--- title: Daniels Humiliated Trump, But Might Have Helped His Case description: The porn star's testimony may have planted the seeds for a future appeal by Trump's lawyers, should a jury convict him in the hush money case. canonical: https://time.com/6976078/stormy-daniels-trump-mistrial/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-05-08T21:10:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-19T12:59:49.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Daniels Humiliated Trump, But Might Have Helped His Case og:description: The porn star's testimony may have planted the seeds for a future appeal by Trump's lawyers, should a jury convict him in the hush money case. og:url: https://time.com/6976078/stormy-daniels-trump-mistrial/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8f493385e346882/698a5693e6e84a66e52b2ecc/GettyImages-2151375802.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-JUSTICE-COURT-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Daniels Humiliated Trump, But Might Have Helped His Case twitter:description: The porn star's testimony may have planted the seeds for a future appeal by Trump's lawyers, should a jury convict him in the hush money case. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8f493385e346882/698a5693e6e84a66e52b2ecc/GettyImages-2151375802.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stormy Daniels Humiliated Donald Trump. She Also May Have Helped His Case. > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=a2f7f0ed-74a4-4bd4-9418-dfa0775fbbe6&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Testifying in Hush Money Trial, Stormy Daniels Describes First Meeting Trump [Watch (HLS stream): Testifying in Hush Money Trial, Stormy Daniels Describes First Meeting Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/R6pvIA29.m3u8) (3:20)  _Published 2024-05-08. With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later._  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Jan 19, 2026 12:59 PM UTCPublished: May 8, 2024 9:10 PM UTC With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Jan 19, 2026 12:59 PM UTCPublished: May 8, 2024 9:10 PM UTC The testimony carried all of the bawdy details one would expect in a made-for-tabloid tryst. There were silk pajamas. The porn star spanked the billionaire “right on the butt” with a magazine featuring him on the cover. He shared pictures of his wife, who was nowhere near the hotel penthouse. She alleged she felt a power imbalance that left her feeling like she had few options but to proceed with the unprotected and “brief” sexual engagement. She even seemed to suggest the whole affair may not have happened with consent. And that was just the [first](https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/07/politics/takeaways-stormy-daniels-hush-money-testimony/index.html) day of testimony. But let’s not forget that all of this is being disclosed during a trial that is at, at its core, about allegedly falsified paperwork involving Donald Trump’s businesses. We can talk about Trump stripping to his undergarments and posing seductively on his bed until we are numb, but the criminality here hinges on something as basic as a potentially ginned-up expense report. Yet as long as the prosecution’s story is focused on the sex and not the spreadsheets, Trump may wind up with the upper hand given Stormy Daniels’ transparent agenda to bury her one-time bed mate. Daniels, who returned to the stand on Thursday, spent Tuesday [disclosing](https://news.sky.com/story/stormy-daniels-describes-awkward-and-unexpected-sexual-encounter-with-donald-trump-13131398) in sometimes unnerving detail her night in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, with Trump back in 2006, and she is expected to return to the stand when the trial resumes on Thursday. Trump’s lawyers and occasionally even Judge Juan Merchan seemed in agreement that the level of detail Daniels provided was, at times, unnecessary. Some details, Merchan [summarized](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/05/07/nyregion/trump-trial-hush-money-stormy-daniels), ​​might have “been better left unsaid.” At one point, he even [chastised](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/07/trump-hush-money-trial-live-updates/#link-XSLBDEDDE5HI5G5DVS7OLP5WEA) the defense for not making _more_ objections to the intrusive questions and cut off Daniels’ testimony when it veered into the salacious. Prosecutors, meanwhile, realized they had regained the rapt attention of the jurors, who to this point had been buried in otherwise relatively beige details in a case that, ultimately, comes down to whether Trump cooked the books to hide hush money paid before the 2016 election. Even so, they cannot be confident they cleared a credibility hurdle with the witness, who has been open in her contempt for Trump and hardly shy about her motives. For his part, Trump has [pleaded](https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-arraignment-hush-money-81225510ef7638494852816878f612f0) not guilty, denied the affair ever happened, and [continues](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-stormy-daniels-horseface-after-judge-dismisses-her-suit-n920701) to call Daniels “horseface.” The two sides of the Manhattan courtroom may be playing to different juries: one, the national judgment of Trump, who is on track to claim the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in July; the other, the 12 jurors and six alternates who will decide what, if any, consequences Trump should face in the bookkeeping probe. The renderings could come completely disjointed, and both political parties might be able to declare victory regardless of any factual decisions made by this jury. Trump has been arguing without nuance that the whole thing is a political prosecution to help President Joe Biden win re-election. The extended public discussion of an alleged private encounter could end up feeding that sentiment with both juries in play. On the legal front, you can already