What The Stormy Daniels Testimony Can Tell Us — And What It Can't

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When Stormy Daniels took the witness stand Tuesday, dressed comfortably in a drapey black sweater, her hair swept back in a claw clip, she masked whatever nerves she felt with a casual, even bubbly demeanor. Her tone was light as she responded to questions from prosecuting attorney Susan Hoffinger about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with former President Donald Trump, who sat just feet away from her in Judge Juan Merchan’s New York City courtroom.

Daniels appeared eager to prove herself a helpful witness for the prosecution. But her testimony was a minefield.

Before she even stepped into the courtroom, Trump’s attorneys implored the judge to put strict limits on what Daniels could say in front of the jury. The former president is accused of falsifying business records in order to conceal a hush money payment to Daniels in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election, to prevent her from telling the world about the alleged sex.

Prosecutors argued that it was important for jurors to hear some of the details Daniels could provide in order to establish her credibility and to understand why Trump might have been motivated to stop her from going public right before the election. After all, the “Access Hollywood” tape had just come out , drawing fire for what was widely seen as inappropriate, even predatory, behavior towards women, and Trump’s campaign appeared to be in rough shape.

Daniels’ story, if made public, would undermine Trump’s claim that his comments on the tape merely represented “locker room talk.” Daniels could show how Trump had acted on his darker impulses around women. The jurors’ ultimate takeaways,