Photo: Getty Images
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels is reportedly expected to take the stand as one of the star witnesses in former President Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan on Tuesday (May 7), ABC News reports.
Daniels, 45, is at the center of the criminal trial, which stems from an alleged $130,000 payment made by Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen in exchange for Daniels' silence on an alleged 2006 sexual encounter -- which he's denied took place -- during his 2016 campaign for president. The alleged payment was made after Trump's infamous recorded conversation with former Access Hollywood host Billy Bush was leaked in October 2016, weeks before he was elected president.
Daniels, who initially went public with her legal dispute against Trump in 2018, reportedly planned to go on record with the National Enquirer about her alleged affair with Trump prior to Cohen negotiating a non-disclosure agreement, CBS News reports. Prosecutors allege that Trump falsified business records to hide the alleged hush money payment from voters when he repaid Cohen for the $130,000 payment in 2017.
Daniels' alleged sexual encounter with Trump and her negotiations with her then-lawyer Keith Davidson are expected to be discussed during her testimony on Tuesday, though the focus of the trial is centered on Trump's alleged falsification of business records.
Trump was held in contempt of court for violating a gag order set by Judge Juan Merchan prohibiting him from "making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding" for a 10th time and warned that additional infractions could result in possible jail time on Monday (May 6), CBS News reported.