8A WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2024 STATESMAN JOURNAL in his underwear, she described. She said she thought, my and asked herself what she had misread. She laughed nervously, she said, and at tried to make a joke and step around to leave. She said she feel physically threatened, although she knew there was a power imbalance and a bodyguard right outside. Daniels said she de- spite consuming no drugs or alcohol, and woke up on the bed naked.
She did not tell Trump to stop. say any- thing at she said. was trying to think about anything other than what was happening She made a reference to their sexual position and the defense objected, which the judge sustained. Asked by the prosecution whether Trump wore a condom, Daniels said no. As Daniels was readying to leave the suite, Trump said they were and that she should be gotten onto his show.
Daniels said she later met Trump on other occasions and discussed Ap- At one point he made passes she declined, saying she had her period. Eventually, Daniels said, Trump told her he get her on the show. She talk to him again, she said. She decided to keep the incident pri- vate after being threatened in a parking NEW YORK On the 13th day of the criminal prosecution of a for- mer president, after all the dreary testi- mony about ledgers and bookkeeping, Stormy Daniels got to the heart of the in- cident Donald Trump allegedly wanted to hush up: an encounter in his hotel suite. It was a tawdry account of gold twee- zers and silky pajamas, punctuated by a defense demand for a mistrial that the judge rejected.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records for allegedly trying to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels through his lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump denies having had sex with the adult actor and has pleaded not guilty. With son Eric looking on, Daniels unspooled a salacious and un- tale. Daniels said she was 27 years old when she met the reality TV star, then 60, at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in July 2006. At the tournament dinner, a Trump bodyguard named Keith approached Daniels, inviting her to meet the real es- tate mogul for dinner.
Daniels went up to hotel suite for the meeting. about your Trump greeted Daniels wearing silky pajamas. She made a joke, asking if Hugh Hefner knew that Trump was wearing his clothes. She told Trump to go change and he obliged, she said, put- ting on a dress shirt and dress pants. They made getting-to-know-you chit-chat, she said.
Trump asked if she had a boyfriend; she He asked business questions about the adult industry: Were there unions, was there testing for sexually transmitted dis- eases, how did she get paid. He asked if she had ever tested positive for an STD; no, never, she told him. She commented on a photo of Melan- ia Trump that was in the suite: very beautiful what about your Trump told Daniels not to worry about that, that he and his wife sleep in the same room, Daniels The light conversation continued. Trump, famously proud of his hair, told Daniels about a contest in which the los- er would have to shave his head. do not have the head designed to be with- out she responded.
He agreed, and said all that was predetermined and he knew it happen to him. Daniels said she grew annoyed by frequent interruptions and asked him, you always this arro- gant and He dared her to spank him with a magazine, and she did. Trump appeared to say as he watched from the table. was much more polite after Daniels said. They discussed his golf course in Scotland and traveling, she said.
Trump said he might be able to get her on At this point, Judge Juan Merchan told the prosecution to limit the detail. Daniels used the restroom, noticing Old Spice and gold tweezers. When she came out, Trump was on the bed posing lot in 2011 but changed her mind during 2016 presidential bid, when he faced multiple accusations of sexual misbehavior, she During the hush money negotiations, Daniels understood Cohen to be repre- senting Trump. She said she cared some but not much about the dollar amount. Two years later, The Wall Street Jour- nal reported on the hush money pay- ment and her life became Dan- iels said.
hate President After lunch, the defense demanded a mistrial, saying testimony was unduly prejudicial. Aside from the only purpose of her comments was this jury to not look at the ev- idence that lawyer Todd Blanche said. He was particularly furious that Dan- iels seemed to raise the possibility that the encounter was nonconsensual. Such testimony is to come back Blanche said. Merchan declined to grant the mistri- al.
Some things Daniels said would have been left he said, but he noted that he sustained many of the de- objections. was the defense object more, the judge said. Then the defense dove into cross-ex- amination, grilling Daniels on inconsis- tencies in her story about the parking lot threat and generally questioning her motives. I correct that you hate President Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked. Daniels said.
been making money by claiming to have had sex with President Trump for more than a decade, Necheles asked. Daniels responded that been making money by telling the story of what happened to her. Necheles prodded again on the story making Daniels a lot of money. has also cost me a lot of Daniels said. She that Trump did not force her into sex.
