Trump trial live updates: Stormy Daniels testifies about sexual encounter with Trump

Daniels confirms that she signed off on those agreements.

After her lawyer Keith Davidson received the $130,000 from Cohen, both he and Gina Rodriguez, her agent, collected their repsective fees.

This left Daniels with a payout of $96,000.

In the November 4 2016 article in The Wall Street Journal about the catch and kill scheme involving Karen McDougal, Daniels had declined to comment. Why?

“Because I signed an NDA.”

Hoffinger notes that Trump won the election a few days later.

Hoffinger resumes direct examination.

Daniels puts her glasses back on and smiles.

She reads the email chain between Keith Davidson and Michael Cohen concerning her settlement agreement and the agreement itself between “David Dennison” and “Peggy Peterson” the pseudonyms used her Trump and Daniels.

Stormy Daniels is returning to the witness box having been instructed by ADA Hoffinger to stay focused on answering the questions and not to provide any “unnecessary narrative”.

Trump, after seething with rage over the last couple hours, was for a moment sitting still, upright, eyes closed. A moment of zen.

The jury is being brought back in.

How’s Trump dealing with this?

He has been gesturing to his attorneys, pointing and gesturing, looking upset. He crossed his arms, which in Trump Court means he’s not amused.

Trump repeatedly tried and failed to get a mistrial in his civil fraud case. It’s clear he pushes his legal team to throw everything they can.

“We can’t fix that except to cross examine her,” Blanche says. “I don’t think, anybody, anybody, can listen to what that witness said and think it has anything to do with the charges.”

He notes that there is a “very high risk of the jury not being able to focus on the evidence that actually does matter.”

Judge Merchan responds: “I agree that there were some things that were probably left unsaid.”

“I think there were guardrails in place, I think the court has instructed the prosecution there were certain details we don’t need to go into,” he adds.

“I don’t believe we’re at the point where a mistrial is warranted.”

He says he’s surprised that the defense didn’t object to more testimony.

Judge Merchan stepped in on his own to pull Daniels back at times.

“The remedy is on cross examination,” he says.

Defence attorney Susan Necheles steps up, saying that the defense had preemptively objected to her testimony.

“That’s a very general statement,” Judge Merchan fired back. “If you’re going to say something like that, please be accurate.”

Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger notes that the judge “did not put any guardrails on her testimony” and that Daniels’ whole entire story is “precisely” what Trump didn’t want to become public before the 2016 election — the whole reason why we’re here.

Blanche is also wrong in saying that Daniels’ testimony is entirely new, she says.

“This is not a new account.”

“We believe regrettably that there should be a mistrial.”

If there is a new trial, her testimony should be excluded, Blanche says in closing.

“Your honor knew this was an issue … but now we’ve heard it, and it is an issue,” Blanche continues.

“The issue is she has testified today about consent, about danger. That’s not the point of this case. … And that’s not the story she was selling in 2016.”

“This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from, not even talking about the fact we’re talking about someone who is going to go out and campaign this afternoon.”

When Daniels mentions meeting in a “public place,” “What’s the jury to do with that?” Blanche says.

“It’s extraordinarily prejudicial to insert safety concerns into a trial about business records.”