Donald Trump's lawyer put pressure on porn star Stormy Daniels on Thursday for statements she issued in 2018 in which she denied having had sexual relations with the former president, an assertion that is at the center of the first criminal trial against the Republican presidential candidate.
Daniels' account of a sexual encounter with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006 fascinated jurors Tuesday and served to remind voters of the more gruesome aspects of his presidency as he campaigns to take back the House. White this year.
Attorney Susan Necheles showed jurors two statements Daniels signed in 2018, in which she denied having an affair with Trump. At that time, Daniels was still subject to a confidentiality agreement she reached with Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, not to discuss the meeting before the 2016 election in exchange for $130,000.
“Let's be clear, I didn't write this,” Daniels said. “They gave it to me and told me I had to sign it.”
Daniels' attorney at the time, Keith Davidson, testified earlier in the trial that the statement was designed to be technically accurate in ruling out an affair without denying a one-on-one sexual encounter.
Trump, 77, is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up Cohen's payment to Daniels, 45. He has pleaded not guilty and denies having sexual relations with Daniels.
Trump, who is seeking to reclaim the presidency from Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election, argues that the trial is a politically motivated attempt to interfere in his campaign.
Necheles asked Daniels why she let Cohen buy her silence, when she had previously stated that he wanted to make his story public. Daniels said she ultimately agreed to the deal not because of the payment, but because of safety concerns.
“The best alternative was to protect my history with a paper trail,” Daniels declared. Publishing the story would have put “a target on my back, and that of my family,” she said.
