The atmosphere inside courtroom 1530 was already electric. A brooding Donald Trump glared out at the ranks of press as if to gauge the size of his audience before prosecutors and defense lawyers haggled over how much of the mechanics of his alleged affair could be brought up before the jury.

Only no-one had reckoned with the way porn star Stormy Daniels would become a runaway witness as she described their 2006 hotel encounter.

‘I had my clothes and my shoes off. I believe my bra however was still on. We were in the missionary position,’ Daniels said.

Trump, 77, was already motioning to his defense. ‘Objection,’ said Susan Necheles, raising her umpteenth objection of the morning.

By then, Daniels, 45, had taken us through her career as an erotic dancer, her first pornographic film (‘I’ll spare you the details,’ she said) and her regimen of STD testing (once a month at the time she said she met Trump; twice a month now)

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Tuesday’s Trump trial began with salacious claims by Stormy Daniels about spanking and bedding the future president in a Lake Tahoe hotel room – but ended with demands for a mistrial and claims she was fabricating sex claims out of greed and spite.

The porn star revealed new details about the alleged 2006 hookup while speaking under oath during a criminal trial with Trump seated just feet from the witness stand, including repeating her claim about swatting the future 45th president’s behind.

It was a dramatic performance where she shared intimate details about their banter inside a a Nevada hotel suite, even as judge Juan Merchan yielded to defense lawyers’ request that she keep sexual details to a minimum. (Her mention of the word ‘missionary’ drew an immediate objection).

The judge overseeing another criminal case that Trump is embroiled in – for allegedly mishandling classified documents at Mar-a-Lago – just postponed the trial indefinitely.

That’s a major win for team Trump as he may avoid trial before the 2024 election on November 5.

Stormy Daniels departed the Manhattan court Tuesday after spending hours revealing details of her sexual encounters with Trump.

She had her hair pulled up in a scrunchie and wore dark glasses that contrasted with her bright blonde hair.

Turmp acknowledged the ‘very big day’ in court, telling reporters on his way out of the courtroom that the DA’s case is ‘falling apart.’

‘They have nothing on books and records and even something that should bare very little relationship to the case. It’s just a disaster for the DA, the Soros-backed DA is a disaster. This whole case is just a disaster.’

He went on to praise ‘legal scholars’ who he says agree with him and decried being stuck in a courtroom, and not on the campaign trail.

‘It’s not easy standing there all day waiting but you’re hearing the same things we’re hearing,’ he continued.

Trump then went on to slam ‘Biden’s backers’ who are organizing the pro-Palestine rallies on college campuses.

‘I think our government ought to find out who they are, where they’re from and treat them the same way as they do the J-6 hostages. You got to treat them the same way. They’re agitators, they’re really hurting our country, it’s happening all over the country in cities.’

‘t’s a problem from the left, not from the right. This is the problem from the left. I hope I can just stress that.’

Trump wrapped up by turning to inflation, which the U.S. needs to get ‘under control.’

The day wrapped up with Stormy Daniels still being cross-examined.

Court will resume Thursday.

At one point, lawyer Susan Necheles focused on the 2011 incident where Stormy Daniels alleges a man threatened her in a parking lot.

Necheles asked if the reason she finally revealed it in 2018 was she was using it as an excuse as to why she never publicly disclosed it before. Daniels said ‘no.’

‘You use this supposed threat as an excuse to tell people this is why I didn’t talk publicly?’ Necheles asks.

Daniels countered that she did speak about it on a Tampa radio show in 2007.

Necheles brought up lawyer Michael Avenatti offering $100,000 to find the man and ‘no-one ever came forward’ to identify him. Daniels says a lot of people did.

‘This man never existed?’ Necheles said.

‘He absolutely existed,’ Daniels said.

‘The whole story was made up?’ said Necheles.

‘None of it was made up,’ Daniels shot back.

Before Donald Trump walked back into the courtroom during break, he was asked by a reporter ‘Mr. Trump, how’s it going in there?’

Trump held his right hand to his mouth responding ‘very well.’

Stormy Daniels cross-examination is paused for short break.

Trump defense attorney Susan Necheles is pressing Stormy Daniels over making money off telling her story about Donald Trump.

