Porn star Stormy Daniels took the witness stand Tuesday in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial, a remarkable moment that breathed life into proceedings that had been mired in copies of checks, invoices and other mundane details of the state’s case.
Mr. Trump faced forward but turned his head slightly toward Ms. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, as she entered the courtroom. She spoke quickly and turned to the jury as she answered questions about her upbringing in Louisiana, including how she wanted to be a veterinarian but got into exotic dancing, then adult films.
By dancing, she said she could “make more in two nights than I could shoveling manure eight hours a day.”
Ms. Daniels is a central figure in the case because she shopped around a story about an alleged sexual encounter in 2006 with Mr. Trump during a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. The former president denies it occurred, though the story might have damaged his prospects before the 2016 election.
Ms. Daniels said the alleged encounter happened in a large hotel suite with black and white tile floors and “heavy beautiful furniture.” She made fun of Mr. Trump’s satin pajamas, according to testimony.
“Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas?” she testified she told him, referring to Playboy magnate Hugh Hefner.
She said she and Mr. Trump sat down and talked for two hours about her family and how the pornographic industry worked, including testing for sexually transmitted diseases.
Ms. Daniels testified Mr. Trump stripped down while she was in the bathroom and they had sex.
“I had my clothes and my shoes off. I removed my bra. We were in missionary position,” Ms. Daniels said, adding she left as fast as she could and didn’t tell many people about the alleged encounter.
Prosecutors allege Mr. Trump and his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, criminally concealed a payment to Ms. Daniels through checks and business entries that triggered election and tax offenses.
Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Even if convicted, Mr. Trump is unlikely to face serious prison time under the records charges, and the facts in the case have been litigated in public for nearly eight years.
Still, the scene was a remarkable one: A person who has sex on camera for a living was testifying against a former president who is the presumptive GOP nominee for November.
The central thesis of the case is that Mr. Trump took extraordinary steps to suppress alleged details of his life before the 2016 election and that efforts to conceal those efforts involved criminal acts. Now he’s stuck in a courtroom before the 2024 contest as the same alleged details are aired in open court.
Ms. Daniels said she first met Mr. Trump when she was age 27.
“He was as old or older than my father,” she said.
She testified she declined a dinner invitation that Mr. Trump delivered through his bodyguard but took down contact information and reconsidered, leading to the hotel suite encounter.
The jury was shown a now-famous photograph of Ms. Daniels with Mr. Trump, who was wearing golf attire. She identified him in the courtroom as the man wearing a navy suit coat.
Mr. Trump whispered to his attorney, Todd Blanche, or looked at the defense table or the TV monitor in front of him during Ms. Daniels‘ testimony.
At one point, as Ms. Daniels testified that Mr. Trump said he didn’t sleep in the same room as his wife, Melania, the former president shook his head at the defense table and appeared to say something under his breath.
Mr. Trump’s son Eric sat in the courtroom’s front row during the testimony.
Earlier Tuesday, the judge sided with prosecutors who said testimony about the allegation was necessary to establish Ms. Daniels‘ credibility. Prosecutors said they didn’t need to “involve descriptions of genitalia” or other seamy details.
The jury also heard from Sally Franklin, an executive at Penguin Random House.
The witness let prosecutors enter excerpts from the books in which Mr. Trump talks about watching every penny that goes in and out of his businesses.
On cross-examination, the defense noted Mr. Trump worked with a ghostwriter, presumably in an attempt to distance the former president from the words in the book.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.