‘I swatted him right on the butt’: Key takeaways from ‘honeybunch’ Stormy Daniels’ testimony at Trump trial
Stormy Daniels’ hotly anticipated testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial finally got under way in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday, with the adult film star revealing intimate details about the alleged affair at the heart of the case.
The Manhattan jurors and Mr Trump alike sat, rapt, listening as she testified about how her meeting with the then-60-year-old real estate mogul at a celebrity golf tournament turned sexual.
Her testimony was so detailed — providing comments about everything from what the floor tiles looked like to Mr Trump’s Hugh Hefner-like pajamas — that the judge warned her to stop including any “unnecessary narrative.”
In the afternoon, the defense team also took issue with Ms Daniels’ testimony, calling for a mistrial. The judge denied the request.
For almost four hours on the 13th day of his hush money trial, Mr Trump was forced to listen to her memory of the romantic liaison that ultimately led to his alleged criminal activity.
The former president is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to Ms Daniels before the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her keeping quiet over their alleged 2006 affair.
Here are the key takeaways from the dramatic day in court:
Ms Daniels told the court how she met Mr Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2006 and, after the day’s event, she was invited to dinner with him.
She testified that she had been given “specific instructions to take a certain elevator to the penthouse” suite in the hotel where he was staying.
There, Mr Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller was standing outside. “Have a nice evening, you look nice,” Mr Schiller said, according to her testimony.
She walked inside and waited in