Necheles asks while refusing to pay Trump, whether Daniels has been making money off the claim she had sex with Trump?

Daniels responds if she’s talking about the book ‘yes.’

Necheles asks if she’s been doing for more than a decade?

Daniels says she has not been paid for interviews in the United States.

When asked if she has been making money by claiming to have had sex with Trump, Daniels counters she has been making money ‘by telling my story.’

Necheles asks if Daniels that story ‘made you a lot of money, right?’

‘It has also cost me a lot of money,’ Daniels says.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside court:

The cross examination is riveting stuff.

Susan Necheles opened up by asking Stormy Daniels whether she had rehearsed for this moment with prosecution lawyers.

Daniels did not like that line of questioning and bristled.

She sat up straight, jutting her jaw to one side in defiant fashion, as she tried to hit the questions straight back at the questioner.

That set the tone for an increasingly bad tempered encounter as the defense tries to make out that she is a money-grabbing chancer.

There has been a back and forth exchange between defense lawyer Susan Necheles and Stormy Daniels over Daniels being ordered to pay Donald Trump legal fees.

Daniels is being shown a series of tweets she made about Trump.

Necheles points out that Daniels also made fun of Trump’s looks.

‘He made fun of me first,’ Daniels says.

On the screen is a tweet from Daniels where she wrote ‘I don’t owe him s**t and I’ll never give that orange turd a dime’

The fees owed are in connection to Daniels’ failed defamation lawsuit against Trump.

When Necheles questions whether Trump won the case, Daniels counters ‘he prevailed, I was not found to have lost.’

In cross-examination, defense lawyer Susan Necheles asks if Stormy Daniels hates Donald Trump.

‘Yes,’ Daniels says.

She says she wants Trump to be ‘held accountable.’

In the courtroom sketch below, Daniels recreates the pose she testified Trump did while he was on the hotel bed in 2006. ‘Like this’ Daniels said as she raised her right leg in the air, exposing some of her calf and put her left arm behind her head, as she demonstrated Trump’s pose:

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger wraps up questioning Stormy Daniels.

Daniels is now being cross-examined by Trump defense attorney Susan Necheles.

Stormy Daniels is being asked a series of questions about getting out of her NDA in 2018, working with lawyer Michael Avenatti and telling her own story.

She says she hired Avenatti to try and get out of the NDA so she could ‘stick up’ for herself.

She goes on to discuss writing her book ‘Full Disclosure’ and interviews she has done since incuding going on Michael Cohen’s podcast.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside court:

Trump is leaning back in his seat. Eyes closed. So is he asleep?

He scratches his neck. Eyes still closed.

He looks comfortable and it is warm in the courtroom.

He opens his eyes a crack. And then closes them again.

He leans his head to the left, and then back to the right, all without opening his eyes.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside court:

The mistrial move was a reminder of just how wild Stormy Daniels’ testimony was this morning.

Judge, court reporter and prosecutor all had to ask her to slow down at times. And Judge Juan Merchan told her several times to answer only the questions she was asked as she embarked on asides and diversions.

Most notably, she seemed to have no recollection of how she ended up half undressed on the bed, something very different to the account of a consensual affair she was trying to sell in 2016.

So it was no surprise that the defense moved for a mistrial, on the grounds that her testimony would poison the jury againt their client. This is what defenses do. And it was no real surprise either that Judge Juan Merchan said there insufficient grounds for a mistrial.

Stormy Daniels is testifying about the Wall Street Journal planning to write an article on her being paid$130,000 to keep quiet in early 2018.

She says she did not comment when asked for one. She noted that she had a non-disclosure agreement.

The jury is shown a statement denying a romantic affair that was signed by Stormy Daniels and dated January 10, 2018.

The article came out on January 12, 2018.

Daniels says it was ‘chaos.’ She says it ‘blew my cover,’ and they were ostracized.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is taking Stormy Daniels through the settlement agreement she signed in October 2016.

The jury is seeing the documents which includes the names Peggy Peterson and David Dennison

It indicates Peterson is Stephanie Clifford and David Dennison is Donald Trump.

