Explicit testimony from porn actress Stormy Daniels embarrasses Donald Trump

On Thursday, porn actress Stormy Daniels will appear in court again in the hush money affair against ex-president Donald Trump. During her first testimony earlier this week, in which she very explicitly exposed Trump’s private life, the presidential candidate was visibly humiliated.

Neither Stephanie Clifford nor Donald Trump could have predicted that their 2006 sexual escapade would ever become anything other than fleeting. She, a 27-year-old porn actress and stripper, was making waves in the adult entertainment industry under the name Stormy Daniels. He, then 60, was the star of his own reality show “The Apprentice.”

Two decades later, that nighttime meeting in a hotel on the shores of Lake Tahoe is the focus of the first ever criminal case against a former American president. Trump must answer in New York court for the $130,000 (121,000 euros) in hush money paid to Daniels in 2016 to keep the affair quiet.

After about ten days filled with accounting testimony about how exactly the payment of the hush money happened, it was up to 45-year-old Daniels on Tuesday to appear before the twelve-member jury.

Somewhat nervously, she told how she grew up in poverty in Louisiana and how she ended up in the porn industry. She described her first meeting with Trump and how, after initially refusing, she was invited to dinner with Trump at a hotel. She then explained how she ended up in his bedroom and revealed a host of salient details about that evening, from satin pajamas to sex positions.

On Thursday morning, Daniels is scheduled to return to the witness stand for a second time. It will be a challenge for both Trump and Daniels to keep a cool head. Trump incurred the wrath of Judge Juan Merchan by swearing audibly and shaking his head during Daniel’s explicit testimony.

But Merchan also had to blow the whistle on Daniels several times because she went into too much detail during her interrogation. Yet he did not agree to Trump’s lawyers’ demand that the trial be quashed. He did admit that ‘some things are better left unsaid’.

After all, the lawsuit is not about whether Trump and Daniels had sex – something Trump has denied for years – but about the hush money, paid at the time by Michael Cohen, Trump’s then personal lawyer and fixer.

Such a payment in itself is not illegal. But prosecutors accuse Trump of falsifying his accounting to cover up the payment, which took place just before the 2016 election, to deceive voters. That is a violation of campaign law. Trump is being prosecuted for a total of 34 criminal offences.

It is not clear how much damage Daniels’ testimony is doing to Trump’s image and campaign. According to American media, Trump looked exceptionally humiliated during the three hours and 45 minutes of testimony. “He could see how much damage she was doing,” CNN reported.

The hush money affair is just one of the many lawsuits hanging over Trump’s head, but its importance is great. It is probably the only matter that will be decided before the American elections on November 5. If convicted, Trump would still be allowed to participate in the elections, but according to polls, his popularity with voters would plummet.

Due to the tangle of lawsuits, Trump also has little time and money to campaign. In addition to a fraud case in New York, which saddled Trump with a fine of almost half a billion dollars, he also had to pay a bail of $ 92 million to be able to appeal a civil case involving defamation of E. Jean Carroll, a writer whom he allegedly sexually abused.

On top of that there are another 91 charges in four criminal cases. In addition to the hush money case with Daniels, it concerns the attempts to reverse his defeat in the presidential election against Joe Biden in 2020 and the withholding of state documents.

One of those criminal cases related to the withholding of classified documents was postponed until further notice on Wednesday by Judge Aileen Cannon – who was appointed by Trump – in Florida. The substantive hearing of the case was initially scheduled for May 20. But that date is no longer feasible in light of the many motions filed in the run-up to the trial, Cannon ruled.

However, the judge has scheduled hearings in preparation for the trial, which will last until July 22. According to observers, the chance that the trial will take place before the presidential elections has become very small.