'That is motive': Prosecutor 'loudly' defends Trump trial witness spilling 'messy details'
Manhattan prosecutor Joshua Steinglass had a simple answer on Thursday during a hearing at Trump's hush money trial into whether it was appropriate for adult film star Stormy Daniels to reveal salacious details about her alleged affair with Trump on the witness stand, MSNBC's Adam Klasfeld reported.
This comes as Trump's legal team seeks a mistrial over those details being presented to the jury.
"Steinglass defends eliciting testimony about the spank. If prosecutors didn't do that, the defense would have invoked it to undermine her testimony that she was surprised when the encounter turned sexual," wrote Klasfeld. Additionally, "Steinglass turns to the detail about the condom: That relates to Daniels' earlier testimony about strict safety measures in the pornographic film industry, another corroborating detail, he says."
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"Those messy details: That is motive," Steinglass said "loudly and emphatically," according to Klasfeld.
He added that Steinglass accused the defense of trying to "have their cake and eat it too," by both claiming that Daniels' account was false, and trying to get details that corroborate that account excluded from evidence.
Trump is charged with business fraud for allegedly trying to conceal $130,000 in hush money to Daniels, so that voters would not learn about their alleged affair ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The former president denies that any of the scheme was against the law, and does not even acknowledge that the purported affair happened in the first place.
Trump was visibly agitated during Daniels' testimony this week, cursing and shaking his head while she spoke, which prompted Judge Juan Merchan to order defense counsel to control their client.
In addition to the mistrial, Trump's legal team sought for Merchan to amend the gag order that prohibits Trump from criticizing witnesses. Merchan declined to do so, saying that Trump's "track record" is against him.