What you missed on Day 13 of Trump’s hush money trial: Stormy Daniels takes the stand

Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who says she had an affair with Donald Trump, took the witness stand in the former president’s criminal trial Tuesday, providing sometimes graphic testimony about their alleged 2006 tryst in a hotel suite and the efforts to buy her silence in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.

The vivid testimony added another jolt of tabloid sensationalism to proceedings that just a day earlier focused on comparatively mundane topics such as corporate record-keeping and financial reimbursement practices. Trump set the stage in dramatic fashion before anyone even took their seats in the courtroom Tuesday: “I have just recently been told who the witness is today,” he said in a since-deleted social media post. “This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare.”

Daniels, wearing an all-black outfit and black eyeglasses, spoke in a conversational and hurried tone, occasionally looking directly at the jury box as she testified about her humble upbringing, pornography career and relationship with Trump. Judge Juan Merchan repeatedly reminded her to keep her answers short and speak more slowly so the court recorder could keep up.

Trump, brows furrowed, stared straight ahead during most of Daniels’ deeply unflattering testimony and sometimes whispered with his lawyers at the defense table. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to Daniels and denies her claims of an affair. The former president’s lawyers sought to persuade jurors that Daniels was not credible and driven by greed.

Here’s what you missed on Day 13 of the trial:

‘What could possibly go wrong?’

Daniels described a tumultuous childhood and a “neglectful” mother before