Donald Trump’s lawyers paint Stormy Daniels as extortionist

Donald Trump’s lawyers on Thursday attempted to paint Stormy Daniels as an extortionist who threatened to hurt the former president “politically” if he didn’t give her money.

The porn star returned to the witness stand to continue testifying in Mr Trump’s hush money trial, days after she told the jury explicit details about an alleged sexual encounter with the Republican frontrunner.

Mr Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records for covering up a $130,000 (£104,000) payment to “silence” Ms Daniels from telling her story in the run up to the 2016 election.

He has pleaded not guilty and denies ever having sex with Ms Daniels.

Throughout a spikey and heated exchange, defence lawyer Susan Necheles accused Ms Daniels of fabricating the story of having sex with Mr Trump after a celebrity golf tournament in 2006 to cash in.

“You were threatening that you would try to hurt president Trump politically by telling this story if he didn’t give you money”, the criminal lawyer said in a bid to undermine Ms Daniels’ testimony.

“False,” said a stern Ms Daniels, who was wearing a dark green dress with her long, blonde hair draped over her shoulders.

“I never asked for money from anyone in particular, I asked for money to tell my story,” Ms Daniels said in response to Ms Necheles’ suggestion Ms Daniels had asked Mr Trump and his former “fixer” Michael Cohen for money.

Ms Daniels also pushed back at suggestions she had been motivated to hurt Mr Trump for his “newfound” opposition to abortion and gay marriage.

Earlier in the week, the defence used messages between Ms Daniels’ former manager Gina Rodriguez and Dylan Howard, the former editor of the National Enquirer, to try and prove she was driven by money.

“She’s had sex with him. She wants 100k”, Ms Rodriguez told Mr Howard in a June 2016 exchange.

“We’re all happy to take money, it was just a bonus”, Ms Daniels, who has claimed she was motivated by fear, said during the prosecution’s redirect on Thursday.

Dressed in a navy blue suit and blue shirt, Mr Trump, 77, sat back in his chair and closed his eyes as Ms Daniels and his lawyer had a terse back-and-forth.

The former president appeared to be on his best behaviour after he received a warning from the judge on Tuesday for shaking his head and swearing while Ms Daniels described spanking him with a rolled-up magazine with his face on it.

During the second day of Ms Daniels’ testimony jurors were shown the adult film actress’s social media posts advertising merchandise around the time Mr Trump had been charged last year.

The products for sale included a “Stormy Saint of Indictments” candle with her photo on it and a comic book titled, “Political Power: Stormy Daniels.”

“A large part of your livelihood for a bunch of years now has been making money off the story that you had sex with president Trump and that you will help president Trump be convicted, right?” Ms Necheles asked.

Ms Daniels said she needs money to foot her legal bills – she owes Mr Trump more than $500,000 from a failed defamation lawsuit – and that selling merchandise was part of her job.

On Tuesday, the court heard from Ms Daniels about alleged sexual positions and whether the former president used a condom. But Thursday’s session pivoted to questions over whether Ms Daniels could communicate with the dead.

Ms Necheles also tried to poke holes in Ms Daniels’ story of the alleged tryst with Mr Trump, pulling up an interview she gave in 2011 to In Touch Magazine and claiming there were inconsistencies.

She accused Ms Daniels of altering the details of her story over time, saying at one point: “Your story has completely changed.”

Ms Daniels insisted it has not, replying: “You’re trying to make me say that it changed, but it hasn’t changed at all.”

She was also pressed on why it was “so upsetting” to come out of the bathroom to see Mr Trump sitting in his boxers and a t-shirt when she had worked on around 200 adult films with “naked” men and women.

Ms Daniels pushed back, saying it was alarming “to see a man almost twice your age” suddenly in his underwear.

Again using Ms Daniels’ career against her, Ms Necheles said: “You have a lot of experience in making phoney stories about sex appear to be real?”

“Wow”, Ms Daniels replied, laughing, “That’s not how I would put it. The sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room.”

“If that story was untrue I would have written it to be a lot better,” she later added.

Judge Juan Merchan again denied the defence’s motion for a mistrial based on Ms Daniels’ testimony.

He also denied a request to modify the gag order to allow Mr Trump to respond to Ms Daniels’ claims.

“My concern is with protecting the integrity of these proceedings as a whole,” Mr Merchan said, adding that Mr Trump’s “track record” for attacking witnesses “speaks for itself”.

“This judge, what he did, and what his ruling was, is a disgrace,” Mr Trump told reporters after the court was dismissed.