MANHATTAN (CN) — Stormy Daniels returned to a New York City court on Thursday to ward off arguments from Donald Trump’s lawyers that she was a vindictive opportunist willing to lie to make a quick buck or hurt Trump’s image.
The former adult film star’s presence brought even more buzz than usual to New York County Supreme Courthouse, the Empire State's trial court and the stage for Trump’s ongoing criminal trial.
Seated in the completely full courtroom on Thursday was U.S. Senator Rick Scott, seemingly as a show of support from one of Trump’s Republican allies.
On the witness stand for a second straight trial day was Daniels, who fended off attacks from Trump’s attorneys about her past as an exotic dancer and adult film actress. Daniels says she had sex with Trump after meeting him at a golf tournament in 2006.
Defense attorneys used Daniels’ career to attempt to poke holes in that story.
“You have a lot of experience in making phony stories about sex appear to be real, right?” asked Susan Necheles, one of Trump’s lawyers.
“That’s not how I would put it,” Daniels replied. “The sex in those films, it’s very much real, just like what happened to me in that room.”
Trump stared forward, eyebrows furrowed.
Daniels previously testified that during her 2006 meeting with Trump, she was surprised to emerge from the bathroom of his hotel room to find that he had stripped down to his underwear and was lying in bed. Daniels said that she never had intended to have sex with him that day, and the incident left her shocked and disoriented.
“At first, I was just startled, like a jump scare,” she said Tuesday. “I wasn’t expecting someone to be there, especially minus a lot of clothing. That’s when I had that moment where I felt the room spin in slow motion.”
Necheles on Thursday asked Daniels why she was so surprised at the incident, considering she had seen plenty of naked men and women shooting adult films and this was “not the first time” someone had made a pass at her.
“You were so upset that he wanted to have sex with you that you couldn't speak up?” Necheles asked.
Daniels described Trump as “twice my age and bigger than me,” but reiterated that she has never claimed Trump threatened her. She had sex with him, she said, because of “my own insecurities.”
“I have maintained that he did not put his hands on me,” Daniels said. “I have said that. I was not physically threatened or drugged or drunk.”
Necheles continued to interrogate Daniels on claims that she was merely looking to get paid by fabricating a story to sell to the media. She added that Daniels was looking to hurt Trump’s campaign because of his “opposition to abortion and gay marriage.”
Daniels denied that, holding firm that her story about Trump was true and not a cash grab.
“If that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better,” Daniels said.
Throughout Daniels’ testimony on Thursday, the former president alternated between leaning back, eyes shut, and hunching forward with a focused glare. Earlier this week, Trump was muttering and visibly reacting as Daniels spoke — behavior the judge addressed with Trump’s lawyers during a private sidebar.
“I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually and that’s contemptuous,” New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said Tuesday, according to court transcripts. “It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that.”
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