Though the judge did express some initial concerns about how the testimony was unfolding, New York City Judge Juan Merchan rejected this week a push from the legal defense team for former President Donald Trump for declaring a mistrial following testimony from Stormy Daniels in a court case against Trump.
The trial deals with allegations of falsifying business records in connection to hush money that Daniels received before the 2016 election targeting a story of an alleged sexual encounter between Daniels and Trump years before the latter eventually secured the presidency. On the witness stand earlier this week, Daniels recounted — after specific allowances by the judge — some of the specific details of that alleged encounter, though amid her explanations, the judge upheld some (not all) objections from the ex-president’s defense team.
Notably, Merchan expressed some surprise in ultimately rejecting the mistrial push that the defense hadn’t objected more extensively during the disputed trial testimony from Daniels. “The defense has to take some responsibility for that,” the judge reportedly said in court. POLITICO opined that the judge’s commentary was “almost certain to infuriate Trump,” considering the ex-president’s established interest in a particularly aggressive legal defense when challenged.
Some of what Daniels actually said included that she was taken by surprise by, as she described it, Trump initiating the encounter when she was coming back from the bathroom. She also spoke of evident psychological effects, including physically shaking in the immediate aftermath and feelings of shame. The seeming undercurrent was that Trump’s defense team was concerned about jurors potentially harboring the impression that the alleged encounter constituted sexual misconduct and/or assault on Trump’s part.
Daniels, for her part, tried to specify while testifying that Trump was not aggressive in conventionally direct terms. She was set to continue answering questions before jurors on Thursday.
