'You hate Donald Trump!' Stormy Daniels accused of vendetta in scorching cross-examination by Trump lawyer
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/Getty, Drew Angerer/Getty, Tyler Le/BI
- After nearly four hours of direct testimony, Stormy Daniels was cross-examined by a Trump attorney.
- 'Am I correct that you hate Donald Trump?" lawyer Susan Necheles demanded.
- Other questions suggested Daniels lied about sex with Trump and tried to extort him.
During a fiery cross-examination in the New York hush-money trial, porn star Stormy Daniels fought back against a defense lawyer's accusations that she has a vendetta against Donald Trump.
"Am I correct that you hate President Trump?" defense lawyer Susan Necheles demanded early in Tuesday afternoon's questioning.
Daniels looked directly at Necheles, her voice crisp as she answered.
"Correct," she said.
"And you want him to go to jail?" Necheles pursued.
"If he's found guilty, yes," Daniels snapped back.
The tense exchange came after nearly four hours of direct testimony, in which Daniels described the one-night-stand she says she had with the then-Apprentice star in 2006.
Necheles raised her voice as she confronted Daniels with a tweet in which Daniels called Trump an "orange turd"— and about a nearly half-billion dollars in legal fees she owes after unsuccessfully suing Trump for defamation.
"You didn't take any money out of your pocket to pay President Trump did you?" the lawyer asked, referring to more than $500,000 in legal fees Daniels owes Trump after losing the federal court case.
"You're choosing not to pay President Trump?" the lawyer demanded. "You have said publicly you're not going to pay President Trump?"
Daniels was asked about her tweets from 2022, in which the porn star said she'd go to jail before paying Trump. In one tweet, Daniels had vowed, "I'll never give that orange turd a dime."
"You call him names all the time!" Necheles shouted, in what was more an accusation than a question.
"Yes," Daniels answered quickly. "Because he made fun of me first."
"So one of you started it, but you continue it?" Necheles asked, her voice still loud.
"Correct," Daniels answered defiantly.
At another point, Necheles accused Daniels of cashing in on a false "claim" of sex.
"You've been making money by claiming you had sex with Mr. Trump for more than a decade, right?" the lawyer asked.
"I've been making money by telling my story about what happened to me," Daniels answered.
"And that story has made you a lot of money, right?" Necheles demanded.
"It has also cost me a lot of money," Daniels answered.
The cross-examination is expected to continue until court breaks for the day at 4:30 p.m.
This is a breaking story; please check back for developments.