“The People informed me they no longer intend to call Ms. McDougal,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche said.
He did not provide a reason.
Ms. McDougal had alleged that she engaged in an affair with President Trump between 2006 and 2007, which he has denied. Prosecutors allege that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid Ms. McDougal to not speak publicly about the alleged relationship and that his campaign falsified business records.A former lawyer of Ms. McDougal, Keith Davidson, testified earlier in the trial that “Ms. McDougal alleged she had a romantic affair with Donald Trump some years prior.”
Earlier on May 9, Mr. Blanche told Judge Juan Merchan that the defense wants to raise issues regarding recent testimony and will submit a motion for a mistrial after witness Stephanie Clifford’s testimony. They also asked the judge to allow President Trump to publicly respond to allegations made by Ms. Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, during her testimony on May 7 and May 9. She has alleged an affair with the former president.
“We ask that President Trump be allowed to respond publicly to what happened in court the past day and a half,” Mr. Blanche said during the May 9 hearing. “The press [has been] reporting over the past 24 hours about the current version of the story that we believe is completely false. It is significant.”
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy responded that the gag order shouldn’t be altered to allow comments about Ms. Clifford because those remarks could have a chilling effect on other witnesses. He said he had a conversation on the night of May 8 with a witness whose role was simply to authenticate some records and who was worried about the consequences of testifying.
However, Judge Merchan denied the attempt to modify the gag order to allow him to respond to her claims.
Earlier this week, Trump attorneys attempted to have the judge declare a mistrial over some of Ms. Clifford’s testimony about an alleged affair that President Trump had denied. The judge denied that motion and claimed that defense attorneys should have raised objections earlier.
“I agree that it would have been better if some of these things had been left unsaid,” Judge Merchan said on May 7 when he denied the motion.
Earlier on May 9, Trump attorney Susan Necheles suggested that Ms. Clifford, who worked as a pornographic performer, was trying to cash in because of her notoriety. The attorney attempted to get Ms. Clifford to say that her allegations about an encounter with the former president were made up; she asked her about details that she had previously given in other interviews.
“Your story has completely changed, hasn’t it?” Ms. Necheles asked at one point.
Ms. Clifford replied, “No, not at all. You’re trying to make me say it’s changed, but it hasn’t.”
The former president has denied Ms. Clifford’s claims and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Ms. Necheles also suggested that Ms. Clifford has been going after President Trump after a court ordered her to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees after she lost a defamation lawsuit that targeted the former president.
Prosecutors say the payments to Ms. Clifford were falsified and are tantamount to election interference during his 2016 campaign. Lawyers for the former president, who has pleaded not guilty, say they were standard payments and that nothing illegal was done.
On May 8, President Trump wrote on social media that he cannot respond to the “lies and false statements” during the trial because of the gag order. He and his attorneys have argued that the order violates his constitutionally protected speech.
