Stormy Daniels testifies in Trump’s trial.
Stormy Daniels, the well-known adult film actress, made headlines Tuesday as she took the stand to testify in the highly publicized criminal trial of former President Trump. Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, to which he has pleaded not guilty. These charges are the result of a thorough investigation conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
The charges against Trump are directly linked to alleged payments that were made to silence Stormy Daniels regarding an alleged extramarital affair she had with Trump back in 2006, just before the 2016 presidential election. The incident involved Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, who made a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels in an attempt to keep her from speaking out about the affair.
The details of the payments to Daniels first came to light in January 2018, when a report by the Wall Street Journal revealed that Cohen, along with Daniels’ lawyer, negotiated a nondisclosure agreement to prevent her from publicly discussing the purported sexual encounter with Trump. At the time, Cohen, Trump, and Daniels all denied the existence of any arrangement.
In response to these allegations in January 2018, Cohen dismissed the encounter between Daniels and Trump as a mere rumor that had been circulating since 2011. Daniels also released a statement refuting any claims of a romantic or sexual relationship with Trump, emphasizing that her interactions with him were limited to professional settings where he displayed gentlemanly behavior.
However, in a surprising turn of events in March 2018, Daniels changed her story during an interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” revealing that she had, in fact, engaged in a one-time, unprotected sexual encounter with Trump. Meanwhile, Trump maintained that he had no knowledge of the payment made to Daniels.
As the legal proceedings continued, questions arose about the validity of the non-disclosure agreement signed by Daniels, but not by Trump. Daniels took legal action to depose both Trump and Cohen over the payment, initiating a defamation suit against Cohen after he issued a cease-and-desist letter demanding that she refrain from making any defamatory statements following her “60 Minutes” interview.
During the trial, prosecutors called several key witnesses to testify, including Keith Davidson, the attorney who had represented both Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. Davidson clarified that Daniels’ initial denial of an affair with Trump was technically true and explained that the money Cohen paid her was considered a “consideration,” not a payoff.
On the defense side, Trump’s attorneys utilized audio recordings of Davidson admitting that Cohen did not require authorization from Trump to make the payment to Daniels. Meanwhile, Cohen himself was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to a variety of federal charges, including lying to Congress, campaign-finance violations, and tax evasion.
Specifically, Cohen pleaded guilty to misleading Congress about his involvement in a proposal to construct a Trump skyscraper in Moscow and concealing his ongoing communications with Russians about the project during the 2016 presidential campaign. In a separate investigation, prosecutors accused Cohen of engaging in a “tax evasion scheme” to evade paying federal income taxes on over $4 million earned through various ventures.
In addition to the payment to Stormy Daniels, Cohen also admitted to orchestrating a payment of $150,000 to Karen McDougal, another model, to prevent any public disclosure of alleged affairs with Trump. Trump has consistently denied these alleged encounters.
This story is still developing, so stay tuned for further updates on this high-profile trial.