It’s dated October 28, 2016.

Before testimony resumed with porn stara Stormy Daniels prosecutor Susan Hoffinger stepped out of the court to speak with her before the jury came back in.

Judge Merchan said that Hoffinger was speaking to Daniels to ensure she was ‘focused on the question and does not provide any unnecessary narrative.’

Judge Merchan says he does not believe they are at the point where a mistrial is warranted.

However, Merchan says of Stormy Daniels testimony ‘there were probably things that were better left unsaid.

Merchan adds ‘I think the witness was a little difficult to control.’

He says the questioning was ‘not easy.’

The judge adds that he does think there were guardrails in place.

‘I’m not dismissing what you’re saying’ he tells Blanche, but he goes on ‘I don’t believe we’re at the point where a mistrial is warranted.’

Merchan says he was surprised there were not more objections from the defense.

‘In fact, at one point the court objected because there was no objection coming from the defense,’ Merchan says.

He adds that a remedy is cross-examination.

The former president is back from lunch and in the courtroom talking with his lead attorney Todd Blanche.

He is making hand gestures while they chat.

Trump had to spend the morning listening to lurid allegations from Stormy Daniels which he has vehemently denied.

It included her very detailed recollection of the sexual encounter she claims they had in a Nevada hotel room in 2006.

His civil attorney Alina Habba and trial attorney Emil Bove follow him into the courtroom.

Donald Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche moves for a mistrial.

Blanche is slamming the testimony of porn star Stormy Daniels. He mentions her testimony on blacking out, not wearing a condom, the power dynamic.

He says all of this has nothing to do with the case and is ‘extraordinarily prejudicial.’

Blanche questions how you can unring the bell?

He says her testimony has nothing to do with the reason they’re in court.

‘How can we come back from this in a way that is fair to President Trump?’ Blanche says.

He says they do believe ‘regrettably’ there should be a mistrial and if there is a new trial Stormy Daniels be excluded.

There has long been speculation that Stormy Daniels used a copy of the highly respected financial magazine Forbes to spank Trump.

Today, she testified that the magazine in quesion had Trump’s face on the cover and she ‘swatted him right on the butt’ with it.

In 2006, when the alleged encounter took place, Forbes published an issue called the ‘400 Richest People in America’

The cover indeed showed Trump, his daughter Ivanka and son Don Jr, and several other wealthy individuals including Warren Buffett.

The claim that this issue was used to spank Trump was spread by late night comedy shows and news reports.

However, the author of the Forbes story has disputed this.

They pointed out that the ‘spanking’ is alleged to have taken place in July 2006.

But the issue was not published until several months later.

In a further twist, though, Daniels testified that she used a financial mgazine that had not come out yet.

That indicated Trump could have had an early copy of the issue.

Trump himself clearly disputes that anything Daniels described took place.

As she recounted her story on the witness stand he shook his head.

The agreement signed by Stormy Daniels is being shown in court.

She confirms signing the agreement as Peggy Peterson.

Daniels recalls the payment being late and Michael Cohen making excuses to her lawyer Keith Davidson.

Stormy Daniels says she became aware in October 2016 that Donald Trump wanted to buy her story.

Daniels says it was after the Access Hollywood tape came out that she became aware Trump and Michael Cohen wanted to buy it.

Daniels says it would be for $130,000.

She testifies she didn’t care about the amount of money, and it was ‘just to get it done.’

Daniels said that she wanted it signed and sealed before the election because she was worried Trump ‘wouldn’t pay.’

Stormy Daniels testifies about being threatened in a parking lot in Las Vegas in June 2011.

It happened in the parking lot of the shopping center where she went to mommy and me workouts with her daughter who was ain infant.

She says a man approached her and threatened her not to continue to tell her story about her encounter with Donald Trump.

Daniels testifies that she did not tell police because ‘he told me not to say anything and I was scared.’

She did not want more of the story coming out. She says the father of her daughter was struggling with his own personal issues at the time.

Daniels says she was concerned telling him she had sex with Trump when his world was exploding would not have been good.

Daniels told the court how she ended up doing an interview with In Touch magazine about Trump, but it never ran.

