Melania who?
Porn actor Stormy Daniels testified under oath Tuesday in Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial that when she asked about the former president’s wife back when the two allegedly had sex in 2006 that Trump told Daniels not to worry about Melania.
“Don’t worry about that, we don’t even sleep in the same room,” Daniels told the courtroom, according to numerous accounts.
As Daniels was describing the scene, Trump reportedly shook his head at the defense table and appeared to say something under his breath.
Per instructions from Trump’s bodyguard, Daniels said she took an elevator up to the penthouse level of the hotel where Trump was staying. She said she exchanged pleasantries with the bodyguard, Keith Schiller, outside the door before entering.
Schiller had told her the plan was for her and Trump to go down to one of the hotel’s restaurants for dinner. She said she entered a foyer with black and white tile floors, mahogany furnishings and a big floral arrangement. She said she called Trump’s name and said, “Hello,” and Trump entered the foyer “wearing silk or satin pajamas that I immediately made fun of him for.”
“I said, ‘Does Mr. Hefner know you stole his pajamas,’” Daniels recalled, referring to the late Playboy owner. Trump then left her to quickly change into a suit. She said Trump’s hotel suite was three times the size of her apartment.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged effort to keep salacious — and, he says, bogus — stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign. On Monday, Trump called the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a “scam” and “witch hunt.”
The charges center on $130,000 in payments that Trump’s company made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen. He paid that sum on Trump’s behalf to keep porn actor Stormy Daniels from going public with her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the sexual encounter ever happened.
Prosecutors say the payments to Cohen were falsely logged as legal fees. Prosecutors have described it as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories Trump feared could help his opponent in the 2016 race, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.
Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment and that it was designed to stop Daniels from going public about the alleged encounter. But Trump has previously said it had nothing to do with the campaign.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.
