Trump trial: Stormy Daniels tells (almost) all about alleged encounter with Trump

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Stormy Daniels about her 2018 lawsuit against Donald Trump for defamation.

Trump had called Daniels' allegations of being threatened in Las Vegas a "con job." A court later dismissed the case and ordered Daniels to pay Trump's legal fees.

According to Daniels, her attorney at the time, Michael Avenatti, filed the lawsuit against her will.

"Did you want him to do that?" Hoffinger asked.

"No," Daniels said. "It just seemed really risky and it didn't seem like something that could be won. It seemed like a bad choice. Not worth it, I guess."

Daniels later fired Avenatti, who was disbarred and imprisoned for stealing from clients.

Daniels testified that she still owes Trump for the legal fees in the case.

"Because I don't have the means to pay that kind of funds and because I didn't think it was fair," Daniels said about why she hasn't paid.

She testified that the outcome of this criminal case will have no outcome on her outstanding fees -- possibly getting ahead of a potential line of cross-examination.

Stormy Daniels testified that she approached a new attorney, Michael Avenatti, in 2018 to help her get out of her agreement with then-President Trump after Michael Cohen began speaking publicly about her -- "because he could talk about it and I couldn't."

"Why did you want to get out of the NDA at that point?" prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked.

"So I could stand up for myself," Daniels said.

She said she later appeared on "60 Minutes" in an interview with Anderson Cooper "to get my story out."

Stormy Daniels testified that she honored the terms of her nondisclosure agreement in the following year after signing it, including declining to comment on a 2016 Wall Street Journal article about AMI's payment to Karen McDougal just days before the 2016 election.

When the Wall Street Journal published a story about Cohen's payment to Daniels in 2018, Daniels issued a denial -- which she testified was false -- authored by her then-attorney Keith Davidson.

"What kind of impact did it have?" Hoffinger asked about the impact of the 2018 reporting.

"Chaos," Daniels said, testifying the article "blew my cover."

"Suddenly I was front and foremost everywhere," Davidson said.

Daniels testified that on Jan. 30, 2018, she was booked on the Jimmy Kimmel show. As her talent agent, Gina Rodriguez, arrived with dresses, Daniels testified that her attorney at the time, Keith Davidson, came with a statement for her to sign denying a sexual relationship with Trump.

On television, Daniels said the signature on the statement was not hers. Asked why, Daniels said she wanted to "tip off to Jimmy Kimmel" that she "didn't sign it willingly."

Daniels, on the stand, appears more subdued following the break, with her testimony is consisting of more yes-or-no answers.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger resumed her direct examination by asking Stormy Daniels about October 2016, when she agreed to sell the rights to her story -- but the payment from Michael Cohen was repeatedly delayed.

Jurors were shown the final signed agreement between Stormy Daniels, through her attorney, and representatives for Donald Trump.

"Is that who you understand you were signing this agreement with?" Hoffinger asked, referring to Trump.

"Yes," Daniels answered.

Daniels said she received $96,000 of the $130,000 wired by Michael Cohen. The jury has previously seen the paperwork associated with the wire transfer to her attorney Keith Davidson.