(USNewsBreak.com) – Former President Donald Trump is currently on trial for allegedly covering up hush-money payments to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels. The woman in question took the stand last week, giving very explicit details of their affair at times. After her testimony, the former president’s legal team asked for a mistrial — their second such request.
On Tuesday, May 7, Trump’s legal team sought to declare a mistrial. Judge Juan Merchan denied the request despite admitting most of her testimony wasn’t relevant to the case at hand. Then, after Clifford took the stand on Thursday, the defense moved to declare another mistrial, claiming the testimony was “prejudicial” and didn’t focus enough on the actual reason for the case. Todd Blanche said the prosecution asked questions about “things that are irrelevant to the facts” of the case.
Merchan denied this second motion, saying that since the defense mentioned it was a choice of believing her versus Trump in its opening statement, her testimony bears on credibility, helping the jury make its decision. He reprimanded the defense team, noting they had multiple opportunities to object to the line of questioning — such as when the prosecution asked if Trump wore protection — but did not take them. Merchan also noted that he ordered specific statements struck from the record to protect the former president and disagreed with the defense’s take that Clifford’s narrative kept changing.
Finally, the defense team also asked Merchan to modify the terms of the gag order to allow Trump to defend himself against Clifford’s statements. The judge also denied that request, saying that the former president’s history of “vitriol” and the nature of his attacks prompted the order initially.
Trump attacked Merchan, who didn’t protect himself from Trump’s verbal barbs with the gag order, after the judge denied the motions, calling him “corrupt.”
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