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28/ McB:

Necheles says that Daniels was ordered to pay Trump an additional $245k for legal fees incurred in an appeal in the defamation case in which Trump prevailed (but Daniels didn't "lose"). Then again, an additional $121k Daniels owed on another appeal.

29/ McB:

Q: Because of your "frivolous litigation"—objection, sustained, she restarts—because of the "cases you brought" against Trump, the total legal fees you owe Trump is $560k
A: About.
Q: And that's before interest—CA has 10% annual interest on this, you know?
A: I did not know.

30/ McB:

Q: You didn't pay anything out of your pocket to Trump?
A: No.
Q: You said on direct it's bc you can't afford it, but you have money?
A: We all have money.
Q: It's because you're choosing not to pay him?
A: I don't understand the question.

31/ Klasfeld:

Necheles asks a string of questions about her defeat in her defamation lawsuit against Trump, along with the six-figure legal fees she's racked up over the years.

Necheles asks another line of questions about Daniels' nonpayment of the award, saying she's openly disobeyed the court order.

Daniels agrees with Necheles that she said, "I will go to jail before I pay a penny."

"Correct," Daniels replies.

32/ Press:

[After sidebar]
Justice Merchan: Accepted into evidence.
[The tweet: "I will go to jail before I pay a penny."]
Trump's lawyer Necheles: That was you saying you didn't care about a Federal order, right?
Stormy Daniels: I won't pay for telling the truth.

33/ Klasfeld:

Q: You don't care about the court order, do you?
A: Of course I care.

Q: Even though there are three court orders for you to pay President Trump, you are not going to do that, are you?
A: I don't know.

34/ McB:

Necheles presses Daniels: "You understand there's no question-bending right?"

Objection, sustained, and Necheles says, "You're right your honor," apologizing.

We see another Daniels tweet: "I don't owe him shit and I'll never give that orange turd a dime (laughing emoji)"

Q: You despise him and made fun of how he looks?
A: Yes, because he started it first.

No one is coming out looking good in this exchange.

35/ McB:

Necheles is asking about a form related to the court order for Daniels to pay the legal fees.

Daniels says she didn't fill it out bc it was asking about her daughter, and Necheles clarifies it was asking her daughter's names, but it's mostly about her assets.

36/ McB:

So far, Ben Wittes's Rule of Witnesses is proving to be true:

Never make up your mind about a witness and the significance of their testimony before the cross.

There's a tense moment as Necheles attempts to enter the form into evidence I believe, as the prosecution objects and Daniels looks up at Justice Merchan pleadingly. Perhaps it had to do with her daughter's info on the form, but it's hard to tell.

Sidebar now.

37/ McB:

Tension diffuses, and the sidebar breaks up.

Necheles restarts, attempting to put something up on the screen, but Hoffinger says "Judge," and Merchan stands: "Take that down!" he says, as the lawyers approach again. Sidebar.

38/ McB:

Necheles hands up Exhibit J10A(?), the document they've been discussing. The form has been partially filled out, (we can't see the form, only the parties), and Necheles asks why Daniels refused to fill out spouse's income question. Objection, it's not in evidence, sustained.

39/ Press:

Trump's lawyer Necheles: Let me hand you this. It is only partially filled out - it asks income, you say Unknown, right?
Stormy Daniels: I won't fill out info that endangers my daughter.
Necheles: It asked what cars you own & you won't answer, right?
Daniels: Yeah

40/ McB:

Q: Do you have bank accounts?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you disclose that on the form?
A: I didn't fill out this form.

After a bruising start to the cross, Necheles is getting tripped up in a thicket of objections. It's very stop and go.

41/ McB:

Necheles is asking Daniels about some tweets of hers, in which she seems to boast about the money made from "pornography" (Necheles' word) and a $1m book deal.

"I'll have to see the tweets," Daniels says.

42/ McB:

Q Haven't you been hiding your assets bc you don't want to pay?
A No.
Q Didn't you set up a trust in the name of your daughter?
A No
Q Aren't you hoping that if Trump is convicted, you won't have to pay him the half million you owe him?
A I hope I won't have to pay him anything.

Klasfeld:

Asked if she owns a home, Daniels says she doesn't.

Necheles said Daniels tweeted that she paid for a new ranch.

Daniels says that meant ranch.

43/ Press:

Necheles: You own a home?
Stormy Daniels: No.
Necheles: You tweeted you made so much in porn you could just buy your ranch home?
Daniels: We didn't buy it. I would have to see the tweet
Necheles: J-17

44/ Press:

Trump's lawyer Necheles: You said, I just paid for my ranch-
Stormy Daniels: I meant, pay rent.
Necheles: Really. Are you making money claiming to have had sex for more than a decade, right?
Daniels: I make money telling my story. It also costs me money

45/ McB:

"I have been making money about telling my story about what happened to me," Daniels says.

Q: And what happened to you is having sex with Trump?
A: Yes
Q: And it's making you a lot of money?
A: It's also costing me a lot of money.

46/ Via Press, a line left out of the others:

Stormy: I've not been paid for interviews in the United States.

47/ McB:

Necheles finally gets some evidence through: it's the cover of Daniels' book, Full Disclosure.

In the book, Daniels confirms that Rodriguez helped her on several occasions to sell her story, including 2011 w/ Gloria Allred—and Daniels actually turned down her offer at the time.

48/ Klasfeld:

Asked if she denied having sex with Trump before claiming that she did, Daniels replies: "Because I had an NDA, yes."

