Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star and director who performs under the name Stormy Daniels, took the stand in Donald Trump’s ‘hush-money’ trial in Manhattan today, vividly describing the sexual encounter between them in 2006.
Unlike with previous witnesses, where Trump has seemed tired or disengaged, the former president paid close attention to Daniels’s testimony, according to reporters in the courtroom.
The trial centres on payments that Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to Daniels in 2016, allegedly on Trump’s behalf, that total up to $130,000. That money, the prosecution alleges, was intended to buy Daniels’s silence about having sexual intercourse with Trump ten years earlier, when his third wife Melania had just given birth to their son Barron. The prosecution hopes to prove that the payments to Daniels constitute a felony rather than a misdemeanour by showing that they were intended to cover up another crime.
Get Britain's best politics newsletters
Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in