Adult film star Stormy Daniels wrapped up her testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Thursday, after spending around seven hours on the witness stand.
The defense appeared to try to paint Daniels as a money-grabber who used her story of a sexual relationship with Trump, and the former president’s criminal indictment, to sell merchandise.
During cross-examination, Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked Daniels: “You made all this up, right?” New York Times journalists in the courtroom reported that Daniels responded with a forceful “no.”
Others who took the stand on Thursday include: Rebecca Manachio, a Trump Organizer bookkeeper, and Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s personal White House secretary from 2017 to 2019.
Once jurors left for the day, Trump’s defense attorneys argued for a mistrial, claiming “there is no way this case can go forward” after Daniels’s testimony disclosed intimate details about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal the hush money payment to Daniels, who claimed just before the 2016 election that she’d had an affair with Trump.
Follow our live blog below for the latest updates from inside and outside the courtroom.
Live39 updates
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 11:22 PM GMT+2
What Trump said when he left court
Trump spoke to reporters outside after court adjourned for the day and appeared to rail against Judge Merchan for denying his defense team’s request for a mistrial and to challenge the gag order so he could speak out against Stormy Daniels.
He also complained that he should be out on the campaign trail instead of being stuck in court for the trial.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 11:08 PM GMT+2
Court adjourned until Friday morning
Judge Merchan dismissed the court until tomorrow at 9:30 am ET. Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s executive assistant at the White House, is expected to take the stand again.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 11:05 PM GMT+2
Defense’s motion for a mistrial denied
For the second time, Judge Merchan denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial over Stormy Daniels’s testimony.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:58 PM GMT+2
Trump’s attorneys are pushing for a mistrial. What is a mistrial and what happens if one is declared?
A mistrial is when a criminal or civil trial is not completed and ends before a jury decides on a verdict.
A mistrial is often declared in two ways: when a jury can’t reach a verdict after a number of attempts, also known as a “hung jury,” or when there has been a procedural error or misconduct has happened that could “prejudice” the jury.
Trump’s defense attorneys argue that the prosecution asked “prejudicial” questions of Stormy Daniels when she detailed her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 and that those details weren’t relevant to the case.
If a mistrial is declared, the current trial is considered “void,” according to USA Today. The trial has to start all over but with a new jury if the prosecutor decides to retry the defendant.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:38 PM GMT+2
Trump attorney renews request for mistrial
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche has renewed the defense’s request for a mistrial, arguing “there is no way this case can go forward” after Stormy Daniels’s testimony disclosed intimate details about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump, according to NBC News.
This is now the second time the defense has requested a mistrial.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:36 PM GMT+2
Trump remains barred from responding to Stormy Daniels after judge rules against modifying gag order
Trump will remain barred from talking about Stormy Daniels after Judge Merchan denied the defense’s request to change the gag order so Trump could respond to her salacious testimony, which the jury heard on Wednesday and Thursday.
Merchan has ruled that Trump has violated the trial’s gag order 10 times and has fined him $1,000 for each violation. Earlier this week, he threatened the former president with jail time if he again violated the gag order.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:30 PM GMT+2
Karen McDougal will not be called as a witness
Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who was allegedly paid $150,000 to keep quiet about what she claims was a 2006 affair with Trump, will not be called to testify, according to defense attorney Todd Blanche.
It was previously thought that the prosecution would call her to testify in order to establish that the alleged payoffs were part of a larger scheme to protect Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign ahead of the election.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:27 PM GMT+2
Prosecutors warn lifting Trump’s gag order would result in ‘barrage of threats’ against Stormy Daniels
Responding to the defense request that would loosen the gag order the judge placed on Trump so that he could respond to the testimony given by Stormy Daniels, prosecutor Christopher Conroy told Judge Juan Merchan that doing so would result in a “barrage of threats” from Trump against the witness.
“Let’s not pretend he wants to engage in high-minded discourse,” Conroy told the judge, according to the New York Times.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:21 PM GMT+2
Judge hears defense motion for mistrial and gag order exception
After the jury was excused from the courtroom, Judge Juan Merchan heard arguments from lawyers on both sides of the case on a renewed motion by Trump’s lawyers to declare a mistrial. The defense is also asking the judge to loosen his gag order so that Trump could comment on the testimony given by Stormy Daniels.
“We ask that President Trump be allowed to respond publicly to what happened in court the past day and a half,” defense attorney Todd Blanche said, per reports from the Manhattan courtroom.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:11 PM GMT+2
Jury dismissed for the day after very brief cross-examination of Trump executive assistant
Trump’s defense attorney Susan Necheles conducted a very brief cross-examination of Madeleine Westerhout in an effort to depict Trump as a kind boss and family man.