She told the court she was supposed to be paid $15,000 for the article in 2011 that was never published.

Here is the exchange between Daniels’ publicist Gina Rodriguez and National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard about InTouch.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside court:

Trump’s view of Stormy Daniels in the courtroom is largely obscured by the judge’s dais.

When Daniels was asked to identify him in the courtroom, she had to lean forward and twist to her right in order to see him.

For his part, Trump looks to be watching her testimony on the video monitor in front of him, in what is a very ‘Trumpy’ way to observe your own trial.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside court:

Stormy Daniels has said multiple times that Trump never asked her to keep their encounter or subsequent meetings secret.

‘Absolutely not,’ she said when asked by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger.

This is part of the case prosecutors are making, that Trump only wanted her silence when he was under fire in the final stages of the 2016 election.

His defense is that he wasn’t worried about the election, but wanted to protect his family from the allegations of an affair.

Stormy Daniels is testifying about seeing Donald Trump in Los Angeles when he invited her to his bungalow in 2007 for the launch of ‘Trump Vodka.’

Daniels says that Trump ‘kept trying to make sexual advances.’

Daniels says ‘I told him I was on my period.’

She says it lasted about two hours.

She says at no time did Trump tell her to keep it confidential.

Trump later called to say he had been ‘overruled by some high-up’s wife’ that she couldn’t come on The Apprentice.

Stormy Daniels testifies about visiting Donald Trump at Trump Tower.

It happened in March 2007.

Daniels testifies it was a ‘very brief’ meeting with Trump.

She was dancing at a club and wanted to get him to come to the club, but he didn’t and asked her to his office.

Stormy Daniels is talking us through the moment she came out of hotel suite’s bathroom to find Trump is just his boxer shorts and T-shirt on the bed, ‘like this,’ she says, pulling up her left leg and stretching her right arm behind her in a seductive pose.

She is deploying all her acting skills.

Next she is asked ‘very briefly’ to describe having sex with Trump.

She describes being on the bed without most of her clothes and her shoes, in the ‘missionary position’ she says – immediately raising an objection from the defense.

There has been a legal back and forth about how much detail can be included, with the prosecution told to limit discussion of the intercourse.

‘Was he wearing a condom?’ asked prosecutor Susan Hoffinger.

‘No.’

She recalls it being brief.

Daniels remembers getting dressed and that it was ‘absolutely dark outside.’

She testifies that her hands were shaking so hard she was having a hard time with the buckles on her shoes.

Danies recalls Trump suggesting they get together again and calling her ‘honey bunch.’

She says she just wanted to leave.

The prosecutor asks and Daniels says she did not say no at any time.

‘I didn’t say anything at all,’ Daniels says.

She remembers taking a cab back.

‘I felt ashamed that I didn’t stop it, that I didn’t say no,’ Daniels says.

Stormy Daniels recalls having to use the bathroom. She remembers washing her hands and touching up her lipstick and looking in a leather toiletry bag, ‘I did look, I’m not proud of it,’ Daniels says.

Daniels remembers Old Spice and Pert Plus, which she thought was amusing. She also recalls gold tweezers.

She remembers coming out of the bathroom, and Trump being on the bed in boxer shorts and a t-shirt. She says she was startled at first.

She felt the room ‘spun’ in that moment.

‘Oh my god, what did I misread to get here?’ Daniels remembers thinking.

She recalls trying to step around and leave and thinking she put herself in a bad situation.

Daniels remembers Trump standing up between her and the door, but she insists it was ‘not in a threatening manner.’

She remembers Trump saying ‘I thought we were getting somewhere.’

‘”If you wanted to get out of the trailer park,” Daniels remembers Trump stating.

‘I was offended,’ she says.

Daniels says ‘I think I blacked out.’

She says she just does not remember, but she was not drunk or on drugs.

Judge Merchan admonishes the prosecutor and says that the level of detail Stormy Daniels has been going into is unnecessary.

He says when she returns, they should move it along more quickly.

Court is on a short morning recess.

Before the break, porn star Stormy Daniels was giving a detailed account of her dinner with Donald Trump at his hotel in 2006.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside court:

The jury is getting a show today. Stormy Daniels is a very expressive witness, using her hands and face – all nose wrinkles, and pouts, and smiles – to tell her story.

