Trump's Trials - Day two of Stormy Daniels testimony in hush money trial

Episode Date: May 9, 2024

For this episode of Trump's Trials, All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro speaks with NPR's Andrea Bernstein.Adult film actress Stormy Daniels took the stand for the second time in the New York hush money case. The defense continued their cross-examination of Daniels attempting to highlight inconsistencies in her story about meeting Trump in 2006. Defense attorneys questioned whether Daniels was out to make money, asking her about a book deal and documentary she was in. Topics include:- Stormy Daniels testimony - Cross-examination Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for new episodes each Saturday.Sign up for sponsor-free episodes and support NPR's political journalism at plus.npr.org/trumpstrials.Email the show at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As Trump's trials from NPR, I'm Scott Detro. This is a persecution. He actually just stormed out of the courtroom. Innocent to proven guilty in a court of law. Our regular episodes come out every Saturday, but there's some news in one of former President Trump's cases today. So we're going to share a story that just aired on NPR, and then we'll be back with more in our usual episode on Saturday.

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They're such peaceful docile creatures, you know, and I say that that's my job is to wake up in this beautiful place every day and wander around and try to figure out how to make it better. Better for my cows, better for the land, better for the community, the overall ecology. And it's that stewardship which evolves from that patient observation, I think. Discover Organic Valley Dairy at ov.coop slash ethically sourced. You're listening to Trump's Trials. I'm Scott Detro. And now, here's Ari Shapiro. Attorneys defending Donald Trump and his New York criminal trial wrapped up their cross examination of Stormy Dangles today.

They had a withering series of questions about inconsistencies in her accounts of a sexual encounter with Donald Trump, but Dangles held her ground, standing by her story that she had sex with him and then was paid to keep quiet about it in the waning days of the 2016 campaign. Andrea Bernstein joins us from near the court once again. Hi, Andrea. Hey, Ari. On Tuesday, you told us about the defense confronting Daniels with conflicting details about whether she

wanted to tell her story or keep quiet. What did they come back with today? There were two major issues they leaned into. The first was Stormy Daniels' varying accounts of what happened that evening in 2006 at the celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. So for example, in 2011, Daniels gave an interview with In Touch magazine. It was never published. And Daniels told the magazine that Trump had invited her to dinner. But in her testimony on Tuesday, she said that Trump's bodyguard, Keith Schiller, had approached her and invited her up to the penthouse suite.

So it was a lot of that, had she eaten, had she not eaten, to the point where the jury seemed a little weary. So two major issues you said first was the inconsistencies, what was the other? That's Jeremy Daniels was in it for the money that they asked about her book, which she sold for $800,000 and a documentary she participated in for which she sold the rights. They showed a social media post that said, quote, in celebration of the new indictments, all orders in the next 45 hours get a surprise gift.

She was asked, you are selling your stuff and her retort, not unlike Mr. Trump. Tell us more about that. So grilling people on their social media posts has been a theme all through this trial. It began with jury selection when potential jurors were confronted with old Facebook posts. And of course, Stormy Daniels has a lot of posts, but this was kind of mixed. At one point, she disavowed a particular strip club tour promotion. But after a break, when the defense showed her an Instagram post about that tour,

she said it was a repost, which by the way, was part of arguments that Trump's lawyers made about posts violating the gag order, that they were reposts, but that was outside of the presence of any witnesses of the jury. Big picture, this woman has been the center of so much attention, conflicting accounts of what happens.

She's testified for hours. What's your sense of how it all went? S. K. HARDING The defense ended by saying, isn't the reason your story keeps changing because you never had an affair with President Trump and realized you could make money from selling your story and you've been doing it for 12 years? And Daniel said very clearly, no. The prosecution ended with this question.

On balance, has your public telling the truth been net positive or net negative in your life? And she said, negative. But after the final no further questions, another witness came on the stand, a junior bookkeeper current at the Trump Organization. And she testified how when Trump was in the White House, Keith Schiller, his personal bodyguard, went with him. And this bookkeeper would send checks for Trump to sign from New York to Washington, but not

to the White House, to Schiller's home in D.C. It was just kind of a little echo, subtly corroborating a detail of Daniel's testimony. I should say, Trump's defense attorneys seemed to feel they'd been successful. When the jury left and they were filing out, Trump lightly punched the air in front of him with his fist and two of his lawyers fist bumped. Also, today the defense asked the judge to lift the gag order and allow Trump to respond to Daniel's testimony. How did he rule?

Yeah, so this just happened. At the end of the day, there were arguments. Trump's lawyers say Daniel's story is different now because of her testimony about feeling a power imbalance before the sexual encounter, that there was a whiff of coercion. The defense called this a dog whistle for rape. But the prosecution said her account shows why Trump was so worried about the story going public right before the 2016 election. The judge said he still feels future witnesses can be deterred by Trump attacks.

He's not allowed to attack Stormy Daniels. The gag order remains in effect. And the defense moved for a mistrial based on prejudicial new evidence. But that motion at the very end of the day was denied. NPR's Andrea Bernstein, thank you. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Trump's Trials from NPR. Keep an eye out for more episodes like this

whenever big news happens, and we'll be back later this week with our regular show on Saturday. I'm Scott Detro. This message comes from NPR sponsor Organic Valley, a co-op of small organic family farms. Dairy farmer Tyler Webb shares how he and his family work with nature to manage challenges on the farm. When I think of land stewardship, it's taking the opportunity to like slowly walk through your farm. To listen. To try to observe subtle patterns. When you're not reliant upon pesticides and herbicides and things to navigate your way through farming,

you're looking for ways to work in harmony with our ecosystem. From a pesticide perspective, you know, flies can be a concern. And so a lot of this bird habitat we have on the farm is because we're looking for tree swallows. They just cruise around all day long and eat flies. They come back every year in April and they put a big dent on the fly population during that period. Discover Organic Valley Dairy at ov.coop slash ethically sourced. This message comes from NPR sponsor Organic Valley, a co-op of small organic family farms dedicated to producing food that promotes

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