Contributing: Reuters. Stormy Daniels takes the stand in trial Defense demands mistrial claiming testimony unduly prejudicial Stormy Daniels Tuesday about her sexual encounter with Donald Trump in the hush money trial against the former president. MARY VIA REUTERS Aysha Bagchi, Kinsey Crowley and Bart Jansen USA TODAY Starliner will have to wait just a little while longer until the space capsule transports its crew into orbit. The Atlas 5 rocket that would have carried the CST-100 Starliner, along with two NASA astronauts, into space was fueled and ready for Mon- day night before the mission was scrubbed at the last minute. The United Launch Alliance, which manufactured the rocket, said in a statement that the cancellation was of an abundance of caution for the safety of the and pad Trouble with a valve in the upper stage prompted engineers to make the call to delay the long-awaited launch a critical demonstration of spacecraft as it seeks win ap- proval from NASA to make routine orbi- tal trips on the space behalf.
A new launch date is now targeted for Friday, the defense contractor an- nounced. The planned launch would send two veteran NASA astronauts to the International Space Station for about a week before they ride the cap- sule back to Earth. launch would have been the third and orbital test for Starliner before it could be ap- proved to make routine trips to space for NASA. Defense contractor technicians will work this week assessing and poten- tially replacing a mechanical gas- venting valve that triggered scrub at Kennedy Space Station in Florida. It said the decision came af- ter an anomaly was detected on the pressure regulation valve in the liquid oxygen tank of the upper stage.
not dissimilar to many other valves like that. You have one in your home on your hot water tank not all that Tory Bruno, presi- dent and CEO of the defense contrac- tor, said during a post-scrub NASA news conference. every now and again, in rare occasions, a valve like that can get into a position where just the seat. Its temperature, its everything is just right. And Or buzz in this case in Bruno said.
NASA and Boeing also the postponement. The two-person crew of Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams safely exited Starliner and returned to their quarters, Boeing said on its website. Williams, 58, and Wilmore, 61, were selected for the inau- gural crewed of the Starliner, which completed two previous tests with no one aboard. Both astro- nauts are Navy veterans who have each ventured to space twice before. The Starliner was designed to ac- commodate no more than seven pas- sengers for missions to low-Earth orbit.
For NASA, the capsule is intended to carry four astronauts along with a mix of cargo and other instru- ments to and from the International Space Station. Once the Starliner launches and reaches the space station, the astro- nauts are scheduled to spend a little more than a week testing the space- craft and its subsystems before they board the capsule for a return trip to Earth. The craft will land in the Amer- ican Southwest using parachutes that will slow it down to 4 mph before ing large airbags. Contributing: Rick Neale, Florida Today Starliner could launch TikTok, ByteDance sue to Friday following scrub Eric Lagatta USA TODAY A scheduled launch Monday of a Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station was delayed until at least Friday. GREGG VIA GETTY IMAGE Alleging First Amendment free speech violations, TikTok and its Chi- nese parent company ByteDance a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block a new law that would force the sale or the ban of popular short-form video app.
The law force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025, silencing the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated the petition said. The TikTok lawsuit, which chal- lenges the law on constitutional grounds, also cites commercial, techni- cal and legal hurdles as well as opposi- tion from Beijing. Divestiture is not especially within 270 days, the petition claims. According to the petition, the Chinese government made clear that it would not permit a divestment of the recommendation engine that is a key to the success of TikTok in the Unit- ed the time in history, Con- gress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a per- manent, nationwide ban, and bars ev- ery American from participating in a unique online community with more than one billion people the company said in its petition. The Justice Department declined to comment.
TikTok the petition with a fed- eral appeals court in Washington, D.C. It seeks a court order preventing the U.S. from enforcing the law, which was signed by President Joe Biden less than two weeks ago and which passed over- whelmingly in Congress. Biden could extend the January deadline by three months. In passing the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Ap- plications Act, lawmakers cited nation- al security concerns connected to Tik- Chinese ownership, alleging Tik- Tok could turn over sensitive data about Americans or use the app to spread propaganda.
and the executive branch have concluded, based on both publicly available and information, that TikTok poses a grave risk to na- tional security and the American peo- the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chi- nese Communist Party, John Moole- naar of Michigan, said in a statement. is telling that TikTok would rather spend its time, money and ing in court than solving the problem by breaking up with the CCP. that our legislation will be TikTok says it has never been asked to provide U.S. user data to the Chinese government and if asked. By- teDance has said it will not sell its U.S.
operations. Previous to restrict TikTok in the U.S. have been struck down by the courts. If ByteDance does not sell TikTok, the law would prohibit app stores and web hosting services from making the service available to Americans. going TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a TikTok video in April.
facts and the Con- stitution are on our Legal experts say the high-stakes le- gal battle will play out in the courts in coming months and likely will reach the Supreme Court. sale block US law seeking Jessica Guynn USA TODAY ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has a lawsuit to block the law President Joe Biden signed requiring the sale of the social media platform or it will face a U.S. ban. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JOE IMAGES.
