44/ Inner City Press (aka Press) adds:
Daniels: It doesn't say Trump, just orange turd. If you want to interpret it that way...
44/ Inner City Press (aka Press) adds:
Daniels: It doesn't say Trump, just orange turd. If you want to interpret it that way...
45/ Press:
Necheles: I offer your tweet -
Stormy: It's to a suspended account, so I don't know
Prosecutor: I object, your Honor. May we approach?
[Whispered sidebar; at defense table, again, Todd Blanche whispering to Trump]
McB:
"I respond to 100s of tweets like this calling me names," Daniels says about her orange turd response
It's a good reminder that "hundreds" is likely not an exaggeration. Daniels has probably experienced years of constant online harassment, regardless of who started it
46/ Andrew Weissmann:
Notes from 100 Centre St: Stormy presents as wary (understandable as she is on cross), savvy, and generally a careful witness. There is an enormous amount of questioning about a Stormy tweet about an "orange turd"
-- Stormy says it was a joke in response to someone calling her a "human toilet." All exceedingly juvenile and so in keeping with the Trump world we all inhabit here.
47/ McB:
After a sidebar, Necheles resumes
Q: When Trump was indicted, you celebrated on Twitter by pushing merchandise from your store?
A: I tweeted that he was indicted, yes, and people asked how they could support me, so I added the link to my store
We see some of Daniels' said tweets: "Thank you to everyone for your support & love...don't want to spill my champagne 😜 #Teamstory merch/autograph orders are pouring in"
Q: That's you shilling your merchandise, right?
A: That's me doing my job
48/ Weissmann:
Notes from 100 Centre St: Stormy being crossed at selling ("schilling") merchandise on the internet- palpable irony given Trump's hocking everything he can get his hands on that is not nailed down.
👉🏼Stormy says: "not unlike Mr. Trump."⚡️
49/ McB:
Q: In much of the merchandise, you're bragging about how you got Trump indicted?
👉🏼I got Trump indicted? Daniels asks comically.
Necheles displays a "Stormy Saint of Indictments" candle from her store.
"Oh my god," a member of the public says.👈🏼
51/ Klasfeld:
Daniels pushes back again at her merchandising: "I continue to do my job and foot my extraordinary legal bills."
McB:
As we see #TeamStormy shirts, Stormy Daniels comicbooks, and more, I wonder if Daniels is getting a bump in sales this very moment. 👈🏼👍🏼
"Keep in mind I did not write this comic book," Daniels says, as she also clarifies that she didn't make the candle either.
52/ McB:
Necheles asks about two forthcoming books—the autobiographical Rockstar Pornstar and a novel—as well as a TV show fka Spooky Babes, about the paranormal, and she was on a podcast in which she claimed to be able to speak to dead people.
Daniels jokes that a lot of the "paranormal activity" was debunked, in one instance it was just a possum under the house, and the press laughs as Necheles moves to strike and instruct the witness to answer the questions—overruled.
53/ McB:
As Daniels answers questions about tarot cards, paranormal possums, and communing with the dead, I wonder if the jury is beginning to lose the plot. I sure am.
54/ McB:
Necheles asks Daniels about her extensive experience in the adult film industry—
Q: You have a lot of experience in making phony stories about sex appear to be real right?
⚡️A: Wow. The sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room.⚡️
Q: You bragged about being good at writing dialogue & sex scenes in adult films, right?
⚡️"If that story [w Trump] was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better," Daniels quips, delivering it like a punchline⚡️
55/ And winning, IMHO.
Klasfeld:
Observation:
Daniels is a lot more confident, wry, and controlled during this cross-examination than when her testimony first began.
Utterly gone is any trace of her evident nervousness and speed-testimony from Day One.
Facing Trump's attorney, she seems in muted fight-mode.
Daniels lays back diagonally in her chair, looking relaxed and comfortable during the volleys of questions and answers.
56/ McB:
We're back to hotel suite—the black-and-white tile of the floor—& Necheles asks whether that was part of her prep, that she was coached to include details.
A: There's nothing wrong with preparing a witness.
Q: That wasn't my question.
