Day 14 of Donald Trump's first criminal trial (of 4) was an day of paradoxes. Starting with the porn star being portrayed as a "nut and a slut" and ending with Trump's long time former personal assistant, Madeleine Westerhout.
Stormy Daniels was slut shamed for hours, repeatedly attacked for her line of work and made to justify every decision she made about her body, her career and her sex life. But, she never wavered. She had agency. She owned her choices.
Madeleine Westerhout, on the other hand, was treated like a delicate flower, crying on the stand almost instantly. Similar to Hope Hicks, who burst out crying and was bombarded with tissues, god forbid her makeup run on her face.
The power dynamic between the two classes of women was on full, grotesque display for the entire courtroom, the jury and the press. It's a shame the audio and video are not on display, because reports are that Stormy Daniels cross was something to behold.
Here are some of the highlights:
JUST GROSS stuff from Necheles. She should be ashamed of herself.
When the defense attorney walks RIGHT INTO IT
Then she tried to mock her porn career with this exchange:
NECHELES: You have a lot of experience making phony stories about sex appear to be real.
DANIELS: (laughter) I wouldn't put it that way.
Daniels responded that the sex is "very real," but the relationships between the characters aren't, "exactly like what happened in that room," referring to the tryst in Trump's hotel suite. "And if that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better," Daniels said.
Necheles kept accusing Daniels of changing her story over the years. Daniels denied it. Cooley and calmly. Then there was this weird argument about the distinction between "dinner" vs. "snacks" or "food." I can't waste time on it, but it was dumb.
One of the most sad statements was this one, and I am sure it resonated with the jury:
Short redirect. Then onto the next witness, Rebecca Manochio, Allen Weisselberg's Assistant. She works as a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Org.
She provided little info, other than Trump was still deeply involved with the Trump Org, reviewing and signing all the checks from the White House, even though he swore up and down that his kids were in charge of the company once he took office, which was clearly a complete and utter lie.
Next witness, Tracey Menzies, of Harper Collins Book Publishing. She is there to talk about a book he wrote called “Think Big: Make it happen in business and in life" that he wrote with Bill Zanker. The prosecution is using her to enter quotes from the book into the record. Here are a few of them:
“Get the best people and don’t trust them."
"As a matter of fact, I value loyalty above everything else - more than brains, more than drive…more than anything."
“I just can’t stomach disloyalty. I put the people who are loyal to me on a high pedestal and take care of them very well. I go out of my way…"
“This woman was very disloyal, and now I go out of my way to make her life miserable.”
“My motto is: “Always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades”
“Getting even is not a personal thing' it is just part of doing business."
What a nasty, reprehensible, sniveling little man.
And she is done. Last witness of the day is Madeleine Westerhout, Executive Assistant for Trump at the White House. After some of her biographical and professional history, they get into the real questions.
She cried and cross was short. That was that. Just confirmation that Trump was still intimately involved with Trump Org, that he saw and signed every check, even after January 20, 2017.
Jury is sent home and trial testimony ended for the day. On to the standard Motion For a Mistrial (denied). Then Trump's lawyers argued that Trump should be able to publicly respond to Stormy Daniels as an exception to the Gag Order. That was also denied.
If Trump wants to respond to Stormy Daniels' testimony, he is free to take the stand. In fact, that would be a great idea. Let's see what happens.
See you all tomorrow for the last day of week 3 of testimony!
