Reporting from inside the courthouse
Susan Necheles, Trump's lawyer, is trying to make Stormy Daniels look like a liar by bringing up her book excerpts, making it seem as if she has changed her story of having had sex with Trump. Daniels is fighting back and providing more context. The jurors are paying close attention and the courtroom is, to use the word of the day, tense.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
The courthouse overflow room is decidedly less tense. Members of the public have been laughing along at Daniels's responses.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Susan Necheles tries something else, asking whether Stormy Daniels had talked to the lawyer Gloria Allred about potentially suing Trump. But again, Daniels fires back, saying that she also told Allred, “I had sex with Donald Trump.” Daniels seems to be locked in, and these questions don’t look to be going where Necheles expects. Prosecutors need Daniels to be consistent about having said she had sex with Trump. So far, she has been.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Susan Necheles, Trump's lawyer, is moving on, saying that telling her story about having had sex with Trump has made Stormy Daniels a lot of money. Daniels hits back: “It has also cost me a lot of money.”
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Stormy Daniels just fended off the implication that Susan Necheles was seeking to make, which is that Daniels hopes that Trump will be convicted so she doesn’t have to pay his legal fees from the earlier defamation case. “I hope I don't have to pay him no matter what happens,” Daniels parried.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Susan Necheles, Trump’s lawyer, is trying to make Stormy Daniels look like a liar. But many of her questions have to do with money and Daniels is making it clear that she is not necessarily wealthy. So instead of this line of questioning working to impeach her credibility, as intended, it’s coming off as a lawyer for a very rich person going after someone with less money for having less money.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
Trump has massively overstated his own wealth over the years, but so much of the attention on that overlooks the fact that he still has more money than the vast majority of the country. Which is why this line of questioning is so fraught.
Reporting from inside the courthouse
It’s hard to know what effect this line of questioning will have on the jury. Trump’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, has successfully established that Stormy Daniels is refusing a court order to pay legal fees to Trump, which she was ordered to do six years ago after her defamation lawsuit against him was dismissed. But the jury knows that Trump is vastly wealthier than Daniels, so it is unclear how compelling they will find it that she has declined to give him money.