Necheles continues to search for chinks in Daniels' armor, the inconsistencies bw small details in her testimony & her book, saying that she was coached to "match" the details.
I don't need to match details to my book bc that's the story, Daniels says
57/ Phang:
NECHELES: You have acted in more than 200 sex films? DANIELS: Copulation. NECHELES: You directed 150 sex films?
DANIELS: “Give or take”
NECHELES: “You have a lot of experience making phony stories about sex.”
👉🏼DANIELS: “Wow. That’s not how I would put it. The sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room [with Trump].”
58/ Phang:
NECHELES: You memorize these fictional stories and repeating them? DANIELS: The scripts, not the sex. “Pretty sure we all know how to do that.”
NECHELES: And now there is a story you are telling about President Trump? DANIELS: “If that story was untrue, I would’ve written it to be a lot better”. “I didn’t have to write this one.”
DANIELS: “I didn’t make millions of dollars, and I didn’t write this story.”
59/ Phang:
NECHELES: You made money on your tour? Working at strip clubs? The documentary? DANIELS: “I don’t work in sex clubs, I work in strip clubs, there’s a big difference.”
60/ Weissmann:
Stormy says in response to questioning about whether she made up her stories like she does in her sex films: (1) the sex in those films is real like the sex with Trump ("that's why it is porn and not a B movie"), and (2) "if that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better."
61/ McB:
We're jumping around in time, now back to the 2006 Lake Tahoe golf tournament, and Necheles asks whether Daniels met other celebrities, name-checking more athletes: Aaron Rodgers. Drew Brees. Charles Barkely. Big Ben again.
Daniels isn't sure. She's met a lot of celebrities.
62/ McB:
Necheles begins to retrace the steps that led to the hotel suite.
Q: Trump's bodyguard (Keith Schiller) invited you to dinner right, not Trump?
A: Yes.
Q: Your testimony was that you said "fuck no," but you gave Schiller your phone # anyway.
A: Yes.
Necheles seizes on more inconsistencies: isn't this is a totally different story from the one you told in 2011? I believe this is about the InTouch magazine phone interview.
63/ McB:
This has been a constant strategy in the cross—pinpoint each time Daniels' story changed, and exploit it.
64/ McB:
"Please allow the witness to answer," Merchan cuts in, as Necheles peppers Daniels with question after question, each picking a different nit in her seemingly conflicting stories.
65/ NOTE: I’m going to break now. Mr. Blowdryer is tapping his watch and glowering.
I’ll catch you up on every detail when I return.
66/ To answer your questions: Mr. Blowdryer is the last thing I conquer. When I take off, I have to, you know, shower first and THEN use Mr. Blowdryer. The fight between Mr. Blowdryer and me is actually not his fault. He tries. It's my hair that gets cranky, Mr. B fights with it, but I always win, because I defy them both and the results are smooth and shiny. Take THAT, Mr. Blowdryer and hair!
67/ Okay, I'll catch us up now. I'll use Katie Phang's more concise posts, and some Weissmann. Phang:
Necheles must tread very carefully. The more she attacks Stormy's credibility on cross and the more she dives into areas of Stormy's interactions with Trump that Stormy was originally limited from going into on Direct Examination, the more fodder for the prosecution on Re-Direct.
It's called "opening the door" and trust me the prosecution is paying close attention to these details right now
68/ Phang:
NECHELES: You testified yesterday that when you were asked to dinner [via Keith Schiller], you said no fucking way. But in your In Touch interview, you said Donald Trump asked you to dinner. DANIELS: Correct.
DANIELS: Like I said, bodyguard/handler is a unit. DANIELS: This is an entertaining version of the events NECHELES: Now you are saying you lied in 2011 OBJECTION-SUSTAINED
69/ Phang:
NECHELES: When you went to hotel room you thought you were going out to dinner? And even though you spent 3 hours you never got dinner? DANIELS: “We never ate” NECHELES: You wrote in your book, plus I was freaking hungry. And you made a point of that in interviews. DANIELS: “It was dinner time, I was hungry, we talked about ordering food, and going down.” And it never happened. DANIELS: “I went to dinner and I didn’t get dinner."