see the seeds for a Trump appeal taking life as his lawyers repeatedly [objected](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/07/trump-hush-money-trial-live-updates/#link-XTA6G6LPPBABTJWL2R2JD4D6XQ) that the details being presented by Daniels were so prejudicial that it would undoubtedly taint the jury’s decision. But Merchan declined their request for a mistrial. “There will be grounds for appeal. But I don’t think it’s enough to win an appeal,” says Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor who is watching the case closely and has been [critical](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elie-honig-donald-trump-disastrous%5Fn%5F663b0c94e4b0f72991a81984) of the state’s strategy. “Not every error is going to cause a mistrial or a win on appeal.” Still, Trump’s character is not on trial here. The two questions that matter are whether Trump is guilty of the 34 [counts](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/06/nyregion/trump-charges-felonies.html) of falsifying business records about the 2016 reimbursement of Michael Cohen, his former fixer who is expected to testify for the prosecution, and whether Trump’s presidential campaign played a factor in using $130,000 in Trump Organization funds to do so. The sex stuff? That’s actually less relevant than [GAAP](https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/blog/understanding-gaap-rules/) rules or [FEC](https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/understanding-public-funding-presidential-elections/presidential-spending-limits/) regs. The enmity between Daniels—born Stephanie Clifford—and Trump was on full display for jurors and judges from afar alike to see. Trump muttered profanity during her testimony and his lawyers were telegraphing on Wednesday that the next day could bring harsh questioning. Daniels was far from circumspect about her motivations, acknowledging she wanted to hurt Trump by coming forward with her story. These two, it is incredibly apparent, loathe each other and want to see the other destroyed—which may make for great drama, but not immediately useful in the court proceedings. In a microcosm, they are fairly good proxies for how half of this country sees the other. And maybe that’s the whole point: the substance of this case about business records was always going to be about more than improper reimbursements. When a divisive defendant like Trump is facing jail time in the middle of a heated election season, a clear-eyed assessment was always going to be tricky. Add in salacious details that are well beyond the norms of any campaign, it gets downright difficult if not impossible to find a fair verdict. That fact may be what both sides are counting on more than anything established in the witness box. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ## Transcript Stormy Daniels testimony of Donald Trump's hush money criminal trial compelled the former president lawyers to ask for a mistrial Trump's lawyers told judge Juan Marshawn that Daniels White far-field in the ground rules that were established for her testimony for months and months defense lawyers the prosecutors and the judge had been in talks and came up with rules for what they could testify about and what level of detail she could provide to the jury several times during her testimony Trump's lawyers objected when they felt that she was going beyond the scope of what had been established as the ground rules. She talked about the sexual encounter in details that she was not supposed to they are good but judge mershon in denying that mistrial request said the defense did not try hard enough to a Jack and prevent that testimony. He said it was incumbent on them to speak out and stand up and try to block her from sharing those details that they say I were prejudicial to their client wants the mistrial matter was resolved Trump lawyer Susan necklace started her cross-examination questioning a Stormy Daniels on Daniels. What she said was a scripting Narrative of the sexual encounter the alleged sexual encounter necklace pointed to an account that Jane has reported in her book in 2018 compared to some of the testimony she gave in court on Tuesday. Necklace also pointed to potential motivations for Daniel cooperating in this investigation in this trial. She play it to Daniels Towing several hundred thousand dollars in legal fees to Donald Trump as a result of various litigation that emanated in the aftermath of the pasta Monday deal at the heart of this trial Susan necklace asked Stormy Daniels. If she wants to see Trump in jail and Stormy Daniels said, yes, she did if he's found guilty. In this case. He should be punished necklace also ask Daniel's if she was trying to extort Trump when she was shopping restore your having a friend shop her story in the Press. In the months leading up to the 2016 election Stormy Daniels was forceful in a response. She says that is false. She said she did not try to extort doll shop. In fact, she said she was not looking for money. She wanted to tell her story. She did not want to be kept silent. But when time is running out for the election and Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made a deal to pay her $130,000. That's when she felt she needed to get paid before the election because she thought Owen was trying to leverage the election against her in her mind. She felt a cold was trying to wait out the clock that the election was held and it regardless of whether Trump won or lost. He wouldn't have to pay her the money if Trump won. It wouldn't have mattered if the story came out and if Trump lost it wouldn't matter also because he would no longer be in a presidential campaign that could be damaged by those Revelations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6976078/stormy-daniels-trump-mistrial/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6976078/stormy-daniels-trump-mistrial/"},"headline":"Stormy Daniels Humiliated Donald Trump. 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