“I said, ‘Does Hugh Hefner know you stole his pyjamas?’,” Daniels recalled saying, referring to the trademark outfits of Playboy boss Hugh Hefner.
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Daniels, now 45, told the court that she found Trump to be “pompous” and “arrogant” that night, and when he dared her to spank him with a magazine, she obliged.
Asked by the prosecutor where she swatted him, she replied: “On the butt”.
She later went to the bathroom, and came out to find him on the bed in boxer shorts and a T-shirt.
They had “brief” sex, she told the jury, and at one point she felt like she had “blacked out” even though she had not been drinking, evidence that led Trump’s team to demand a retrial.
“THE PROSECUTION, WHICH HAS NO CASE, HAS GONE TOO FAR. MISTRIAL!” Trump posted on social media during a break.
While much of Daniels’ story has been made public before – in TV interviews, books and documentaries – this was the first time the details had been laid bare for the 12-member jury who hold Trump’s fate in their hands.
Trump’s lawyers, however, sought to paint her as someone who was seeking fame and fortune, and who hated him.
Before she took the stand, Trump’s defence team had asked Judge Juan Merchan to limit lurid details about the sexual encounter, including specifics about “genitalia”, arguing that it could be unduly prejudicial.
Merchan agreed with that request and expressed frustration as prosecutors allowed Daniels’ to air salacious details that skirted close to the edge of his directive, such as whether Trump was wearing a condom or what sexual position they took.
In asking for a mistrial, Blanche argued these details were added to embarrass Trump and “inflame” the jury. However, Merchan denied this while acknowledging that at times the witness had been “a little bit difficult to control”.
It took two hours before prosecutors finally moved on to the substance of the case, which is not about whether the pair had an affair but rather, whether Trump fraudulently paid hush money to stop his campaign for office being derailed.
Daniels was paid $US130,000 by Trump’s lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to silence her story on the eve of the 2016 election. Trump then reimbursed Cohen, but is alleged to have falsified business records to disguise the payment as a legal retainer.
She has previously denied sleeping with Trump, something she now claims she did for fear of retribution.
She told the court about being threatened by various people to not tell her story. One case, she said, involved an unknown man approaching her in a parking lot in Las Vegas while she was with her daughter.
In this courtroom sketch, Stormy Daniels testifies on the witness stand as Judge Juan Merchan looks on.Credit: AP
But in cross-examination, defence lawyer Susan Necheles suggested Daniels was out for revenge. Asked if she hated Trump, Daniels answered “yes”. Asked further if she wanted him jailed, Daniels said she wanted him to “be held accountable”.
Necheles then accused Daniels of trying to extort Trump through the hush-money payment, which she denied.
As the court adjourned for the day, Trump – who is under a gag order not to attack witnesses in the trial – did not refer to Daniels or her testimony when he addressed reporters. Instead, he once again described the case a “disgrace” and lamented the fact it was keeping him off the campaign trail.
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“I’m stuck. I’m here instead of being in Georgia, instead of being in New Hampshire, instead of being in Wisconsin, and all the different states that we want it be,” he said.
Meanwhile, another of Trump’s criminal trials, this one relating to his alleged mishandling of classified documents, has been postponed indefinitely by US District Judge Aileen Cannon.
The trial had been set down for May 20 and the decision to delay indefinitely is a blow to the Justice Department’s efforts to obtain a jury verdict before the November presidential election.
News of the indefinite postponement of the Florida trial, along with uncertainty about dates for two election interference cases in Washington and Georgia, raises the stakes for the hush-money trial in New York.
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