Porn star Stormy Daniels has alleged she became so angry upon first meeting Donald Trump she spanked the then businessman and TV presenter on the bottom with a magazine – but his “intent was clear” that they should have sex.
Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is at the centre of the former US president’s hush money trial.
She began her testimony on Tuesday (US time).
Jurors struggled not to laugh at points which led Judge Juan Merchan to give the prosecutors a wrap over the knuckles for the salaciousness of Ms Daniel’s testimony surrounding the claimed sexual encounter, described by Ms Daniels as “brief”.
“The degree of detail that we’re going into here is just unnecessary,” he said.
Mr Trump’s lawyers tried to get the judge to declare a mistrial due to Ms Daniels’ “prejudicial” testimony but that was rejected.
Mr Trump is accused of covering up payments of $200,000 ($US130,000) linked to an alleged extramarital affair with Ms Daniels, 45, in the run up to the 2016 US Presidential election.
The prosecution is trying to frame the alleged payments as election interference.
Mr Trump has denied an affair took place and denied the charges.
Along with fixer Michael Cohen, and potentially Mr Trump himself, Ms Daniels is one of the star witnesses.
For most of her testimony Mr Trump did not look at Ms Daniels but rather watched her through a TV screen.
Ms Daniels, who said she got into the adult entertainment industry aged 23, said she met Mr Trump at a golf tournament at Lake Tahoe, California, in July 2006.
She had been due to attend a dinner with other staff from the porn company, which was sponsoring the event, but her publicist suggested she have dinner with Mr Trump instead.
Ms Daniels said she met Mr Trump in his Lake Tahoe suite.
“I didn’t really have any expectations,” she said.
When she arrived she said Mr Trump, 77, was wearing silk or satin pyjamas in the style of Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner.
“Does Mr Hefner know you stole his pyjamas?” Ms Daniels said she asked.
She told him to change and he later emerged in a shirt and pants.
‘Don’t worry about Melania’
Mr Trump suggested they talk, she told the jurors, “to get to know each other”.
Ms Daniels, who has directed adult films as well as acted in Hollywood movies including the 40-Year-Old Virgin and hosted a podcast, said she mentioned Melania Trump who he had married a year earlier in 2005.
“Oh, what about your wife?” Ms Daniels said she asked Mr Trump.
“He said, ‘Don’t worry about that, we don’t even sleep in the same room’,” she alleged.
At one point, Mr Trump showed her a financial magazine of which he was the cover star. She told him she hadn’t seen it.
“Not like I made a habit of reading financial magazines as a 27-year-old stripper,” she told the jury.
‘Spanked’ Mr Trump
She said she became exasperated with Mr Trump’s “arrogance” in the meeting and that he was acting “pretty nasty”.
“Are you always this rude?” he asked.
She then said she “snapped,” and grabbed the magazine.
“I said, ‘Someone should spank you with that.’ I took it and turned him around and swatted him right on the butt”.
‘Intent was clear’
Ms Daniels said she went to the toilet in his penthouse and when she came out, Mr Trump was on the bed in boxer shorts and a T-shirt.
“I felt the blood leave my hands and my feet almost like if you stand up too fast. I thought, ‘Oh my God, what did I misread to get here?’
“At first I was just startled, like a jump scare. I wasn’t expecting someone to be there, especially minus a lot of clothing.”
Ms Daniels continued that, “the intent was pretty clear”.
“He stood up between me and the door. Not in a threatening manner. Nothing like that,” she said.
“There was an imbalance of power for sure. He was bigger and blocking the way. I was not threatened verbally or physically”.
Ms Daniels said the alleged sex with Mr Trump was “brief” and he did not wear a condom which was a “concern”.
She added that the sex was in the “missionary position” before the judge ruled in an objection from Mr Trump’s lawyers and she did not go into further detail.
“I just left as fast as I could. That was it,” she said of the meeting with Mr Trump.
Ms Daniels said that while she told friends about meeting Mr Trump only a few people knew she had sex. She didn’t tell her boyfriend because she felt “ashamed,” she told the court.
Mr Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche attempted to get Judge Merchan to declare a mistrial due to the testimony.
“It’s extremely prejudicial to insert safety concerns in a trial about business records,” he told the court,” he said.
“The issue is she has testified today about consent, about danger – that’s not the point of this case. That’s not the point of her testimony. You can’t unring that bell”.
Judge Merchan rejected the plea but did say that “there are some things that would have been better left unsaid”.