49/ McB:

Necheles is asking Daniels about the conversation with Allred, and her allegedly conflicting acconts of it in testimony and her book.

Q: You're making this up as you sit there, right?
A: No. (Daniels cocks her head, a bit taken aback)

50/ Phang:

Necheles is trying to suggest to the jury that Daniels is trying to hide her assets from Trump:
NECHELES: Isn’t it true that you had been hiding your assets because you didn’t want to pay the judgements against you? DANIELS: Nope

51/ Klasfeld:

Daniels says she rejected Allred's interest because "She wanted to force me into saying things that were not true."

52/ Press:

Trump's lawyer Necheles: You told Gloria Allred you did not have sex with President Trump, right?
Stormy Daniels: No - I told her I did have sex with him.
Necheles: Let me show you - you say, you left out sex
Daniels: Later I told her
Necheles: Not in the book
Stormy Daniels: I would not go with force so I said no.
Trump's lawyer Necheles: You're just making this up now, aren't you?
Daniels: I didn't trust her.

53/ Press:

Trump's lawyer Necheles: It taught you if you want to make money off President Trump, you have to claim sex?
Daniels: No. But it seems to be that way.
Necheles: When you spoke with In Touch, you were trying to sell your story, right?
Daniels: Yes.

54/ Pagliery:

Necheles: You're making this up as you sit there, right?

Stormy, visibly taking this as an affront.

"Noo...."

Fascinating dichotomy here. When the prosecutor was asking questions, jurors eyes were glued to Stormy.

Now that Necheles is on the attack, nearly all of them are focused on Trump's lawyer.

55/ Pagliery:

Necheles: Isn't it a fact that what you'd say depended on who was paying?

Stormy: False. I did 60 minutes on Anderson Cooper and they gave me zero.

56/ McB:

Necheles: The lesson you learned is that if you're making money on talking about President Trump, you better be talking about the sex, right?
Daniels: No, although that does seem to be the case (with some hints of good humor)

57/ McB:

Necheles homes in on the denials

Q: You denied having had sex with President Trump?
A: Right, because I was afraid.
Q: So you're telling InTouch magazine that you did have sex with him, then The Dirty that you didn't.
A: It was not the same time
Q: You sure about that?

Necheles is trying to trace the inconsistencies in Daniels' testimony, the switchbacks in her narrative, when Daniels tried to tell her story about her sexual encounter with Trump in one place, then deny it in another

58/ McB:

Necheles is stern, consistent, in her questioning.

Daniels holds her own, often looking directly at the jury when she answers Necheles' relentless questions.

59/ Press:

Stormy Daniels: I did Anderson Cooper and they didn't pay me anything!
Necheles: We'll get to that. The In Touch was a 22 page transcript. In 15 minutes?

Pagliery:

Necheles tries to cast doubt on the idea that she could do a 20 min interview with In Touch that resulted in a 22-page transcript.

Necheles: "You speak that fast that you think you can generate 22 pages of transcript in 15 minutes?"

Oh, darling. Hi. Journalist here. Yes. Sigh.

60/ Pagliery:

Stormy is defiant now. Necheles questions why she didn't tell her exercise class instructor about the man who'd allegedly approached her in the parking lot.

"No, I lied to her and told her my baby had a blowout in her diaper & that's why I was crying in the bathroom."

61/ McB:

Back to the 2011 parking lot threat, when this "supposedly happened," Necheles says.

Daniels says he implied a threat on her life and her baby daughter's.

Q: You didn't tell anyone, and you continued to the exercise class?
A: No, and no, I went to the bathroom.

62/ McB:

Necheles seamlessly moves between her podium and the defense table to review some notes, maybe a transcript, maybe excerpts from Daniels' book, and resumes her question.

Necheles seizes on another inconsistency. Daniels wrote in her book that she did the class, but now says that she didn't.
A: There's no way I could do the class as scared as I was.
Q: And you didn't tell anyone, not even the father of the child who received the threat?
A: No.

63/ McB:

Q: So the first time you discussed it publicly was 7 years after it happened?
A: Right.
Q: So for 7 years you kept it secret from your husband?
A: I kept everything about this from him.
Q: Your daughter's life was in jeopardy, and you did not tell her father?
A: Right.

64/ McB:

We hear a very dramatic riiiiiiip of paper, as Gedalia Stern stands up and walks over to Necheles to hand her a sheet from a yellow legal pad.

No idea what it says—sorry y'all my eyesight isn't that good.

65/ Klasfeld:

Q: Your daughter's life was in jeopardy, and you didn't tell her father, right?
A: Right.

In 2018, when Daniels went on TV, she told Anderson Cooper: "I never told this story publicly before because I was threatened."

Necheles says Daniels blamed the incident on Michael Cohen.

"No, I blamed it on a man in a garage," Daniels replies, before slightly backtracking.

Daniels acknowledges she did suspect Cohen at the time

66/ McB:

Q: You blamed it on Michael Cohen?
A: No, I blamed it on a man in the garage.
Q: But at the time, you believed it to be Cohen?
A: At the time, but I was wrong.
Q: So now, you and Cohen are buddies, right?
A: I wouldn't say we were buddies, no.
Q: Both you and Cohen share a desire to make money off of Trump going to jail?
Objection—sustained.

67/ McB:

She changes tack to talk about how in 2018, Daniels went on The View to repeat this threat, and Avenatti hired a sketch artist to depict the threatener.

Klasfeld:

On direct, Daniels blamed Avenatti for releasing the sketch of the supposed parking lot suspect.

Necheles points out Daniels sat next to Avenatti on "The View" when he unveiled it.