The jury in Donald Trump‘s hush money trial tried to “suppress laughter” during Stormy Daniels‘ witness testimony, a legal analyst has said.
Speaking to CNN, George Conway, an attorney and Trump critic, reacted to the second day of the adult film star’s testimony in the high-profile case, and said Trump’s lawyers questioned her for too long, making it descend into ridiculousness.
The trial, which is in its fourth week, will determine whether the former president falsified business records over payments, allegedly facilitated by Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, to Daniels to keep an alleged affair secret before the 2016 election, as alleged in a criminal indictment.
Prosecutors led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg allege the payments, including the $130,000 referenced in court, were part of a scheme to stop potentially damaging stories about the Republican from becoming public. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for the 2024 election, has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all 34 charges against him in the case.
Photo by Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images
Daniels took to the stand for the second time on Thursday where she completed her testimony after roughly two-and-a-half hours of questioning which followed several hours on Tuesday.
Trump lawyer Susan Necheles pressed Daniels about her life in the adult film industry and suggested that her career was in making “phony stories about sex” look “real.”
Conway said the sustained questioning left the jury almost laughing. “The longer you go, the more the witness can pop off at you and this woman is way smarter than [Susan] Necheles’ client,” he said.
He continued: “I thought I saw jurors at some point trying to do what I was trying to do which was trying suppress laughter at some of the shots that Stormy [Daniels] got into the record.”
Conway: The longer you go, the more the witness can pop off at you and this woman is way smarter than Necheles‘ client. I thought I saw jurors trying to do what I was trying to do which was trying suppress laughter at some of the shots she got into the record pic.twitter.com/TYlgQYerdW
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 10, 2024
Other legal experts also criticized the questions posed to Daniels by Trump’s lawyer.
“Trump is his lawyers’ worst enemy. The smart strategy would have been to *stipulate* that the encounter with Daniels took place so there would be no reason for her to testify. Instead, they’re heeding his wish, going after her hard on cross-examination. Jurors won’t like it,” former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti wrote on X.
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman wrote on X: “Stormy suggesting elsewhere in interview w/ Anderson Cooper she says didn’t have dinner. If that’s accurate and it comes out on redirect, it’s very bad for Necheles. This is the best point she’s scored to date.”
Meanwhile, Trump lawyer Alina Habba said she “saw some giggles” when asked by Fox News about whether the jury was engaged in the trial and paying attention.
“Sometimes I think with the last testimony I saw some giggles obviously and I don’t want to speak too much about a jury sitting on a trial but you know, maybe, maybe? I don’t know you know it fades in back and forth and it is very difficult to read a jury,” she said.
Watters: Is the jury engaged?
Habba: Sometimes. I think with the last testimony I saw some giggles and I don’t want to speak too much about the jury.. pic.twitter.com/ioGig8KLzh
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 10, 2024
Newsweek contacted representatives for Trump and Habba by email to comment on this story.
The trial continues on Friday. It is expected to last for around six weeks.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.