Stormy Daniels is on the stand in the Trump Hush
money trial in New York City.
Here in Miami, I am with MSNB,
CS, Katie Fang and David Marcus,
a criminal defense attorney and an adjunct professor at the
University of Miami School of Law.
So let's talk a little bit about what is the
line of questioning by the prosecution at this moment with
Stormy Daniels.
She is indeed setting the scene and setting the stage
to that first meeting with Donald Trump at the golf
course at the celebrity golf tournament,
then having a picture taken with him.
And then she says the bodyguard,
The Who she is we were just hearing referred to
as Keith Trump,
messaged and arraigned according to Daniels arranged for me to
go across town to where Trump was for a dinner.
So, so far, we've established that according to the prosecution
and to Stormy Daniels,
she met Trump at the golf tournament,
then had a picture taken with him.
And then the bodyguard arranged for a dinner with Trump.
Did you indicate to your friend Hoffinger is asking her
you were going to have dinner with Donald Trump?
Yes. So Daniels again, I arrived and went upstairs,
took the elevator to the top floor,
and I went to that level.
And that's where I met Keith,
who was at the door.
Keith, the main bodyguard. It was cracked open and Keith
was standing there and he said nice to meet you.
And so I walked in.
Hoffinger then asks her what were your expectations going into
this?
And Daniel's response is, I didn't really have expectations of
what would or would not happened other than he said
come up here and we will go downstairs to one
of the nice hotel restaurants.
Now she is being asked by the prosecution,
could you describe the first room you entered?
So it's very specific kind of
video frame by video frame of what she saw
and experienced when she entered that room where she believed
she was going to be then going downstairs to have
dinner with with Trump.
What is, and I'm just wondering,
David and and Katie, so the the prosecution has to
in some moment
prove or at least allege
that something that only two people
actually did happened. Because having your picture taken with a
celebrity,
going to a golf tournament where you see a celebrity,
and maybe even having dinner with a celebrity
that is provable.
But how do you tie in the other part?
Well, it's good to see David,
by the way. He's spectacular.
I'm so happy to see him here.
So, So here's the thing,
though, Before we even get to that point,
right? What do we know?
We know that Donald Trump is seeking Stormy Daniels out.
Donald Trump loves to say,
I don't know these women.
They're horse faces. They're this.
They're that. No, no, we know now he's seeking out
Stormy Daniels to dine with her.
And what was her initial reaction?
Expletive. No, that was her immediate reaction to dining with
Donald Trump.
And then she's told by her publicist,
you know what, this could be kind of a funny
story,
right? So that's why she's doing it.
But I mean, there's a reason why we're leading
up to this point. And the devil's in the details,
right? Like they want to bring out all these details
to show that she has credibility.
By asking her all these specifics,
she's able to answer them and show that this actually
happened.
And Speaking of specifics, Hoffinger is asking described if you
would
how, where and how you first encountered Mr.
Trump inside that hotel suite.
Daniels, I said hello,
Matt Trump right there. And I said hello.
And he wanted to go into the living area.
He was wearing silk or satin pajamas.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I apologize. No,
no, no, I'm sorry. I just had to laugh.
This is by the way,
and it's just getting started.
So he was, according to
Daniel's silk or satin pajamas.
I She said I made fun of him
and said, does you have to know you stole his
pajamas?
I told him to go and change,
so he obliged, very politely,
according to Stormy Hoffinger. What were you doing then?
I was just walking around.
It happened very quickly. People,
again, Daniels, often think that the kind of hotels that
we are used to being in,
it's a bad in a dresser.
But this hotel was three.
This hotel room was three times the size of my
apartment.
Again, the importance of details,
right. And you know, Katie,
we know this from long ago when you were a
prosecutor and I was a public defender,
that the idea is, you know,
you want to demonize the defendant.
That's what prosecutors are trying to do.
The defense is trying to humanize the defendant.
This is all trying to make him look so bad,
right? It's not all going to the elements of the
crime,
but the jury's gonna see
all these things that she's saying,
and and they're gonna get that IK factor.
I mean, you laughed out loud when you heard about
the pajamas.
They're gonna they're gonna not gonna like it.
No. And she tells them to go and change.
I mean, clearly, what is happening here is you do
not have to be a genius to figure this out,
right? He's in satin pajamas.
She thinks she's coming for dinner.
What is his intent, right?
And again, it's not the salaciousness of that interaction,
no matter how fleeting it ended up being.
At the end of the day,
it is. Why would Trump be embarrassed about this?
Information getting out? And maybe even just the silk pajamas
could be something that he doesn't get out.
But at the end of the day,
he wanted to make sure none of this was heard
because he didn't want it to hurt his campaign.