ANP Productions | Source: ANP
Tuesday May 7, 2024 at 4:54 PM
New York
Former porn star Stormy Daniels has appeared as a witness in a high-profile trial against US ex-president Donald Trump. He is accused of covering up a $130,000 payment to Daniels. With the hush money in 2016, then-presidential candidate Trump wanted to prevent Daniels from coming clean about their sexual affair in 2006.
It is the first criminal case against an American ex-president in the history of the United States. Trump has consistently denied the allegations.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, began her testimony by describing her upbringing as the child of a single mother who sometimes disappeared for days. She said she started dancing in a club at the age of 17. Trump leaned back in his chair, slouching slightly, as he looked at her.
Sponsoring golfholes
Daniels then described how she met Trump at a golf tournament 18 years ago. She said the company she was working for at the time had sponsored one of the holes in the tournament Trump was participating in. “That, yes, I know, is very funny,” she laughed about the irony of a sex industry firm sponsoring a “hole.”
She spoke briefly to Trump during an informal gathering of porn actresses and players. He responded when an employee said Daniels also directed films. “Oh, you direct too? You must be smart,” she quoted Trump as complimenting.
Passages from book
What followed was detailed testimony about the sex Daniels said he had with Trump in a hotel suite. It was about his pajamas, his boxer shorts, the sex positions and the fact that he wasn’t wearing a condom. Meanwhile, the former president, sitting just a few feet away, still watched silently with a stony face.
Before Daniels took the witness stand, jurors were shown texts from several of Trump’s books, including a passage that read: “A sexual dynamic is always present between people, unless you are asexual.”