Trump trial live: Stormy Daniels to return to witness stand for cross-examination on hush money testimony

Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial will resume at Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday following Wednesday’s recess, with the porn star Stormy Daniels expected to return to the witness stand to face more cross-examination from the defendant’s lawyers.

Ms Daniels appeared on Tuesday to regale jurors with her account of how she met Mr Trump, the infamous sexual encounter she says they had in July 2006 and the events leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

After lunch on Tuesday, the defence moved for a mistrial citing Ms Daniels’ “prejudicial” evidence, which was denied by Judge Juan Merchan.

As cross-examination began, the witness was confronted about whether she “hates” Mr Trump and wants to see him in jail – to which she replied she wants to see him held accountable for his actions.

Elsewhere, Mr Trump spent his day off from court hosting an event at Mar-a-Lago for people who bought his superhero NFTs, rather than hitting the campaign trail, and attacked Joe Biden on Truth Social over escalating events in the Middle East, once again insisting the war in Gaza would never have happened if he had remained president.

Alex Woodward is covering Mr Trump’s trial in Manhattan and will be providing regular updates on proceedings.

Presumably, he’ll be catching up on sleep in court today...

James Liddell reports:

Donald Trump has branded Paul Ryan, as the “most incompetent” speaker of the House of Representatives in US history after Mr Ryan said that Trump won’t get his vote in this year’s presidential election.

Mr Ryan, 54, doubled-down on his belief that Trump is the wrong choice of canditate for the Republicans, stating he has no interest in giving him another shot in the White House, as Trump gets set for a