New #TrumpTrial #Trump #legal 🧵starts HERE.
-
New #TrumpTrial #Trump #legal 🧵starts HERE.
REMEMBER: I can’t/won’t reply while live-posting. Please use NFL (Not For Laffy) so I can skip your reply, but NO hashtag on that. Thx.
Picking up after my "mistrial" thread/ 1/...
All via McB for awhile:
Counsel approaches, brief sidebar
"Binoculars down."
As I mentioned, courtroom rules strictly enforced. During sidebar, court security doesn't allow reporters to use binoculars they had brought to see exhibits and facial expressions better
-
2/ McB:
Hoffinger has stepped out to give the witness, Daniels, instructions to keep her answers limited to the question "and not provide any unnecessary narrative," Merchan says.
It may be difficult to tell from reading the transcript, but Justice Merchan did seem to take the mistrial motion seriously at the hearing just now, even if he ultimately denied it.
-
3/ Hoffinger returns, and Daniels follows a minute later.
"Good afternoon Ms. Daniels, I remind you that you're still under oath," Merchan says. "Let's get the jury please.
The jury present and properly seated, Hoffinger steps back up to the lectern, and we continue.
We pick back up with the delays in payment in the deal with Cohen and Trump. She displays People's Exhibit 282—an email from Davidson to Cohen, saying that no funds have been received
-
4/ Davidson goes on to say that Daniels intended to cancel the settlement agreement if no funds had been received.
At this time, Daniels says she had spoken to a news outlet, Slate, about this story, but that Slate was not going to pay her for it.
But on around 10/28/16, the NDA was revived. The terms were essentially the same as the 10/10/16 NDA, Daniels says, including the $1m breach liquidated damages clause.
-
5/
At some point after signing this, Davidson received the $130k, Daniels says. After fees for Davidson and Rodriguez, Daniels ended up with ~$96k.
Hoffinger displays the WSJ article abt the McDougal deal, and Daniels says that she did not respond to WSJ's request for comment for itQ: Why didn't you comment?
A: Because I had an NDA.
Q: And was Trump elected president 4 days after this came out?
A: Yes -
6/ Hoffinger fast forwards to 2017, "probably my best year ever," Daniels says.
She directed one of the highest budget adult films ever, a horse she purchased in Ireland was ranked 8th in the country, she owned a house in Texas, in short, everything was great.
Now to 1/10/18, WSJ reaches out to Daniels for comment on another article, but still she refused.
-
7/ Hoffinger displays Daniels denial statement that she signed on 1/10/2018.
She says she initially didn't want to sign it, and that she was happy to stay quiet (objection, sustained), and bc it was not true and saying "anything at all" was a violation of the NDA.
But on Davidson's advice, she had agreed and signed it, Daniels says.
-
8 It was not entirely truthful, Hoffinger asks and Daniels agrees, and that it was "cleverly misleading"—another objection, again sustained. Daniels did not know that Cohen was was sending it to WSJ.
After WSJ article from 1/12/18 on Daniels came out—
Q: Briefly, what kind of impact did it have on your life?
A: Chaos. People were on the front lawn, my friends asking questions, my family asking questions. It blew my cover. Ostracized from playdates, the stables, etc. -
-
10/ Still McB:
Q: How did the Kimmel show come about?
A: Gina set it up.
Q: What was to be discussed or not?
A: I wasn't to discuss the relationship or the NDA, anything like that. It was meant to give an example of how I would give appearances and not break the NDA.Shortly before the appearance, Rodriguez and Davidson came to her with a second denial statement, Daniels says, and she initially said no to signing it but relented again on Davidson's advice.
-
11/ Q: How did you sign it?
A: I signed it Stormy Daniels, but not how my Stormy Daniels signature is in any other time I had written it, as a tipoff to Jimmy Kimmel that I did not sign it willingly.
Q: Is this denial statement false?
A: Yes.Daniels says that details about the sexual encounter with Trump started to surface in the media, and that she found out Cohen was shopping a book—objection, hearsay, sustained.
-
12/ Daniels says that she was upset that Cohen had begun to talk about it "because he could talk about it, and I couldn't."
In about Feb 2018, Daniels says that, yes, Cohen filed
a temporary restraining order trying to keep Daniels from talking about what's in the NDA.After she was served with the temporary restraining order, she says that she hired Michael Avenatti to help her get out of the NDA.
Why?
"So that I could stand up for myself."
-
13/ She then went on Anderson Cooper.
Why?
"To get my story out."
Even at the risk of breaching the NDA?
"Yes."
Her legal fees cost just under $100,000, Daniels says, but she was free from the NDA, and so she published a book called Full Disclosure, which included details of the Trump Affair.
Every detail?
"Not every detail, no."
-
15/ All caught up!
McB:
April 2018, Avenatti released a sketch of the man she believes she had an encounter with in 2011—in response to the sketch Trump tweeted that the sketch was a "con job," which became the sole basis for a defamation case, Daniels says.
-
17/ Klasfeld:
Questioning turns to Michael Avenatti tweeting out a sketch of the man he claimed had threatened Stormy Daniels in a parking lot.
Daniels sued — and lost, badly. It was an expensive defeat.
Prosecution is getting ahead of cross-ex.
Details that prosecutor Susan Hoffinger elicited:
* Daniels says Avenatti posted the sketch without her knowledge.
* The court made no findings about the credibility of her claims about Trump.
* She fired Avenatti for cheating her.
-
-
19/ McB:
In July 2023, Trump filed a proceeding in Fla to recover the rest of the legal fees that Daniels was ordered to pay in defamation case. But Hoffinger clarifies that this will have no bearing on this case.
Q: Why did you go on Cohen's podcast?
A: Because I wanted him to apologize to me.
Q: And did he apologize on that podcast?
A: He did.
Q: Why did you agree to go on again?
A: Because we had a good rapport, and he wanted to ask about the Avenatti case. -
20/ McB:
Hoffinger asks Daniels about the documentary, Stormy, that she was in. Daniels was not paid to appear in it, but the producers paid her $100,000 for the licensing rights from her book.
Q: Was there another reason you did it?
A: To get the truth out, and give an updated account.