(DailyAnswer.org) – Justice Juan Merchan has denied a call for a mistrial by former President Donald Trump’s legal team following the explicit testimony of adult film actress Stormy Daniels at his Hush Money criminal trial in Manhattan.
Trump’s defense moved for a mistrial on the week of Daniels’ testimony, which was so crude that it prompted Merchan to say that some things were “better left unsaid”. Todd Blanche, one of Trump’s attorneys, claimed that Daniels’ testimony was “prejudicial” and that the questions were being asked by the government to deliberately “inflame” the jury.
Merchan previously criticized Trump’s legal team for not objecting during the adult film star’s graphic account of the alleged sexual encounter with the former president. The judge agreed, however, that her testimony had gone into too much detail. Trump’s attorneys accused Daniels of altering her account. She had previously denied that she had sex with the former president.
Despite denying the mistrial request, Merchan agreed to limit the extent to which Daniels’ testimony can be used by the jury. Trump’s team is now focused on countering the testimony of his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who is claiming that he made the $130,000 payment to Daniels on Trump’s behalf. The former Trump associate claims that it was covered up with falsified business records. The prosecution’s case now rests on the testimony of an already disgraced lawyer with a proven criminal record, which Trump’s legal team is seizing as evidence to argue that the witness lacks credibility.
House Speaker Mike Johnson along with several other Republicans arrived at Manhattan to support the 2024 presidential candidate, and called the case a “sham” and politically motivated. Johnson highlighted Cohen’s history of perjury and claimed that he was on a personal revenge mission against his former boss.
Susan Necheles, one of Trump’s defense attorneys, claimed that the prosecution team had prepared the strike beforehand, and that Merchan allowed an attempt to rile up the Jury against Trump. Merchan disagreed with the suggestions that the prosecutors were doing what he “allowed” them to do. Blanche argued that Daniels’ testimony, which focused on issues of “danger” and “consent”, differed considerably from the story she told in 2016.
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