Closing summary
The court has now adjourned for the day, and is scheduled to resume at 9.30am ET tomorrow. Here’s a recap of the day’s events:
Donald Trump arrived in court on Thursday morning with the Florida senator Rick Scott among his entourage, part of a parade of supporters who have come to court to back the former president.
Stormy Daniels testified for a second day as the former president’s lawyers sought to undermine her in an attempt to persuade jurors that the case’s key prosecution witness cannot be believed.
Trump attorney Susan Necheles pressed on Daniels’ motivations for agreeing to a hush-money payment, asking her why she didn’t just go public with her story in the waning days of the 2016 campaign and instead sought to get paid for her story.
Necheles seemed to be trying to seed the idea that Daniels was more interested in getting a payout than telling the truth. “You wanted money, right?” Necheles said. Daniels said: “I wanted the truth to come out.”
Necheles tried to poke holes in Daniels’ story about her encounter with Trump, highlighting instances in which she said Daniels’ recollection had changed over the years. Daniels refused to concede any inconsistencies: “You’re trying to make it say that it changed but it hasn’t changed.”
Necheles also suggested that Daniels could make up a good story about having sex with Trump because of her experience in the adult entertainment industry. “If that story was untrue I would have written it to be a lot better,” Daniels fired back.
During redirect examination, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Daniels bluntly if she was telling the truth or lies about Trump. “The truth,” Daniels said. Hoffinger also asked Daniels whether the whole episode had been a net positive or net negative on her life. “Negative,” Daniels said.
Trump Organization bookkeeper Rebecca Manochio testified about sending unsigned checks for Trump to sign at the White House for his personal expenses. She told the jury that Trump and then Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg would speak at least once a day before Trump embarked on his run for president.
Donald Trump’s former personal assistant Madeleine Westerhout was also called as a witness. Westerhout, who was Trump’s personal secretary to Trump from 2017 to 2019 and the former director of Oval Office operations for the Trump White House from February to August 2019, is expected to return to the stand on Friday.
Westerhout worked for the Republican National Committee before going to the White House. She testified that the RNC was rattled by the Access Hollywood tape release and that there were “conversations” about replacing Trump as a presidential candidate.
The jury was shown a list of key contacts that Trump’s assistant at his company, Rhona Graff, put together for Westerhout, containing names including Michael Cohen, Allen Weisselberg, David Pecker, members of the Trump family, Fox News hosts and football legends.
Westerhout broke into tears as she described being fired from the White House after she spoke at an off-the-record dinner with journalists.
Judge Juan Merchan denied the defense’s request to modify the gag order so that Trump be allowed to respond publicly to Daniels’ testimony. Merchan, in denying the request, said his concern “is with protecting the integrity of these proceedings as a whole”.
Merchan also denied the defense’s renewed mistrial motion. Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued that one of Daniels’ answers on the stand was “a dog whistle for rape”. Merchan said Trump’s lawyers had ample opportunities to object to questions that elicited what they say were damaging details about the alleged sexual encounter.
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Judge Juan Merchan just gave a lengthy ruling where he explained why he was denying a mistrial for the second time this week.
Even though lurid details did come in, Trump’s lawyers had essentially opened themselves up to them by denying in their opening statements that Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels ever had sex. Merchan said:
These details add a sense of credibility if the jury chooses to believe them.
Merchan also castigated Trump attorney Susan Necheles, saying “for the life of me” he couldn’t figure out why she didn’t object to questions about whether Trump used a condom.
The testimony came after Merchan had sustained similar objections in Daniels’ testimony. He also noted that Necheles had pressed Daniels on details about the incident after Trump’s team said they were prejudicial, hammering them into the heads of the jury.
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