Trump trial: Stormy Daniels testifies about hush money, alleged sex with ex-president

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Porn star Stormy Daniels began testifying Tuesday in the New York criminal hush money trial of Donald Trump.

Daniels is at the center of the historic case in which Trump is charged with falsifying business records related to a payment made to keep Daniels from speaking before the 2016 presidential election about alleged sex with Trump in 2006.

Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 less than two weeks before that election, which Trump went on to win. The scheme by Trump, who reimbursed Cohen while he was president, amounted to an attempt to unlawfully influence the election, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Before the jury entered the courtroom Tuesday morning, Trump attorney Susan Necheles argued that Daniels should not be asked to testify "about any details of any sexual acts."

There is "no reason" that details of the alleged tryst "should be coming into a case about books and records," Necheles told Judge Juan Merchan.

A prosecutor countered that it is very important to delve into the story of the alleged affair, including the conversation that led up to Daniels and Trump having sex.

That won't include "descriptions of genitalia or anything," the prosecutor said, "But it's important to us to illicit that she had sex with him, and how she felt about it."

Merchan said that was fine, but that it was unnecessary to air details of the encounter in court.

The first witness called to the stand Tuesday was Sally Franklin, a senior vice president at Random House Publishing Group. Franklin read aloud a number of passages from Trump's books, including "Trump: How to Get Rich" and "Trump: Think Like a Billionaire."

News of Daniels' expected appearance in Manhattan Supreme Court came after Trump posted — and then quickly deleted — a statement raging about the witness schedule and the judge in his trial.

Trump sent that Truth Social post less than one day after Merchan threatened the former president with jail time, for repeatedly violating the gag order that bars him from speaking about likely witnesses in the trial.

Trump fumed that prosecutors are not telling defense attorneys which witnesses they plan to call until the day before the witness testifies.

"I have just recently been told who the witness is today. This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare," Trump wrote in the post.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told Merchan on Monday the Manhattan District Attorney's office is keeping its witness schedule hidden, in order to stop Trump from targeting people right before they take the stand.

But Steinglass noted that while they are keeping the order of witnesses close to the vest, Trump's attorneys have had the witness list, and the list of exhibits they will present in the case, for months.

Steinglass blamed Trump for forcing the move, pointing out that he "has been violating the order restricting extrajudicial speech, and we did not want to have the witnesses' names, the next witnesses' names out there."

Earlier Monday, Merchan held Trump in contempt of court once again for his 10th violation of the gag order. He fined Trump the maximum $1,000 for the latest violation, adding up to $10,000 in fines for the 10 separate infringements.

But the judge noted that those fines were hardly a deterrent for Trump, a multibillionaire.

"The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail," Merchan said to Trump. But "I will, if necessary."

Trump's since-deleted post from Tuesday morning also slammed Merchan at length, accusing him of political bias.

"No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way," Trump claimed.

"He is CROOKED & HIGHLY CONFLICTED, even taking away my First Amendment Rights. Now he's threatening me with JAIL, & THEY HAVE NO CASE - This according to virtually all Legal Scholars & Experts!" Trump wrote.

Trump's attorneys have failed multiple times to get Merchan to recuse himself for what they claim is a conflict of interest stemming from his daughter's work for a Democratic political firm.

The gag order bars Trump from speaking about likely witnesses in the case, and from making certain statements about other related figures including lawyers, court staff and their respective family members. Merchan expanded the gag order after Trump targeted the family members of the judge and the D.A.