We have heard about ‘condom mandatory’ porn shoots, how frequently she is tested for STD (once a month in 2006, twice a month now), her ‘blond hair and big boobs, as well as the first meeting with Trump, when she spanked him with a rolled up magazine.

The 12 jurors and the alternates are listening intently, just as poker-faced as they were yesterday when they heard a dry discussion of invoices, checks and ledgers.

Stormy Daniels recalls during their conversation at dinner that Melania Trump was brought up.

‘Yeah very brief,’ Stormy Daniels remembers. She remembers they were looking at pictures and she questioned about his wife?

Daniels remembers Trump saying ‘oh don’t worry about that.’

Trump told her they don’t sleep in the same room, Daniels says.

Stormy Daniels ended up changing her mind after speaking with her publicist about having dinner with Donald Trump.

‘What could possibly go wrong?’ Daniels recalls him saying. The court laughed at that.

Daniels testified that she was not staying at the same hotel as Trump, so she had to travel to his hotel.

Daniels recalled receiving instructions from Trump’s bodyguard Keith.

She remembers calling Trump’s name when she arrived at his hotel suite.

Daniels says Trump was wearing silk pajamas.

‘Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas?’ Daniels recalled joking.

She claims she told Trump to go change. He came back dressed.

Stormy Daniels recalls Donald Trump’s bodyguard ‘Keith’ telling her Trump wanted to meet with her for dinner.

‘F no,’ Daniels recalls as her initial response.

Daniels did exchange contact info with Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller.

The court is shown the contact information saved in her phone as ‘Keith Trump.’

She says she did not know Keith’s last name at the time.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside court:

Stormy Daniels is giving a polished performance.

She has told her life story many times over, about the absent mother, poor neighborhood, erotic dancing, and the transition into adult movies.

She has never told it in a courtroom, surrounded by lawyers and in front of a jury.

She is talking very fast, giggling sometimes at the absurdity of it all, occasionally throwing up her hands and once promising to spare the jury the details of her first adult film.

Trump is staring ahead.

At times he appears to be watching her testimony on the monitor in front of him. He closed his eyes at other times, as if to express his disdain at the whole thing.

Stormy Daniels hasn’t looked at him at all.

Stormy Daniels is being questioned about the golf event Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 2006.

She confirms that is where she first met Donald Trump.

‘It was a very brief encounter,’ Daniels recalls.

She says they were all introduced and say hello.

Daniels says she knew Trump was a golfer and had a show she ‘had never seen.’

The below photo was taken when they met at the tournament 18 years ago.

Stormy Daniels says she was 17 when she started exotic dancing.

Someone said she was a dancer too, and Daniels recalls thinking it was the same style as her: ‘ballet, modern, tap.’ But it was exotic dancing.

She recalls going to the club to watch. No one asked her for ID, so she started dancing on weekends.

Daniels is being questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger. The testimony started with her talking about her upbringing in Louisiana.

Daniels is speaking quickly and appears nervous on the stand.

Trump is not reacting, just starting ahead as Stormy started her testimony.

According to reporters in the room, it appeared as though he’s nearly nodding off.

She walked into court dressed in all black. Her glasses were perched on top of her head and her hair is dyed blonde with dark black streaks.

From Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior Political Reporter inside court

Stormy Daniels is called to the witness stand.

She is dressed in a black suit includng a dress and jacket.

Daniels has her hair which is blonde with black streaks is pulled up on her head. Her glasses were also perched atop her head.

Sally Franklin’s testimony has wrapped up.

Porn star Stormy Daniels is expected to be the second witness of the day.

Trump is surrounded by some of his closest staff in court today, as Stormy Daniels is expected to take the stand.

Prosecutor is asking Franklin about the use of ghostwriters in redirect.

Franklin is being asked to read several excerpts from Trump’s books including an acknowledgment of ghostwriter Meredith McIver.

She also reads an excerpt from Trump about the importance of signing his own checks.

Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is now questioning Sally Franklin, a senior vice president at Penguin Random House.