70/ Phang:
NECHELES: Isn’t it correct that Anderson Cooper said to you, "didn't you go out to dinner that night?" You said yes? NECHELES: Anderson said You had dinner in the room? DANIELS: Yes. DANIELS: “I never actually got my food… that has not changed.” NECHELES: When you said to Anderson Cooper you said you had dinner in the room? DANIELS: “We had dinnertime in the room” NECHELES: “Your words don’t mean what they say, do they?” OBJECTION-SUSTAINED
71/ NECHELES: You’ve acted and had sex in over 250 porn movies DANIELS: 150ish, yeah. NECHELES: & there are naked men & naked women having sex in those movies. & acc to you seeing a man in a t-shirt/boxers was so offending that you got lightheaded,nearly fainted?
DANIELS: Yes bc it was Mr. Trump on the bed, an older man sitting there, I was not expecting him to be there. If I came out of the bathroom and it was not my husband, but Mr. Trump instead, I would probably have the same reaction
72/ Phang:
NECHELES: “Because he was supposedly in a t-shirt and boxer shorts, you were so upset that he wanted to have sex with you, that you couldn’t speak up…? Not the first time in your life someone made a pass at you...
👉🏼👉🏼DANIELS: This was the first time that they had a bodyguard outside the door. And “They were twice my age and bigger than me.”
73/ Phang:
Necheles continues to cross Daniels on minor inconsistencies in her testimony and her prior tellings of what happened with Trump, incl. in the In Touch magazine interview.
NECHELES: “Your story has completely changed, hasn't it.” DANIELS: “No not at all, you’re trying to make me say that it has changed, but it hasn’t changed.”
Jury is on a brief morning recess.
74/ Katie's Sidebar:
IMO it was a bad defense strategy to try to "slut-shame" Stormy Daniels today on cross for her professional choices. Directly accusing her of being a liar because she works in the adult film industry was a poor decision.
75/ Phang:
The defense suggests that just because Daniels chooses to be a part of that industry, then she couldn't possibly be offended by a half-naked, "older" man who invited her to dinner, began the evening in satin pajamas, and then stripped his clothes to a t-shirt and boxers when she was in the bathroom.
76/ Phang:
The cross of Stormy Daniels now resumes after the quick morning recess.
NECHELES: “Am I correct that you signed the non disclosure agreement in this case with legal advice?” DANIELS: Correct NECHELES: And you did not negotiate that NDA DANIELS: Not directly NECHELES: “And your lawyer dealt with Michael Cohen” DANIELS: Yes NECHELES: “And Michael Cohen paid you, not mr trump” DANIELS: “My attorney paid me”
77/ Phang:
NECHELES: You understand Pres Trump is charged with a crime based on how it was labeled? 🤭DANIELS: “There are a lot of indictments” (laughter) NECHELES: You changed your story many times because you never had an affair with President Trump OBJECTION-SUSTAINED
The cross is now over.
78/ Weissmann:
Stormy says in response to questioning about whether she made up her stories like she does in her sex films:
(1) the sex in those films is real like the sex with Trump ("that's why it is porn and not a B movie"),
and (2) "if that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better."
79/ Now, via McB:
Necheles goes in for the kill: "Isn't the reason you changed your story many times is because you never had an affair with President Trump, and that you've been making money off that story for 12 years?"
Objection—sustained. Sidebar.
McB: I, for one, will be very much looking forward to reading this sidebar in the transcript later.
80/ McB:
And we're back.
Hoffinger begins redirect: Defense counsel asked you quite a lot of questions yesterday and today as well about whether fear played into you signing the NDA?
Objection—overruled.
Your attorney friend advised you about "hiding in plain view," can you explain that? Hoffinger asks.
81/ McB:
A: it just means that hiding in the open, nothing will happen to you if everyone is watching.
Q: So part of entering into the NDA was to make sure it was all documented?
A: Yes
Hoffinger goes on to clarify why then she also took the money?
👉🏼Well, everyone is happy to take money, Daniels responds, in a relatable tone.
