the jury.

The case before the jury is not about affairs, sex, confidentiality agreements or sensational drama uncovered during the past two weeks of witness testimony, but Ms. Daniels’ story is at the center of it all. Her testimony about the encounter is “precisely what the defendant did not want made public,” Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger told the judge Tuesday.

When Daniels returned to the stand Thursday, Necheles criticized her for discrepancies in her various retellings of the story over the years, including a bizarre minutes-long exchange in which she tried to convince jurors that she “dinner” It means to eat. not the time of day.

“Your words don’t mean what they say, do they?” Mrs. Necheles said.

At another point he asked: “Your story has completely changed, hasn’t it?”

“No! Not at all,” Mrs. Daniels replied. “You’re trying to make me change, but I haven’t changed.”