Blanche is trying to distance Trump from his own books and suggested ghostwriter Meredith McIver had a larger role than him.

Blanche asks about the experiences of a ‘secondary author’ to help the ‘primary author.’

Franklin says she didn’t know what role McIver had in both books. She says all she knows is that McIver helped the ‘primary author in some way.’

Blanche also asks about who designs the cover.

From Rob Crilly, Senior Political Reporter inside court

The first witness of the day is an executive from Penguin Random House. Sally Franklin is what is known as a ‘custodial’ witness.

Her role is to help the prosecution enter two of Trump’s books, ‘How to Get Rich’ and ‘How to Think like a Billionaire,’ into evidence.

The prosecution is clearly trying to use Trump’s own words against him. Just as we heard about Trump’s tweets and Truth Social posts last week, today we have heard several passages that help prosecutors make their case that he was involved in the hush money payments.

So the excerpts we have heard set out, in his own words, how he keeps across all the details of his business, such as the checks and invoices that are at the heart of this case.

Trump appears to be enjoying the focus on his books. He looks like he is sharing jokes with his lawyers.

Sally Franklin is a senior vice president for Penguin Random House.

Trump’s lawyer Susan Necheles started the day in court to objecting to porn star Stormy Daniels testifying about her alleged sexual act with Donald Trump.

‘We want to renew our objection to  the second witness, Stormy Daniels, in particular to her testifying about any details of a sexual act,’ Necheles said.

She said that it is ‘irrelevant’ and ‘unduly prejudicial’ and there would be no reason for it to be coming in.’

Judge Juan Merchan asked what she meant by ‘details of a sexual act’ questioning ‘what do you mean, more than just “we had sex?”’

Necheles said yes.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said the judge had placed limits on the testimony of Karen McDougal and Dino Sadujin – other witnesses in case – but not Daniels.

Hoffinger said that describing the sex ‘completes the story of the events that precipitated the payoff before the election.’

She said: ‘The details of the encounter are important.’

‘We don’t need to know the details,’ Judge Merchan said, but he will allow it to be mentioned in her testimony.

Trump looks out into the public gallery as if he’s trying to spot someone. Unusual behavior for him.

He stood staring at the press benches for a while, as if sizing up the crowd for what will likely be a big day

Normally he just slumps in his chair.

Susan Necheles is to Trump’s right, meaning she is likely to cross examine Stormy.

His son Eric is sat behind him alongside one of his attorneys, Alina Habba.

Trump is smiling and whispering in Necheles’ ear.

He’s wearing a gold tie and a navy suit.

Donald Trump has arrived at the Manhattan criminal court and is speaking outside the courtroom.

The ex-president slammed the trial claiming they have no case.

He also discussed the payments to his former lawyer Michael Cohen calling them ‘legal expenses.’

He was joined by his lawyer Todd Blanche.

Prosecutors have arrived in the courtroom ahead of the start of Day 13 of the trial.

Donald Trump threatened to put a celebrity publicist out of business if she helped Stormy Daniels sell her story in 2012, according to messages entered into court evidence this week.

The bombshell claims come in instant messages between Gina Rodriguez and National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard.

At the time of their exchange, interest in Trump had reached fever pitch.

He was the clear frontrunner for the 2016 Republican nomination and Howard’s then boss last week explained how he had agreed to hunt out negative stories in what prosecutors claim was a ‘catch and kill’ agreement to help his campaign.

‘I also had Donald Trump call my office 4 years ago when Stormy Daniels was going to do the Trump mistress story,’ Rodriguez wrote in April 2016.

‘He threatened that I would never do business again in entertainment.’

Donald Trump has departed Trump Tower in his motorcade.

He is expected at the Manhattan criminal court this morning where Stormy Daniels is expected to take the stand in the hush money case.

Before leaving, the ex-president paused to wave to onlookers before climbing into a vehicle.

Stormy Daniels first rose to fame outside the adult film industry for her alleged affair with former president Donald Trump.

She claimed that Trump had paid her a $130,000 ‘hush money’ payment to keep quiet about their sexual encounter in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Following New York prosecutors’ investigations into the payment, a grand jury in March 2023 indicted Trump on charges linked to business and fraud.

