Trump lawyer and Daniels clash as defense tries to poke holes in testimony
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles is attempting to question Stormy Daniels’ credibility of her account with Donald Trump, asking:
Your story has completely changed, hasn’t it?
Daniels replies:
No, not at all. You’re trying to make it say that it changed but it hasn’t changed.
Key events
Donald Trump’s legal team tried to discredit Stormy Daniels on Thursday as they attempted to suggest that Daniels was more interested in obtaining a payout than revealing the truth about her sexual affair with Trump.
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Susan Necheles, a lawyer for Trump, asked Daniels to explain on Thursday why she didn’t just go public with her story in the waning days of the 2016 campaign and instead sought to get paid for her story. She noted that Daniels had been talking to a journalist at the publication Slate who had been trying to convince her to let him publish her story, but that she wouldn’t have been paid. She also suggested Daniels wanted to hurt Trump because Trump opposed gay marriage and abortion.
In rapid-fire questions, Necheles seemed to be trying to seed the idea that Daniels, dressed in a green blouse and black sweater, was more interested in getting a payout than telling the truth.
“You wanted money, right?” Necheles said.
Daniels, who insisted she wanted to do a press conference in the waning days of the 2016 campaign, said, “I wanted the truth to come out,” adding that she wanted a paper trail. “I never asked for money from anyone in particular, I asked for money to tell my story.”
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In a post on X following two days of testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Clark Brewster praised his client, saying:
Couldn’t be prouder of my client.
Stormy Daniels was on the stand in NY v Trump criminal trial for a day and a half, ending at 12:30p today. Couldn’t be prouder of my client. pic.twitter.com/riTnzwdsQf
— clark brewster (@cbrew1) May 9, 2024
Defense says it will renew motion for a mistrial
Court is now breaking for lunch and the jury has left the room.
Judge Juan Merchan says he has been told by the attorneys that the trial is on schedule, perhaps even a little bit ahead of schedule.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche says the defense will ask for another mistrial based on Stormy Daniels’ testimony. He also says they are going to ask to preclude testimony from Karen McDougal and ask for a gag order. They will take this up at 4pm ET today.
Hugo Lowell
Bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio is running through how she sent checks from New York for Donald Trump to sign at the White House.
Manochio described how the checks would be sent via FedEx, and through Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller.
Schiller as a link in the chain is interesting because Stormy Daniels testified earlier how Schiller was the one who set up the Trump encounter in 2006.
Prosecutors love to tie all the cast of characters together to bolster the narrative.
Hugo Lowell
Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio testifies that Donald Trump and her direct boss Allen Weisselberg spoke every day, which prosecutors will use to show it was highly unlikely Trump would not have known what checks he was signing and, even if he didn’t know, he could have asked.
The connection from Weisselberg to Trump is important for prosecutors to highlight because we have already seen evidence that Weisselberg worked out the repayment scheme to Michael Cohen, in shorthand handwriting on a bank statement for the shell company Cohen used to pay Stormy Daniels.
Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio is testifying about the process of getting Donald Trump to sign checks when he was in the White House.
Prosecution calls Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio as next witness
The prosecution calls its next witness: Rebecca Manochio.
Manochio is a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization. She has been compelled to testify by a subpoena and being represented by counsel.
She’s worked there since 2013 and started as an administrative assistant. She worked for Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer in the Trump Organization, and the organization’s longtime controller, Jeff McConney.
Manochio worked as an assistant to Weisselberg for about eight years. She sat outside Weisselberg’s office, and says Weisselberg and Donald Trump would interact every day when they were both in the office.
Stormy Daniels finishes testimony
Stormy Daniels is excused.
Daniels walked quickly out of the courtroom, her lips pursed, and did not make eye contact with Donald Trump.
Daniels testifies that telling the truth about Trump has been a ‘net negative’
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks:
Have you been telling lies about Mr Trump or the truth about Mr Trump?
Stormy Daniels responds:
The truth.
Hoffinger asks:
On balance has it been net positive or net negative?
Daniels replies:
Negative.
Susan Hoffinger, on redirect, is revisiting some of Stormy Daniels’ Twitter attacks on Donald Trump.
Hoffinger is pointing out for the jury that many of Daniels’ comments were in response to threats and derogatory attacks on her.
Now they’re displaying a 4 August 2023 Truth Social post from Trump in which he says:
IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU.
Daniels says she understood that to be a threat against her because it was right around when Trump filed to recover legal fees from Daniels.