According to CNN, Westerhout said that Trump “never once made me feel that I didn’t deserve that job and that I didn’t belong there. Especially in an office filled with older men, he never made me feel like I didn’t belong there.
After that, the jury was dismissed for the day.
Necheles will resume cross-examination of Westerhout tomorrow, the New York Times reported.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:08 PM GMT+2
Trump wasn’t bothered by release of ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, Westerhout testifies
In her cross-examination of prosecution witness Madeleine Westerhout, Trump lawyer Susan Necheles sought to chip away at the prosecution’s assertion that the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape convinced Trump and his lawyer Michael Cohen to cut a deal with adult film actress Stormy Daniels to buy her silence.
“There was always some event that everybody said that’s it, he’s not going to win?” Necheles asked Westerhout.
“Yeah,” Westerhout responded.
“And everyone around would be freaking out?” Necheles continued.
“Yeah,” Westerhout replied.
“Not President Trump?” Necheles added.
“No,” Westerhout said, according to CNN.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 10:01 PM GMT+2
Westerhout tears up on the witness stand
Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s executive assistant at the White House, who sat right outside the Oval Office, broke down in tears while testifying as she recalled being forced out of her position in 2019 after she shared personal details about Trump’s family with reporters.
Westerhout testified that she didn’t have anything negative to say about Trump, even after leaving the White House.
“President Trump forgave you, right?” Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked, according to CNN. “He did,” Westerhout said.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:54 PM GMT+2
Westerhout describes Trump’s relationship with Melania
Former Trump executive assistant Madeleine Westerhout was asked by prosecutors to describe Trump’s relationship with his wife, Melania.
“There was really no one else that could put him in his place too,” Westerhout told the jury, according to CNN. “He was my boss, but she was definitely the one in charge.”
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:32 PM GMT+2
Jury shown email Westerhout sent to Cohen confirming February 2017 White House meeting
According to reporters in the courtroom, prosecutors showed an email sent by Trump executive assistant Madeleine Westerhout to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen confirming a Feb. 5, 2017, meeting at the White House with then-President Donald Trump.
It was at this meeting, prosecutors allege, that Cohen and Trump worked out an arrangement for Cohen to be reimbursed for his $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:21 PM GMT+2
Westerhout says Trump wrote and posted his own tweets from the White House
Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold asked former Trump aide Madeleine Westerhout whether the former president used social media while working in the White House.
“He did, yes,” Westerhout responded, noting that he posted tweets himself, CNN reported.
“My collection [is] there were certain words he would like to capitalize, words like ‘country,’ and he liked to use exclamation points,” Westerhout added.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:09 PM GMT+2
Westerhout testifies about sitting close to Trump in the Oval Office
Madeleine Westerhout, Trump’s executive assistant at the White House, told jurors that she sat just outside the Oval Office when Trump became president.
That proximity and level of interaction could be important when Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen testifies about a White House meeting he had with Trump that prosecutors allege regarded the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:07 PM GMT+2
Brief testimony from HarperCollins VP; Trump’s former White House personal assistant now testing
There was very brief testimony from Tracey Menzies, a senior vice president of production at HarperCollins, who read excerpts from Trump’s 2007 book, Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life. The prosecution selected excerpts to demonstrate its case that Trump micromanages his business and is in the loop, including on the reimbursements made to Michael Cohen for the alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
Madeleine Westerhout, former director of Oval Office operations, is now testing.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 8:51 PM GMT+2
Brief cross-examination of Trump Organization bookkeeper
The defense briefly cross-examined the prosecution’s witness Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization.
Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked Manochio if she had a lot of direct interaction with Trump, to which she responded, “No,” according to CNN.
Manochio also testified that all expenses being sent to Trump for him to sign were personal and not business-related.
According to reporters in the courtroom, Necheles said that personal expense checks were also sent to Ivanka Trump, in Washington, DC, when she worked in the White House, which the bookkeeper confirmed was true, pointing out that it wasn’t out of the ordinary for Trump to have his personal checks sent to DC to sign.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 8:27 PM GMT+2
Trial resumes after lunch break
Court is back in session after a lunch break. The defense continues its cross-examination of Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization.
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Thu, May 9, 2024 at 7:59 PM GMT+2
Why there are no photos of Trump in court today
Since the trial began, pool photographers were briefly allowed into the courtroom at the beginning of each day to photograph former President Donald Trump before the proceedings got underway.
But on Thursday, a court officer informed the pool that Judge Juan Merchan has now barred photography inside the courtroom for the remainder of the trial because one of the pool photographers violated the judge’s rules by taking a picture of Trump as he walked into court.
It wasn’t immediately clear who the offending photographer was or when the reported violation occurred.
But it means the only images from inside the courtroom will be from sketch artists attending the trial.
