Stormy Daniels, porn actress, describes sex with Trump to the court: ‘I was looking at the ceiling, trying to think of something else’ | World

Porn actress Stormy Daniels testified this Tuesday (7) in the criminal trial of former United States President Donald Trump. She is the pivot of the case: the politician is accused of having paid $130,000 to Daniels so that she no revealed, in the final stretch of the 2016 presidential campaign, that the two had had sexual relations ten years earlier, in 2006.

The payment itself is not a crime, but the Public Prosecutor’s Office claims that Trump registered the payment as if it were legal fees, which makes the payment illegitimate. The former president claims that he is innocent, that in 2006 he was already married to Melania and that he never had relations with the porn actress.

She tells a different story. She described the sexual relationship with Trump as follows: “I was looking at the ceiling and I didn’t know how I got there. I was trying to think about anything other than what was happening.”

According to Daniels’ testimony in court in 2006 Trump reportedly told her that having sex with him was the only way she could “stop living in a trailer park.” (In the US, it is common for poor people to live in trailers).

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she is the daughter of a single, low-income mother. She reported that she started working as a striptease dancer and porn actress and that she met Donald Trump at a golf tournament in the state of California.

In 2006, Trump was famous as a real estate entrepreneur and host of the reality show “The Apprentice.”

The meeting was brokered by Trump’s security guard, who invited her to dinner with the businessman. “Not really,” she said. However, after talking to an agent, she said the dinner could make a good story.

When she arrived at her hotel suite, Trump was in his pajamas. She asked him to change, and he accepted. Daniels also said that, in the conversation, she called Trump arrogant and that he doubted she would slap him — and she then slapped him.

In her statement, she said that when she was in the room she had a “blackout” (she stated that she did not consume drugs or alcohol) and that, when she realized it, she was in bed, without clothes.

In her testimony, she stated that Trump did not use a condom, but she did not tell him to stop – in fact, she said that she did not say anything to him – and that she left the hotel room shortly afterwards.

Daniels also said that before leaving the room “it was really difficult to get my shoes because my hands were shaking so much.” She also recalled Trump’s words after the sexual act: “he said, ‘It was great, let’s meet again, honey’. I just wanted to leave.”

According to the Associated Press, the porn actress also gave evidence in her testimony that she felt intimidated while in that situation with Trump. She said she did not feel physically or verbally threatened, but knew his bodyguard was outside the room and found herself in a power imbalance: Trump “was bigger and blocked the way.”

Trump did not react during Daniels’ testimony. His defenders claim that she wanted a place on the TV show “The Apprentice”.

Trump’s legal team had asked that Daniels be banned from describing her relationship with Trump. The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, allowed the description, but said he could not give details.

Trump’s defenders said Stormy Daniels’ testimony was prejudicial to their client and called for a mistrial. The judge has already denied the request.

“This is the type of testimony that makes it impossible to recover from,” said defense attorney Todd Blanche. “How can we recover in a way that is fair to President Trump?” he asked.

Daniels said that years after the relationship, in 2011, she was threatened in a parking lot and that, after that occasion, she decided not to reveal anything about the meeting with Trump.

However, in the 2016 election campaign, Trump was accused several times of sexual misconduct, and she changed her mind. “My motivation wasn’t money, it was getting the story out,” she said.

The actress told jurors that she was worried about the possibility of not receiving the $130,000 from the settlement if Trump lose the 2016 elections (he defeated his opponent Hillary Clinton. The vote took place in November of that year. A month earlier, in October, Daniels even canceled the negotiations, but later the talks were resumed.

The jurors saw documents that show this back and forth of negotiations.

Daniels stated that in 2018 the “Wall Street Journal” newspaper approached her to talk about her relationship with Trump and that, at the time, she honored the agreement whereby she would remain silent and told the reporter that she had no relationship with Trump. But the newspaper published the story anyway.

This is the first time that the former porn actress speaks to the court about the case.

The former president also faces three other criminal cases, but this is the first to go to trial.

Donald Trump is criminally accused of falsifying accounting records to cover up a payment of US$130,000 (about R$657,000) to porn actress Stormy Daniels. The payment would have occurred in the final stretch of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of these payments and falsely recorded them as legal expenses. He denies this and has previously pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records. Trump, who is already campaigning for elections, was forced to appear in court during the sessions.

Trump is accused of hiding payments he made to porn actress Stormy Daniels