Reports said on Tuesday that Stormy Daniels testified in a New York City courtroom that Donald Trump told her that she reminded him of his daughter, presumably meaning Ivanka. Daniels was appearing as part of a criminal trial on charges accusing Trump of falsifying business records related to hush money that Daniels eventually received in connection to an alleged sexual encounter between her and the ex-president.
One report of Daniels’ testimony came from legal journalist Tyler McBrien. “You remind me of my daughter because she is smart and blonde and beautiful and people underestimate her as well,” Trump allegedly said, per Daniels. And remember, testifying as a trial witness puts the person doing so under the threat of serious criminal proceedings if they’re caught lying. The context for the alleged remarks from Trump was a dinner in which the eventual U.S. president was pushing the idea of Daniels participating in his television show “The Apprentice.”
Trump posted — then quickly deleted — a complaint on his personal account on Truth Social in the lead-up to Daniels appearing as a witness, a rant that was deleted presumably in view of the recently reiterated threat from presiding Judge Juan Merchan of possible detention if Trump’s again found in contempt in the context of a gag order imposed earlier by the judge, which protects witnesses. Trump didn’t identify Daniels by name in the public complaints, but the comments still singled out the process of her showing up to give testimony, as it later became clear.
Trump is compelled to attend the proceedings because of their specifically criminal nature, so he was there — again — for the testimony being delivered by Daniels. Earlier, Merchan allowed the prosecution to move forward with basic questions about details of the alleged sexual encounter between Daniels and Trump, apparently somewhat overriding predictable objections from the Trump team to the possibility of testimony related to sexual activity.
