Legal experts criticize Stormy Daniels’ testimony at Trump trial: ‘disastrous’ responses will be ‘counterproductive’

Stormy Daniels’ testimony Tuesday in the New York v. Trump case was criticized by legal experts, with some arguing that her editorials and hatred of the former president damaged her credibility.

MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos said Daniels’ testimony turned former President Trump’s trial “into a quasi-sexual assault case,” giving his legal team an opportunity to appeal.

“You always ask the question: Can you get this information from a less risky witness?” he said.

“Stormy Daniels is one of those witnesses who tends not only to answer the question asked, but adds her own editorial. And that’s a really dangerous thing, I promise you. The prosecution is sitting at their desk saying, ‘Just answer the question.’ ‘Please. Just answer the question,'” Cevallos continued.

Cevallos also said his testimony could have been accomplished by just saying three words, “we had sex,” adding that the rest was probably unnecessary.

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Trump is accused of falsifying business documents related to an alleged payment of money to Daniels for her silence about a date she says they had in 2006. Trump has denied an affair with Daniels, which reportedly occurred shortly after marrying his current wife Melania. .

Daniels took the stand Tuesday and gave a very detailed account of how she had sex with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel room that year. Media reports of the trial described Daniels as speaking quickly, cracking jokes, and often going beyond directly answering questions posed to him; At one point, Judge Juan Merchán told prosecutors that his witness was giving “unnecessary” details.

Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst He said Wednesday that Daniels could have damaged the prosecution’s case by revealing that she hated Trump, and noted that her testimony would be used against them in the Trump team’s closing statements.

“I think he may have caused damage to the prosecution’s case by virtue of the fact that he just couldn’t stop saying things, and that will backfire on them,” added CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez.

Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. (Getty Images)

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Williams acknowledged that Daniels ultimately had to take the stand because the existence of the alleged sexual encounter was at the center of the case, the first criminal trial against a former US president.

CNN’s Elie Honig said his answers during cross-examination by Trump’s team called into question his credibility.

“His responses were disastrous,” Honig said, also referring to the time Daniels said she hated Trump.

“When the witness hates the person whose freedom is at stake, that’s a big problem!” Honig said. “And she’s posting tweets, fantasizing about him being in jail. That really undermines credibility.”

Daniels has made multiple posts about Trump on social media, including writing that he will “go to jail” before having to “pay a dime” to Trump.

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“The fact that she owes him $500,000 by court order, she owes Donald Trump half a million dollars, and she said, ‘I’ll never pay him. I’ll defy a court order.’ The defense will say, ‘She’s willing to defy a court order.’ ‘She is not willing to respect an order from a judge. Why will she respect this oath she made?’ “So I thought the cross-examination went pretty badly,” the analyst said.

“The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump aide who now opposes him, also questioned Daniels’ credibility.

“Actually, I don’t think I needed to go into the salacious details. I would have liked to hear from Stormy, who is a mother, who wants to live a private life, she wants to put this behind her, she’s been exploited by countless men in her life,” Griffin said. . “She was there under subpoena just to confirm what she could do.”

“I think it hurt her credibility and she’s a credible person,” Griffin said before noting that he believed Daniels’ story.

The other co-hosts of “The View” argued that Daniels’ testimony was credible.

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“It’s just his word against her word, so now he’s testifying? No, I doubt it,” said co-host Sunny Hostin. “But does the jury believe her? And it was all about credibility. And that’s why Trump’s lawyers were hitting her and hitting and hitting her, but if you listen to some of the reporters in the courtroom, they say, she seemed pretty”. credible. She seemed pretty credible.”

Former President Donald Trump attends the first day of his criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on April 15, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP via AP Pool)

Co-host Sara Haines also said it was believable.

“I think Stormy Daniels’ testimony was important because as someone who is paralyzed by watching this… Stormy Daniels was enough for me to tune in because I find her credible and I think it mattered,” he said.

The Washington Post report Daniels’ testimony also noted that her descriptions suggested she had not given full consent to the encounter, saying they could be considered prejudicial to the jury. The outlet also reported that this could give the presumptive Republican nominee’s team a chance to appeal.

Daniels has never alleged that Trump forced her, but she testified that there was an “imbalance” of power and that she was left “shaking” afterward.

Trump is on trial in Manhattan and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records related to alleged payments to Daniels.

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Fox News’ Jeffrey Clark and David Rutz contributed to this report.