Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress whose allegations of a 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump prompted the hush money payment that lies at the center of the Manhattan DA's criminal case against Trump, is scheduled to return to the witness stand this morning.

On Daniels' first day on the stand on Tuesday, she testified that first met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, and that he invited her to his hotel suite. Daniels told the jury that when she came out of the bathroom, she found Trump on the bed dressed in only his underwear and a T-shirt.

"The next thing I know, I was on the bed," said Daniels, who then described how they had sex. Trump has denied that the two ever had a sexual encounter.

Daniels told jurors that she became afraid to go public with her story of the encounter after she was threatened by an unknown man in a Las Vegas parking lot in June 2011. She said that the 2016 offer from then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen to buy her silence for $130,000 on the eve of the 2016 election allowed her to keep the allegations private while profiting from the deal.

"They were interested in paying for the story, which was the best thing that could happen because then my husband wouldn't find out, but there was still documentation of a money exchange and a paperwork exchange, so that I would be safe and the story wouldn't come out," Daniels said.

Judge Merchan communicated a bit of a warning to Michael Cohen ahead of his planned testimony next week, telling prosecutors to ask him to stop talking about the case after Trump's team brought up his continued out-of-court statements.

"I would direct the people to communicate to Mr. Cohen that the judge is asking him to refrain from making any more statements about this case," Merchan said.

"That comes from the bench and you are communicating that on behalf of the bench," said the judge.

Merchan's rebuke came after defense attorney Todd Blanche brought up recent statements by Cohen, including his appearing on TikTok this week wearing a shirt with a photo of Trump behind bars.

"It's becoming a problem every single day that President Trump is not allowed to respond to this witness," Blanche urged. "He has stated on social media that he is going to stop talking, and he doesn't," Blanche said of Cohen.

Prosecutors said they had already "repeatedly" asked Cohen and others not to post about the case, but claimed they had no control over the witnesses.

Trump, at the defense table, grinned broadly during the exchange regarding Cohen and his behavior on social media. But he shook his head and looked at Blanche, seemingly in disbelief, when Merchan -- instead of ordering Cohen to stop -- merely asked prosecutors to speak to him.

Court was subsequently adjourned for the week.