When will Stormy Daniels testify in Donald Trump’s hush money trial?
A judge has ruled that adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen will be allowed to testify in the hush money trial.
The judge in Donald Trump’s hush money case has denied the former president’s bid to stop adult film actress Stormy Daniels and his former lawyer Michael Cohen from testifying in the criminal trial.
New York State Judge Juan Merchan ruled that the two would be allowed to take the stand, though he restricted Daniels’ testimony. She will not be allowed to speak about a lie detector test she took in 2018 which demonstrated that she was telling the truth about Trump.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal the payment that his then-lawyer Michael Cohen made to Daniels.
The money supposedly paid for her silence on a supposed sexual encounter in 2006 between her and the former president so that news of it would not get out and hurt his 2016 presidential run. Trump has denied he had sex with the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. He has however admitted that he repaid Cohen.
The exact date of the hush money trial has not yet been set. It was originally scheduled for March 25, but Merchan last week postponed it to until at least the middle of April. The judge said earlier this year that he expected the trial to last six weeks.
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The Stormy Daniels hush money case
Prosecutors are seeking to establish whether the $130,000 payment to Daniels broke rules on campaign financing. In Trump’s campaign records the payment is identified as legal expenses. Daniels has since asserted that the payment was part of an NDA preventing her from speaking publicly about the affair.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to charges related to the porn actress’ pay-out, and claimed that the payment was made “in coordination with, and at the direction of” Trump.
The former president could face a maximum sentence of up to four years if found guilty, but prosecutors would need to persuade someone from within his inner circle to testify against Trump.
Despite Cohen’s assertion that Trump was aware of the payment made to Daniels, the investigation into financial impropriety relates to how to payment was cited in the Trump Organization’s filings. The prosecution would have to prove that Trump was aware of how the payment was hidden, not simply that he approved its existence.