Trump trial: Judge rebukes Michael Cohen ahead of expected testimony Monday

In Susan Necheles' first sustained effort to call into question Stormy Daniels' story of the alleged sexual encounter, which her client has steadfastly denied for years, the defense attorney turned to the details of what happened when Daniels says she exited the bathroom of Trump's suite and saw Trump in his underwear.

Necheles attempted to cast doubt on Daniels' account of feeling light-headed -- highlighting her experience working with naked men in the adult film industry.

"But according to you, seeing a man on a bed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts was so upsetting that you got light-headed, the blood left your hands and feet, and you almost fainted?" Necheles asked.

Daniels responded by highlighting Trump's age, telling jurors she did not expect to find Trump undressed, and emphasizing the power imbalance in the room.

Defense attorney Susan Necheles pressed Daniels on whether she and Trump had dinner during their time in his suite.

According to Necheles, Daniels told InTouch magazine in 2011 and Anderson Cooper in 2018 that she "had dinner" with Trump.

During Daniels' testimony on Tuesday, Daniels said she never ate food during the interaction with Trump.

"I maintain that I didn't see any food," Daniels said today. "My story is the same ... it was dinner, but we never got any food."

Daniels alleged that Necheles was cherry-picking her past statements to falsely suggest her testimony was inconsistent.

"You are showing me one sentence of an entire conservation," Daniels told Necheles.

"Your words don't mean what you say, do they?" Necheles said.

Daniels' posture during this exchange belied her confrontational tone with Necheles. She reclined in her seat, leaning slightly on her right elbow in a relaxed way. Her body was oriented toward the jury even as her face and eyes were turned to Necheles, periodically using hand gestures to emphasize a point.

Trump, meanwhile, remained sitting back in his chair, listening to much of Daniels' testimony with his eyes closed.

Defense attorney Susan Necheles turned her focus to the alleged sexual encounter between Trump and Stormy Daniels in 2006.

Necheles recounted the details of the golf tournament where Daniels said she and Trump met in Lake Tahoe, California, asking Daniels to confirm each part of the story.

Necheles homed in on an apparent inconsistency between Daniels' testimony on Tuesday and her description of the encounter to InTouch magazine in 2011.

"This is a totally different story than you told in 2011?" Necheles said.

"No," Daniels responded.

According to Necheles, Daniels told InTouch that Trump kept looking at her when they first met on the golf course and that he offered to take her out to dinner.

On Tuesday, Daniels testified that her interaction with Trump on the course was brief and said that Trump's bodyguard extended the dinner invite on behalf of Trump.

"It is an abbreviated entertaining version of the event," Daniels said of the InTouch depiction of events. "It is minus some details."

Jurors saw photos of some of the merchandise Stormy Daniels sells on her online store, including T-shirts, comic books and a "Stormy Saint of Indictments candle."

Defense attorney Susan Necheles used the line of questioning to again suggest that Daniels makes a "large part of her livelihood" by selling the story about her alleged affair with Trump.

Necheles suggested Daniels is well-practiced in making up stories about sex, pointing to her career in adult films.

"You have a lot of experience of making phony stories about sex appear to be real?" Necheles asked.

"The sex in the films is very real, just like what happened to me in that room," Daniels responded, adding that if she were to fictionalize her encounter with Trump, she "would have written it to be a lot better."

Trump attorney Todd Blanche let out a chuckle at one point when Daniels, in referring to the sex in adult films, said, "I think we all know how to do that."