While Trump vehemently denies having sex with Daniels, Trump admitted in 2018 that he authorized the payment to Ms Daniels. He said on Twitter that he paid his lawyer Michael Cohen a ‘monthly retainer’ to stop the ‘false accusations’ made by Daniels after denying knowledge of any payment for years.

Donald Trump has now deleted a Truth Social post he had put up earlir this morning claims he had been told the identity of today’s witness.

In the post, he had called calling the witness ‘unprecedented.’

The former president also risked violating the gag order again. He has already been found in contempt for violating gag order ten times.

An attorney for Stormy Daniels says the porn actor will appear as a witness in Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Tuesday.

Clark Brewster tells The Associated Press that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is ‘likely’ to be called as a witness in the trial on Tuesday.

Judge Merchan ruled that Stormy will be able to testify about ‘sexual acts’ with Trump during her time on the stand.

It sets up a dramatic moment in the court later today once she enters the courtroom.

Trump prosecutor Susan Hoffinger told the judge that there would be ‘no descriptions of genitalia or anything.’

‘But it’s important to us to elicit that she had sex with him, and how she felt about it.’

Donald Trump claims he has just been told the identity of today’s witness and claimed his lawyers have been given ‘no time to prepare’.

‘This is unprecedented,’ he railed on Truth Social before deleting the post.

The former president also risked violating the gag order again.

‘No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way. He is CROOKED & HIGHLY CONFLICTED, even taking away my First Amendment Rights.

‘Now he’s threatening me with JAIL, & THEY HAVE NO CASE – This according to virtually all Legal Scholars & Experts! Why isn’t the Fake News Media reporting his Conflict?’

Prosecutors in Trump’s hush money case told Judge Merchan they could wrap their case two weeks from tomorrow.

That would mean the prosecution rests May 21. Merchan said he would not hold them to it.

Trump decried that it’s a ‘political witch hunt’ and a ploy to keep him off the election trail for another few weeks.

A fired-up Trump spoke to reporters before departing the courthouse.

Trump railed against the latest gag order violation handed down today by Judge Merchan against him.

He was threatened with serving jail time and has to pay $10,000 in fines for speaking out about the jury, witnesses and the judge.

But it didn’t seem to bother the former president, who told reporters as he departed court that he’d be willing to serve time to protect the First Amendment.

‘I have to watch every word I tell you people,’ he lamented.

‘Yes, we have questions, a simple question – I’d like to give it but I can’t talk about it because this judge has given me a gag order and said you’ll go to jail if you violate.’

‘And frankly, you know what, our Constitution is much more important than jail. It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day.’

Witnesses walked prosecutors step by step through the payments to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen from the Trump Organization on Monday as the prosecution laid out its paper trail in the hush money case against Donald Trump.

Two longtime employees of the Trump Organization were called to the stand to testify in the case: Jeff McConney, a former controller who retired last year as well as Deborah Tarasoff who works in accounting and issued checks.

During McConney’s testimony, the jury was shown a series of documents including invoices, checks, spreadsheets and handwritten notes as the witness walked through how Cohen was ‘reimbursed’ for the alleged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

In total, McConney testified that Cohen was paid $420,000 including money from Trump’s revocable trust and then from his personal account.

McConney recalled a conversation he had with Allen Weisselberg, who was chief financial officer of the Trump Organization about owing Cohen money.

Donald Trump returns to the hush money trial on Tuesday after the judge warned he faces jail if he violates the gag order again.

The former president was found in contempt of court and fined $1,000 by Judge Juan Merchan who admonished him for a ‘direct attack on the rule of law’.

The 77-year-old was warned he could face a stint behind bars he continues flouting the laws of the court.

Trump ended his day in court by suggesting he’s willing to go to jail to keep railing against his case.

Trump complained about the gag order that bars him from talking about jurors, witnesses and some others connected to the trial, telling reporters: ‘I have to watch every word I tell you people … because this judge has given me a gag order and said you’ll go to jail if you violate it.’

‘And frankly, you know what? Our Constitution is much more important than jail,’ he went on. “It’s not even close. I’ll do that sacrifice any day.”