As the hush-money trial gets underway in New York involving former US President Donald Trump, porn star Stormy Daniels is set to testify on Tuesday.
Two US media outlets reported that Daniels will be called as a witness in Trump's criminal trial. She is one of the big names involved in the trial alleging that Trump had sex with her, which was denied by the former US president.
According to the prosecutors, Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels USD 1,30,000 to keep her silent about the alleged sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in July 2006.
Last week, Trump's campaign press secretary, Hope Hicks, testified in the court that she was told by Trump to deny that he had a sexual relationship with Daniels. She said that she had told Trump that the Wall Street Journal would publish details of Daniels' story.
Hicks also added that Trump did not want his wife Melania to see the story, which also included allegations that he had an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Her testimony also stated that Trump told her that Cohen paid off Daniels to "protect him from a false allegation".
According to District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, Trump falsely labelled his reimbursement payments to Cohen in 2017 as legal expenses in his real estate company’s books to cover up what they call an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election by buying the silence of people with potentially damaging information.
On Monday, the jurors saw the 34 business records that prosecutors say were falsified by Trump to obscure his reimbursement of Cohen.
Cohen in 2018 pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law through the payment to Daniels. He testified that Trump directed him to make the payment.
