NEW YORK: Stormy Daniels finished her marathon testimony at Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Thursday with attorneys for the former president seeking to paint her as a greedy liar who profited from her allegations.

The X-rated film actress, who claims to have had sex with the married Trump in 2006, denied that she threatened the tycoon if he did not buy her silence.

“I wanted the truth to come out... to get my story protected with a paper trail so that my family didn’t get hurt,” the 45-year-old Daniels said during aggressive cross-examination by Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles.

Trump, 77, is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, when the story could have proved politically fatal.

Trump, wearing a powder blue tie, sat hunched over the defendant’s table just feet away as Daniels testified in the Manhattan courtroom. The face-off between Daniels and Trump took place six months before the November election, when the Republican hopeful will try to defeat Democratic President Joe Biden.

During nearly eight hours of testimony on Tuesday and Thursday, Daniels walked the New York jury through the one-night stand she said she had with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament, and then the financial settlement that she says ensued.

On Thursday, Trump’s lawyers sought to suggest that Daniels was out for money, cashing in on her story in a book for which the defence claimed she received $800,000.

Speaking to reporters on his way into court, Trump called it a “Frankenstein case.” “It’s not a recognisable crime that any of us have seen,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2024