Takes the stand.....

Stormy Daniels, porn star who received hush money payment, takes the stand

Trump's alleged attempt to conceal a $130,000 payoff to Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign is at the heart of his criminal charges.

BEN FEUERHERD

Stormy Daniels, the porn star whose hush money payment is at the center of Donald Trump’s criminal case, has been called to the witness stand by prosecutors.

Daniels, a critical witness, is expected to tell jurors how her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 touched off a plot to buy her silence and, prosecutors say, illegally influence the 2016 presidential election.

In the final weeks of the 2016 campaign, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, arranged to pay $130,000 to Daniels so that she wouldn’t go public with her story. Prosecutors have charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an alleged effort to conceal reimbursements to Cohen for that payoff.

Prosecutors have accused Trump of directing the payment as part of a conspiracy to violate campaign-finance laws and hide information from voters.

Jurors have already heard from a host of witnesses who played roles in the payment, including Daniels’ former attorney, Keith Davidson, and tabloid executive David Pecker, whose company first introduced Cohen to the prospective hush money deal.

Daniels, whose birth name is Stephanie Clifford, may be asked to describe her account of a sexual encounter with Trump, as well as what she knew about the payment in 2016 as her manager, attorney and Cohen executed the deal.

Earlier today, Trump's defense team made a last-ditch bid to block Daniels from testifying about the alleged sex act, but the judge ruled that the topic is allowed.