Trump trial: New York preparing to imprison Trump on Rikers Island

One of the key elements of this is Trump's repeated violation of this gag order. He's been fined, you know, on 10 separate occasions for criticizing potential Witnesses, and in fact, we're seeing New York City making preparations to potentially

imprison

Donald Trump. on Riker's Island, which I don't know if you're familiar with Riker's Island, but it's a notoriously poor prison, it's overcrowded, there's gang violence, there's been something like 30 inmate deaths in the last three years, so I mean, there's all these kinds of you know, subplots that develop all the time and really are, you know, kind of fascinating, you know, testimony and coverage.

Donald Trump's hush money

trial

resumes with more testimony from Stormmy Daniels, the adult film star whose brief alleged affair with the former US president has already been the subject of many salacious questions from the prosecutors. Bon Hurley is the Times' chief American reporter and has been covering the story. Bon set the stage for us. What are the key takeaways we have learned from Daniel's stormy testimony? so far, good afternoon, yes, very stormy testified for just under five hours on Tuesday, where she described the sexual encounter with Donald Trump and the Taho elected hotel suite in 2006 and the subsequent consequences of this experience that, according to her, had place, of course, says Trump.

That never happened. She said she was threatened in 2011 by an unknown man in a Las Vegas parking lot to go public with the story. This led her to agree to sign this confidentiality agreement in 2016, on the eve of the presidential elections. She said she feared for her safety and that of her family and she was really hard-pressed by Trump defense attorney Susan Michelle's inconsistencies in her testimony. She's changed her story of what happened several times, she really descended into, you know, something. She's pretty fiery and heated back and forth and just moments ago she took the stand again when N Shelle continues to press her about the inconsistencies in her status in the type of statements she's made over the years.

We've heard there's been a slight change in Trump's defense strategy he intends to keep Daniels on the stand as long as possible today so we can have another full day of testimony from the former porn star, so the defense clearly and you have already hinted at this, they are trying. to undermine their credibility, how successful do you think they are going to be in doing that? Well, you know, Daniels, um, has some credibility issues, uh, in that, she has, you know, a history of being, um, you know, she kind of gives in to some, I guess.

You could say questionable, you know, professional conduct. She has written about this extensively and appeared in numerous interviews where you know she has told this story over and over again, but the defense seemed to get something done in her testimony. Just this morning the judge ruled that the defense team could question her about a previous arrest, so I guess it all adds up in the jury's mind as to whether or not they can trust her evidence, uh, you know, is supported. with sort of contemporaneous notes and text messages and other things, so I guess from the prosecution's point of view they will look to triangulate that evidence rather than relying solely on her account of her things.

Yeah, sure, what are some of the dynamics like? I mean, it feels extraordinary just to see glimpses of what this court case has been like from here, but for you covering it day in and day out, how would you say you know how it's going so far? I mean, it's unprecedented, you know. a former president of the United States in court accused of such torture, a type of sexual misconduct and, you know, and trying to cover this up and make a profit, it feels like a repeat of a lot of the things that we went through in 2016. and then later in 2018 when Daniel's account came to light, so it's kind of a Back to the Future type feeling, but yeah, you know there are several different things progressing simultaneously, you know one of the key elements.

This is the reason for Trump's repeated violation of this gag order. He's been fined, you know, on 10 separate occasions for criticizing the Prospective Witnesses and, in fact, we're seeing, you know, New York City making preparations to potentially

imprison

Donald Trump on Riker's Island, which I believe. I don't know if you're familiar with Riker's Island, but it's a notoriously poor prison, it's overcrowded, there's gang violence, there's been something like 30 inmate deaths in the last three years, so I mean, there's all these kinds of plots. sideshows that are developing all the time and it really is, you know, kind of a fascinating, you know, testimony and coverage, yeah, it's kind of a sideshow in itself, isn't it?

Bon, while you're here I wanted to ask you, ask you. We started this program hearing about the implications of what the president of the United States said in his statement last night warning Israel not to launch an offensive against Rafa and saying, "Look, if you proceed with this action, the type of weapons and ammunition that you are using. accustomed to receiving from us, they will stop from how that news was received in the U.S. Yes, it's interesting. I mean, I know, you know, Biden has been staunchly pro-Israel throughout his decades-long career in the Senate and as vice president. and president, so this is actually a pretty dramatic change for him.

I guess he's feeling the political pressure in places like Michigan, where his support has dwindled, you know, states with large Arab populations and also among you know the kind of younger ones. voters whose implications we are seeing in the protests on campus. Trump this morning weighed in on this on his way to court, saying that Biden's decision was shameful and saying that if any Jew voted for Biden he should be ashamed. themselves, right, should we start by talking about Stormy Daniels because she's a friend of yours, a colleague of yours, have you worked with her before?

You are definitely our listening ear for Stormy Daniels, have you spoken to her? Over the past few days, how do you think she is doing? I deliberately haven't texted her this entire week because, um, I imagine she's feeling pretty under pressure and probably doesn't need more members of the media trying to reach her. she knows that pretty well I imagine, I also think she probably needs to decompress at the end of cross-examination, as she was on Tuesday afternoon and is again today, imagine you'd want to turn off your phone after that, yes, there's been everything a ding-dong today in court between Stormmy and Trump's lawyer, who is a woman and I think that's something like that, it's not surprising that he cast a woman in this particular role, but all accounts suggest that Stormy Daniels is more than capable of defending herself, yeah, well, I think there was probably about two hours at the end of Tuesday when Trump's lawyer questioned her and it was very tense and you know, Stormy didn't give an inch, I mean, she she is a tough girl and I loved the fact that when she was asked questions that I think maybe other people could have given softer answers to, like do you hate Donald Trump, she said yes and when she was asked about the money she has?

He didn't pay the fees for this defamation case he lost, he said he would rather go to jail than pay a penny to Donald Trump, so he won't back down on the stand even when B underwent very harsh questioning that being honest is exactly what I would expect from her, but I think other people might give in to that pressure. I mean, you're the star witness in possibly the biggest criminal

trial

, you certainly know, this year possibly in recent history, and you didn't choose. she be there she didn't either she didn't no, she was subpoenaed yeah, um, what would happen if she went to jail for that money?

It's 600,000 $670,000 uh potentially potentially I think it's unlikely that she'll be able to go to CH. Interestingly, they could charge you for non-completion. certain forms about that, so Trump's lawyers asked her to fill out a form about a lot of personal information regarding the fees she owes him and they could threaten her with jail time for not even filling out the forms, which is a formality. I mean, I would say I don't think she's going to jail. I don't think Trump will go to jail, but we'll see, yes, the case continues, yes.