NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers on Thursday argued that Stormy Daniels’ experience in the porn industry made her an expert at fabricating stories about sexual encounters.
“You have a lot of experience in making phony stories about sex appear to be real,” defense attorney Susan Necheles said in cross-examination during Mr. Trump’s hush money trial.
“That’s not how I would put it. The sex in those films is very much real just like what happened to me in that room,” Ms. Daniels said.
She was referring to her claim of a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006.
Prosecutors allege Mr. Trump and his lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 to suppress the claim ahead of the 2016 election, then took illegal steps to conceal the payment. Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denies the sex encounter with Ms. Daniels.
Ms. Necheles is portraying Ms. Daniels as a money-hungry person who extorted Mr. Trump while he ran for president.
The lawyer noted that Ms. Daniels took part in about “200 sex films,” making her adept at writing explicit stories. The implication was she made up her story about Mr. Trump.
“I would have written it to be a lot better,” Ms. Daniels said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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