IN a hushed New York courtroom they were brought together again, two decades after claims of a “brief” sexual tryst.
Taking the witness stand for the performance of her lifetime was porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Just ten feet away, shaking his head and growling obscenities, was the 45th President of the United States, Donald J Trump.
And Stormy, 45, a one-time winner of the Best New Starlet Award from Adult Video News, had the world hanging on her every word.
Words that went into such detail they would lead judge Justice Juan Merchan to say much of her evidence “would have been better left unsaid”.
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Confidently addressing the jury as if they were friends, Stormy insisted that before their sexual encounter in 2006 Trump had compared her to his daughter Ivanka.
Then she told the court how she spanked the former President with a rolled-up magazine — with his face on the cover — before they went on to have full, unprotected sex.
“I had my clothes and my shoes off,” she testified. “I removed my bra. We were in the missionary position.”
With reporters in the packed court-room training binoculars on Trump’s every grimace, Stormy revealed how she had asked him about his wife Melania that day.
As the jury looked on, the actress said he told her that they did not “even sleep in the same room”.
From his seat at the defence table, Trump shook his head in disgust and muttered “bulls**t”, earning a rebuke from the judge who called his actions “contemptuous”.
Trump, the Republican nominee in November’s Presidential election, is not only being judged by the 12 jurors on the 15th floor of the Manhattan courthouse.
Nude modelling As the tawdry claims flowed, America’s voting public were also making up their own minds on whether Stormy’s testimony did or did not have the whiff of “bulls**t”.
Christian evangelicals — key to propelling him to the White House in 2016 — may recoil from claims of an extra-marital affair.
While another critical voter metric, suburban women, might find this salacious peek behind the presidential curtain damning.
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Trump, 77, is not on trial for having sex with the porn star, which he vehemently denies.
He has been charged with falsifying business records in relation to a hush-money payment made to Stormy.
He has pleaded not guilty.
A conviction could mean a four-year prison term.
Yet, much may depend on whether the jury find Stormy’s testimony compelling.
This week’s courtroom drama began with a stark assurance by the prosecution that there would be “no descriptions of genitalia or anything”, but that it was “important to elicit that she had sex with him”.
Then came the Hollywood-like cry from the court: “The People call Stormy Daniels.”
In strode Stormy — real name Stephanie Gregory Clifford — to take her place on the stand.
Her long blonde hair clipped back, she let the court know she would prefer to be known by her porn actress name Stormy Daniels.
Nude modelling
Dressed in black with a hooded cardigan, she began by telling how she grew up as the daughter of a low-income single mother in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in America’s Deep South.
A horse-mad youngster, she worked at a stables before later winning a scholarship to study veterinary medicine.
Then a friend had told her she was a dancer, which Stormy thought meant “ballet, jazz and tap”.
She added: “I was wrong, she was an exotic dancer.”
Stormy worked out she could make more in two nights as a stripper “than I could shoveling manure eight hours a day”.
As she gave evidence, the four-times-married mother of one often gestured and giggled directly at the jury.
And on several occasions, the visibly animated witness was asked to slow her quickfire testimony.
The court heard that Stormy began nude modelling at 21 before moving to Los Angeles to star in and direct adult movies.
Then came the meeting which would secure her place in US political history.
In July 2006 she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California.
At the time, he was 60 and starring on US TV in The Apprentice, while Stormy was 27.
“I didn’t know his age,” she told the court. “But I knew he was as old as, or older than, my father.”
Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller is said to have asked her if she would have dinner with the real-estate tycoon.
“F no,” Stormy testified in a soft voice, when asked what her reply had been.
Asked to clarify, she said: “No, but with an expletive in front.”
But a publicist advised her to accept the invitation, saying: “If nothing else you’ll get a great story.”
Stormy added: “What could possibly go wrong?”
Arriving at Trump’s hotel suite, she told the court it was “three times” the size of her apartment.
And she said Trump was dressed like the late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
She claimed: “He was wearing silk or satin pyjamas that I immediately made fun of him for — ‘Does Mr Hefner know you stole his pyjamas?’.
“I told him to go change and he obliged very politely.”
Trump put on a dress shirt and trousers before the pair sat down to talk about Stormy’s career in the adult film industry.
She recounted him asking: “Are there any unions? Do you get residuals? How do you get paid? Do you get health insurance? What about STDs (sexually transmitted diseases)?”
Stormy alleged that Trump specifically asked about her own tests for STDs.
He stood up between me and the door. Not in a threatening manner. He didn’t come at me, he didn’t rush at me. Nothing like that
Stormy Daniels
She said she remembered telling him: “I never tested positive for anything.”
The two also had a “very brief” chat about Trump’s wife, Melania, she told the court.
“He showed me a few pictures,” she went on. “And I said, ‘Oh, what about your wife?’.”
She claims Trump responded: “Oh, don’t worry about that, we don’t sleep in the same room.”
As she made the allegation, Trump was seen closing his eyes and shaking his head.
The jury then heard that Trump suggested to Stormy that she should appear on The Apprentice.
“I said, ‘Even you don’t have this much power’,” she testified.
“He said, ‘You remind me of my daughter because she’s smart, blonde and beautiful and people underestimate her’.
“The way he framed it, it did actually make perfect sense.”
During their conversation Trump is said to have shown her a magazine with his picture emblazoned on the cover.
The adult movie actress told the court that she snapped at him for being rude, saying, “Are you always this arrogant and pompous?
“You don’t even know how to have a conversation”.
‘Arrogant and pompous’
Stormy then claimed that she spanked Trump “on the right butt” with the mag.
After spending hours chatting, Stormy said she needed to use the toilet, which was accessed through the bedroom.
When she came out, she claims Trump was sitting on the bed in his boxer shorts and T-shirt.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, what did I misread to get here?’,” she told the jury.
“I wasn’t expecting some-one to be there, especially minus a lot of clothing.
“The intention was pretty clear, somebody stripped down to their underwear and posing for you.”
She told the packed courtroom: “He stood up between me and the door. Not in a threatening manner.
“He didn’t come at me, he didn’t rush at me. Nothing like that.
“There was an imbalance of power, for sure. He was bigger and blocking the way. I was not threatened verbally or physically.
“Next thing I know, I was on the bed.”
The porn star then claimed she had sex with the future president without using a condom.
The sexual encounter was described as “brief”, and leaving her shaking and bewildered.
There was an imbalance of power, for sure. He was bigger and blocking the way. I was not threatened verbally or physically. Next thing I know, I was on the bed
Stormy Daniels
Afterwards, Stormy revealed she “didn’t say anything at all”.
While she alleged Trump said: “Oh, it was great, let’s get together again, honey bunch.”
The pair would have further encounters but she insisted she always declined his advances.
Trump’s lawyers requested a mistrial after Daniels’ sometimes lurid testimony, claiming her remarks had “nothing to do with this case” and were “extremely prejudicial”.
But Justice Merchan threw the request out.
Trump is accused of the crime of trying to cover up a £104,300 hush-money payment to Stormy — in exchange for her silence over their affair — before he won the 2016 election.
Prosecutors say it was made as part of an illegal effort to influence the election, which Trump denies.
His lawyers have suggested that he was simply concerned that his wife and family would hear about it.
So will a porn star bring down a president?
Some legal experts have described Stormy’s time in the stand as a “sideshow”, with much of her evidence “wholly irrelevant”.
But Mitchell Epner, a former prosecutor, said: “The very thing that makes everybody in that room uncomfortable about Daniels providing specifics is what makes this so powerful.”
Come November, millions across America will have their chance to make a judgment on whether Stormy’s testimony was “bulls**t” — or if she was telling the truth.
