NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s defense attorney on Thursday accused Stormy Daniels of slowly altering the details of an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, trying to persuade jurors that a key prosecution witness in the former president’s hush money trial cannot be believed.
“The details of your story keep changing, right?” attorney Susan Necheles asked at one point.
What to know about Trump’s hush money trial:
- Follow the latest updates as Stormy Daniels returns to the witness stand.
- A guide to terms used in the Trump trial.
- Trump is the first ex-president on criminal trial. Here’s what to know about the hush money case.
- Trump is facing four criminal indictments, and a civil lawsuit. You can track all of the cases here.
“No,” Daniels said.
As the jury looked on, the two women traded barbs over what Necheles said were inconsistencies in Daniels’ description of the encounter with Trump in a hotel room. He denies the whole story.
“You made all this up, right?” Necheles asked.
“No,” Daniels shot back.
But despite all the talk over what may have happened in that hotel room, despite the discomfiting testimony by the adult film actor that she consented to sex in part because of a “power imbalance,” the case against Trump doesn’t rise or fall on whether her account is true or even believable. It’s a trial about money changing hands — business transactions — and whether those payments were made to illegally influence the 2016 election.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records. The charges stem from paperwork such as invoices and checks that were deemed legal expenses in company records. Prosecutors say those payments largely were reimbursements to Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet.
The testimony over the past three weeks has seesawed between bookkeepers and bankers relaying the nuts-and-bolts of check-paying procedures and wire transfers to unflattering, seamy stories about Trump and the tabloid world machinations meant to keep them secret.
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