Love him or loathe him, Donald Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence and a fair trial, not the sleazy scene that New York prosecutors produced Tuesday after calling Stormy Daniels to the witness stand. What the jurors thought of her detailed account, to use a euphemism, is anyone’s guess. But the judge denied a mistrial on grounds of prejudicial testimony, and now Mr. Trump will surely add this to his reasons for appeal if convicted.
As a refresher on the facts, Ms. Daniels has said she and Mr. Trump had sex once in 2006. Mr. Trump denies it. But his fixer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to keep Ms. Daniels quiet before the 2016 election. Now Mr. Trump stands accused of falsifying business records to conceal his reimbursement to Mr. Cohen. The ostensible point of putting Ms. Daniels on the stand is for prosecutors to show the jury she’s credible, and that Mr. Trump would be highly motivated to cover it all up.
Her testimony was never going to reflect well on Mr. Trump, but the level of irrelevant detail prosecutors coaxed out of Ms. Daniels was egregious. Her recollection of what happened in Mr. Trump’s hotel room that day was almost a play by play: where, how, what articles of clothing were on and off. The jury doesn’t require the salacious details of an alleged extramarital affair two decades ago.
Then there were Ms. Daniels’s insinuations of coercion. She told “60 Minutes” in 2018 that she wasn’t attracted to Mr. Trump and didn’t want to have sex with him, but she “didn’t say no” and agreed it was entirely consensual. In her book, she called it “an out-of-body experience.” On Tuesday she testified to the jury that Mr. Trump stood up between her and the door, blocking the way, and she “blacked out,” despite not consuming drugs or alcohol.
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Author: Ruth King
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