Trump trial: Judge rebukes Michael Cohen ahead of expected testimony Monday
Former President Trump was in court on Day 15 of his criminal trial in New York.
Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York City, where he is facing felony charges related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges.
Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Top headlines:
What to know about the hush money case
READ MORE: Here's what you need to know about the historic case.
Defense asks Daniels if she and Trump ate dinner
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 presses Daniels on details of her story
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."
Defense suggests Daniels has experience with 'phony stories'
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."
Defense questions Daniels about her recent social posts
"Isn't it a fact that you keep posting on social media that you would be instrumental in putting President Trump in jail?" defense attorney Susan Necheles asked Stormy Daniels.
"Show me where I say I would be instrumental in putting President Trump in jail," Daniels replied.
Necheles displayed for the court a social media post Daniels made responding to a message calling her a "TOILET," that read: ""Exactly! Making me the best person to flush the orange turn down."
"I don't see the word 'instrumental' or 'jail,'" Daniels said. "You're putting words in my mouth."
Daniels explained the joke, citing the reference to a "toilet" as her predicate for using the "orange turd" expression: "See how that works?"
Asked what she meant by "orange turd," Daniels said: "I don't know what I meant ... I'm also not a toilet."
Trump, at the defense table, put his elbows back on the table and leaned into the monitor in front of him as it displayed another post in which Daniels says she celebrated his indictment.
"You are drinking champagne because you are celebrating that Trump was indicted?" Nechelss asked Daniels.
"Yes," Daniels responded.
Trump visibly shook his head no.
'It hasn't changed,' Daniels says of her story
Defense attorney Susan Necheles is continuing to try to find inconsistencies in the stories Daniels has previously told about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump, but Daniels, on the stand, has remained steadfast.
"Your story has completely changed, hasn't it?" Necheles asked her at one point.
"No!" Daniels shouted into the microphone. "Not at all. You are trying to make me say that it changed, but it hasn't changed."
Several jurors, watching the exchange, looked like they were watching a tennis match, with their heads and eyes shifting back and forth.
The judge subsequently called for the mid-morning break.
As Necheles returned to the defense table, Trump gave her a pat on the waist, seemingly in approval. She nodded back to him.
Daniels smiled at prosecutors as she left the stand.