Stormy Daniels Spars With Former President Trump’s Defense Attorney In Tense Exchange Over Cash-For-Silence Transaction

Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal in New York, Friday, April 19, 2024. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s defense attorneys are grilling Stormy Daniels on the transaction at the center of the former president’s hush money trial.

The defense pressed Daniels on Thursday about why she accepted a $130,000 payment to keep quiet about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump instead of going public.

Daniels avoided eye contact with the former president as she walked into the Manhattan courtroom and made her way to the witness stand for a second day of testimony.

Prosecutors argue that Trump and his allies snatched up potentially damaging stories and buried them in an illegal effort to influence the November results.

Trump denies any wrongdoing.