Stormy Daniels is much calmer than she was on Tuesday. In a turquoise dress and navy blue vest, she leans on her backrest, sideways, responds calmly, in short sentences. Susan Necheles, Donald Trump’s lawyer, attacks him: “You have acted and had sex in more than 200 adult films? » Daniels: “About 150.” Necheles: “And there were naked men and women sleeping together, including yourself? But seeing a man in boxers and a t-shirt on a bed was so shocking that your head was spinning? » Daniels: “I came out of the bathroom and saw an elderly man in his underwear, who I didn’t expect to see there. »
The misnamed “bribery trial” (Hush money case) concerns a boring affair of falsification of accounts. But the prosecution knows how to keep the jury in suspense. Donald Trump is accused of having reimbursed Michael Cohen in “legal fees”, because it was he, his lawyer, who paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels in 2016 for her silence about a sexual relationship she allegedly had with Trump in 2006. The trial oscillates between a parade of invoices and account lines that make you yawn with boredom, and juicy details.
Elizabethan moralism
On Tuesday, Stormy Daniels recounted the meeting with Donald Trump in a suite in Lake Tahoe, California, and the long conversation, during which he told her he found her intelligent. To finally wait for him, lying on his bed, in boxers and a t-shirt, for sex. ” How did you react ? » asked Susan Hoffinger, prosecutor. “At first I was surprised, scared,” replied Stormy Daniels. I didn’t expect anyone to be there, especially not so scantily clad. [elle venait d’interrompre la conversation, où Donald Trump était en costume, dans le salon, pour aller aux toilettes, NDLR]. That’s when I had this moment where I felt the room slowly spinning. I felt the blood drain from my hands and feet and, a bit like when you get up too quickly, everything started to spin. »
Thursday morning, the public came in large numbers to see the rest of his testimony. Bradley Bradshaw, lawyer, arrived at 3:30 a.m. in the queue, brought forward his trip from Los Angeles to witness “this historic moment”, and see “the first president of the United States being tried”. He thinks Stormy Daniels has a credibility problem “because of the oppression of women.” He blames Elizabethan moralism. “Women seen as promiscuous, including sex workers, are considered to have little credibility, even if the facts have been proven. »
On Tuesday, during her cross-examination, Susan Necheles began to exploit this angle, insisting that Daniels was “doing pornography,” slurring the syllables in disgust. Bradley Bradshaw continues: “No one was in the room other than the two of them, but she is who she is, and he is who he is. And we can imagine what happened. » But what will the jurors think?
A history of political opinions
Next to it, John DeFelice, an engineer, sitting on a folding chair, believes that Trump had calculated his move: “He told her that she was smart, because she was a director and not just an actress. And receiving her in her underwear is not normal. » According to him, some will think that Trump’s attitude had given him clues. And that the episode, at the start of their meeting, where she spanked him, had a sexual connotation. “She knows how to handle men,” he said. And there she failed. She thought it was her fault for being passive. Bradshaw, next door, interrupts: “As an American man, I say, ‘No, that’s no.’ And even gestures mean no. But the problem is, he’s a pig. He’s a psychopath, he admits he grabs women by the throat. He’s a horrible person. »
John DeFelice insists: he has a friend “whose girlfriend was an “exotic dancer”, an intelligent woman, who did not make herself available to anyone who came along”. Do they think the seven men on the jury and the five women will have different views of Stormy Daniels’ credibility? “Men are different depending on whether you come from California or Missouri,” DeFelice begins (that is, liberal, in the American sense of the term, or conservative). “I really think it’s a story of difference between men and women,” Bradshaw cuts. There is a study where, when we ask what men think about when they take their car in the evening, they think about the sport they are going to do, or about their dinner. Whereas women, if it’s dark, wonder if it will be lit, if they can see behind them, if their coat is long enough, they put their keys between their fingers. »
Political opinions also play a role. John McIntosh, blond and heavily bearded, found the hearing “horribly boring and completely irrelevant.” He believes that all this only reflects “hatred for Trump” and adds: “I don’t understand why we give so much importance to this person. Stormy Daniels thinks he’s so smart, it’s unbearable to hear people laugh at his jokes. She is so pathetic, her job… She is so despicable, she is of such a low level. »
In the courtroom, Susan Necheles engages in merciless cross-examination. She accuses Stormy Daniels of “selling out” when she dances in strip clubs. Which refutes this formulation. She counters each accusation with: “I don’t know anymore. Do you have proof that I said that? » She almost seems to enjoy ping-pong. The idea that Stormy Daniels’ profession disqualifies her as a witness is pervasive. “You know how to make fake sex stories seem real? » asks Susan Necheles. “Wow,” Stormy Daniels responds, pausing. The sex is real, but the relationships between the characters are not. Like what happened to me in this room. » Necheles continues: “You brag about being good at writing dialogue and sex scenes in adult films. » Daniels: “If that scene hadn’t been true, I would have written it much better than that. »
Restoring Stormy Daniels’ Credibility
In the evening, the defense again requested a mistrial, on the grounds that Stormy Daniels’ testimony was too “damaging” to Donald Trump. “The mention of the absence of a condom, when Ms. Daniels chose her production company because it required the wearing of condoms, is a subliminal message about rape,” complains Todd Blanche. In October 2018, Stormy Daniels said she didn’t “want to be attached to the #MeToo movement, because she wasn’t ‘forced’ to do anything.” She hasn’t changed. “You said he made you feel like you had to sleep with him?” » asks Necheles. “My own insecurities made me feel this way. I maintain that he did not force me, drugged me, or threatened me,” Daniels responds.
However, Todd Blanche complains that his testimony, with what he calls a “new version” of the facts, gives the idea of a “power dynamic between a man and a woman”. He believes that “this completely false relationship with President Trump now appears to be non-consensual”. All this would have nothing to do with the charges, that is to say the falsification of business records. Jon Steinglass, prosecutor, believes on the contrary that the details help establish the credibility of Stormy Daniels. “They are the reason why Donald Trump wanted to silence this woman in 2016, less than a month before the election. The fact that this testimony is damning is exactly why he tried to prevent Americans from hearing it. »
Juan Merchan makes his decision. In its opening argument, the defense told the jury they were going to hear about a sexual encounter that never happened. “Your denial puts the jury in the position of choosing who they believe: Donald Trump or Stormy Daniels. The prosecution does not have to prove that a sexual relationship took place, it has the right to restore the credibility of Stormy Daniels, attacked from the start in the opening argument. » The motion for a mistrial is denied.
