Jurors appeared riveted as Daniels, over the repeated objections of defense lawyers and occasional admonitions from the judge, offered a detailed and at times graphic account of an encounter Trump has denied. Trump stared straight ahead as Daniels entered the courtroom, later shaking his head and whispering to his lawyers as she testified.
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The testimony was by far the most-awaited spectacle in a trial that has toggled between tabloidesque elements and dry record-keeping explanation. A courtroom appearance by a porn actor who says she had an intimate encounter with a former American president adds to the long line of historic firsts in the case, which was already laden with tawdry claims of sex, payoffs and cover-ups. It is unfolding as the presumptive Republican nominee makes another bid for the White House.
Daniels was allowed to testify despite the repeated objections of defense lawyers, who after the lunch break demanded for the first time a mistrial over what they said were harmful and irrelevant comments.
"This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from," defense lawyer Todd Blanche said. "How can we come back from this in a way that’s fair to President Trump?"
The judge rejected the defense request and said defense lawyers should have raised more objections during the testimony. The Trump team later in the day used its opportunity to question Daniels to paint her as motivated by personal animus and profiting off her claims against Trump.
"Am I correct that you hate President Trump?" defense lawyer Susan Necheles asked Daniels.
"Yes," she acknowledged.
Daniels' statements are central to the case because in the final weeks of Trump's 2016 Republican presidential campaign, his then-lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels US$130,000 (NZ$216,592) to keep quiet about what she said was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in July 2006. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Led by a prosecutor's questioning, Daniels described how an initial meeting at a golf tournament, where they discussed the adult film industry, progressed to a "brief" sexual encounter that she said Trump initiated after inviting her to dinner and back to his hotel suite.
She said she did not feel physically or verbally threatened, although she knew his bodyguard was outside the suite, and there was what she perceived as an imbalance of power: Trump "was bigger and blocking the way".
After it ended, she said, "It was really hard to get my shoes because my hands were shaking so hard," she testified.
"He said, 'Oh, it was great. Let's get together again, honey bunch'," Daniels continued. "I just wanted to leave."
In the years since the encounter was disclosed, Daniels has emerged as a vocal Trump antagonist, sharing her story in a book and on television and criticizing the former president with mocking and pejorative jabs. But there was no precedent for today's events, when she came face-to-face with Trump and was asked in an austere courtroom setting to describe her experiences before a jury weighing whether to convict a former American president of felony crimes for the first time in history.
She said she met Trump because the adult film studio she worked for her at the time was sponsoring one of the holes on the golf course. They chatted about the adult film industry and her directing abilities when Trump's group passed through. The celebrity real estate developer commented that she must be "the smart one" if she's making films, Daniels recalled.