Now we see the texts between Rodriguez and Howard (whom Daniels says she doesn't know) once again.
82/ And I'm all caught up.
McB:
Q: You indicated the InTouch article was a "very light article" for entertainment purposes?
A: Yes.
Hoffinger shows the article to the witness and counsel, especially the very bottom of it, which says: "This interview has been lightly edited."
83/ McB:
Necheles asked you a lot of things that you did and didn't say in 2018, Hoffinger says, you didn't tell every single detail to Anderson Cooper? (No) But you mentioned a lot of details?
Objection, leading—sustained.
Hoffinger tries to introduce an exhibit, but objection, sidebar.
84/ Pagliery's take:
Manhattan DA investigative division chief Susan Hoffinger is speeding through her follow up questions.
She easily points out that the In Touch article included a disclaimer that it was edited for length/clarity.
85/ McB:
We're back, and Merchan says, "Ms Hoffinger, you can clarify to the extent that we discussed, and to that extent only."
Q: Defense asked about certain things you didn't tell Anderson Cooper, but you told him a lot of things didn't you?
Objection—overruled.
86/ McB:
Q: But you did tell him you had sex with Trump, and provide details about the room?
A: I did.
Q: And you said Trump never wanted to keep it confidential?
Objection—please approach.
👉🏼"I'm so hungry," Daniels whispers, sounding bored at this stop-and-go redirect rhythm.
87/ Press:
Hoffinger: You told Anderson Cooper you had sex with Mr. Trump & what happened in the room
Trump's lawyer Necheles: Objection!
Justice Merchan: Overruled. Please approach.
[Side bar, then]
Prosecutor: You told Anderson Cooper a lot
Stormy Daniels: I did
Klasfeld:
As Hoffinger rattles off other consistencies, Necheles continues to object, at one point saying the interview isn't in evidence.
The judge continues to overrule her, until there's a sidebar conference.
88/ McB:
Q: So you did tell Anderson Cooper about your encounter and other encounters with Trump?
A: I did.
Hoffinger shows Daniels' tweet "I'll dance down the street when he's 'selected'"—a reply to a tweet from "Intergalactic Gurl" calling Daniels a "disgusting degenerate prostitute"
The initial tweet to Daniels said: "Good luck walking down the streets after this"—which Daniels took to be a threat.
It also went on to say that no wonder the father of Daniels' daughter had left her.
90/ McB:
Hoffinger points out that for each of these tweets, Necheles never asked about the initial tweet, only Daniels' replies.
In another tweet someone calls Daniels and "aging harlet"—these are actually two "tame" examples of the harassment, according to Daniels.
91/ McB:
👉🏼We see Trump's post on Truth Social: "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU"
👉🏼Daniels understood it to be about her, because it was around the time of Trump prevailing in the FL defamation case involving Daniels.
Q: You had nothing to do with the charges in this case, you did not testify to the grand jury?
A: I did not.
👉🏼So far it's been an unfussy, tidy, effective redirect from Hoffinger.
92/ Press:
Prosecutor: You didn't testify to the grand jury in this case, did you?
Trump's lawyer Necheles: Objection!
Justice Merchan: Overruled.
Stormy Daniels: I did not.
Prosecutor: In Mr. Trump's lawyer's papers in 2017 he confirmed Michael Cohen was reimbursed?
A: Yes
93/ Klasfeld:
Q: Have you been telling lies about Mr. Trump or the truth about Mr. Trump?
A: The truth.
94/ Press:
Prosecutor: Has your telling the truth about what happened with Mr. Trump been net positive or net negative in your life?
Trump's lawyer Necheles: Objection!
Justice Merchan: Overruled.
Stormy Daniels: Net negative.
Prosecutor: Nothing further
95/ McB:
Hoffinger asks Daniels to clarify why this whole ordeal has cost her a lot of money: I've had to hire security, take extra precautions for my daughter, move her to a safe place to live, had to move a couple of times, lost judgment on NDA case and owe attorney's fees
Hoffinger: Has your public telling the truth about Trump been net positive or net negative in your life?
Objection—overruled.
Daniels: Negative.
"Nothing further," says Hoffinger.