Trump Demands Mistrial After Stormy Daniels Said He’s Bad at Sex

Donald Trump’s attorneys attempted Thursday to throw out his hush-money case on the basis that the trial had unnecessarily turned into an evolving tale about Trump’s less than stellar sexual trysts.

During testimony delivered over the course of two days, porn star Stormy Daniels recounted in great detail the shady circumstances under which Trump originally got her into his hotel suite, including false promises for a spot on his reality TV show, The Apprentice. Daniels revealed that she didn’t necessarily consent to the sexual encounter and “blacked out” while the two were intimate, that she spanked Trump with a rolled up magazine featuring his profile, and that she felt there was a vast discrepancy in their power dynamic.

But none of that should matter, according to Trump’s attorneys, who attempted to argue that the trial—which hinges on whether Trump was the source of a $130,000 payment to Daniels for her silence about the affair ahead of the 2016 presidential election—isn’t about sex.

“This is not a case about sex,” Todd Blanche told the judge before clarifying that it wasn’t about whether the sex took place or did not take place.

“You have jurors who are now hearing about an imbalance of power between a man and a woman,” he continued indignantly, arguing that the details about the encounter—which some legal experts have claimed adds to Daniels’s credibility about having experienced the events—are not relevant to the case.

That argument didn’t pass muster with Judge Juan Merchan, however. After returning to his chamber and reexamining transcripts from Daniels’s testimony, Merchan ruled that no one had violated his rules during the descriptive testimony.

Trump is accused of using Michael Cohen to sweep an affair with Daniels under the rug ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The Republican presidential nominee faces 34 felony charges in this case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. Trump has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Columbia University alumni are firing back at the university over its crackdown on student protests demanding the school divest from Israel-aligned companies and weapons manufacturers. 

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 1,600 alumni from the university’s 20 schools have signed an online statement pledging to “withhold all financial, programmatic, and academic support of Columbia University” until certain demands are met, including, but not limited to: 

Divest from all companies and institutions that fund or profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine.

Ensure accountability by increasing transparency around financial investments.

Drop charges against student activists and reverse expulsions, suspensions and disciplinary action. 

End the policing and militarization of Columbia’s campus by removing and banning the NYPD. Continuous NYPD presence on campus until May 17th is unconscionable.

Hold accountable faculty members, administrators, and any other University affiliates who have harassed and assaulted student human rights defenders.

Sever all academic ties with Israel, including Columbia’s Global Center in Tel Aviv and the GS Dual Degree program with Tel Aviv University.

Remove Minouche Shafik from her position as University President.

More than $67 million of financial contributions to the school are at stake if demands are not met, according to the statement. 

The statement cites the university’s lack of a good-faith response to a Columbia College student body vote on a divestment referendum in late April that passed with 76.55 percent of voters calling to cancel the university’s Tel Aviv Global Center and end the dual degree program between the School of General Studies and Tel Aviv University. The statement also noted that Barnard College passed the same referendum with a 90.99 percent majority. 

As the statement points out, Columbia has a history of protests similar to the recent student protests over Israel’s war in Gaza, citing a three-week blockade of Hamilton Hall in 1983 over the university’s investments in apartheid South Africa. Protesters at the time renamed the building Mandela Hall in honor of anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela. That effort led to the university becoming the first Ivy League institution to divest from South Africa.  

On April 30, pro-Palestine protesters took over Hamilton Hall and renamed it Hind’s Hall to honor 6-year-old Hind Rajab, a Gazan who was killed alongside her family by Israeli forces during the current war.

While wealthier donors, such as billionaires Robert Kraft and Leon Cooperman, have threatened to or have withheld their financial support to Columbia University for not taking a harder line against pro-Palestine protesters, Thursday’s alumni statement is the first such effort in support of the students, albeit from individuals with seemingly less wealth. 

Columbia’s protests have inspired similar activism from institutions across the country, which have been met with violence but also some successes and even acceptance from campus officials. 

Representative Marjorie Taylor Grenee’s spectacularly failed effort to strip Speaker Mike Johnson of the gavel has earned her a whole slew of new enemies.

The motion to vacate fell apart Wednesday after an overwhelming majority of the House voted 359–43 to keep Johnson in leadership. But the time-consuming and chaotic effort came at the cost of Greene’s already minimal popularity in the lower chamber, with Republicans insisting that the Georgia Republican see some level of consequence for leading another attempt to divide an already thin and historically unproductive majority.

“I would suggest a 80 percent rule. Oddly enough, what the Freedom Caucus has,” Representative Ryan Zinke told Politico. “If someone routinely violates the rules … then it should be the conference’s decision of whether he should be removed or suspended from committees.”

Other conservative lawmakers insinuated that Greene could lose her committee assignments for causing more intraparty bedlam. Greene currently sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, the House Committee on Homeland Security, and the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, as well as several related subcommittees.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some changes on a couple of committees after watching that motion to table vote,” Representative Steve Womack told the outlet.

Representative Dusty Johnson, meanwhile, claimed that there was an “extremely high level of interest” by a “high number of members” to completely change the rules around how the House functions.

“I am interested in anything that would make the House run better,” Johnson told Politico.

But Greene was already prepared for the backlash, flagrantly brushing off the ramifications of her own behavior.

“They probably want to kick me off committees. They probably want a primary. I say, go ahead.… That is absolutely their problem,” Greene told the publication after Wednesday’s vote.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels got in some jabs at Donald Trump, who is accused of paying her off via his lawyer to cover up their affair before the 2016 election, during her testimony in his hush-money trial Thursday.

During cross-examination, Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked Daniels a series of questions that seemed to have been posed to make the former president happy, including one about Trump being a good golfer at the tournament where they met, and whether a lot of people followed him around. Daniels didn’t play ball, saying she couldn’t remember his performance and some of his entourage probably included paid staff.

Not long after that, Necheles asked Daniels about Trump’s indictments, to which the adult film actress replied, “There are a lot of indictments.” Necheles moved to strike that answer from the record, but was rebuffed by Judge Juan Merchan.

Later, Necheles attempted to discredit Daniels by mentioning her merchandise sales, noting that she sold items based on Trump’s criminal proceedings.

“Not unlike Mr. Trump,” Daniels replied to a small amount of laughter in the courtroom.

When asking Daniels about her career in the adult film industry, Necheles insinuated that Daniels had made “a lot of phony stories about sex” appear to be real in her films. Daniels replied that the sex in her films “is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room [with Trump],” and followed up with a quip about her tryst with the former president.

“And if that story was untrue, I would have written it to be a lot better,” Daniels said.

Daniels’s testimony has included other jibes against Trump, resulting in “orange turd” being entered into the court record Tuesday. The term again came up in court Thursday during cross-examination.

Daniels’s testimony, which has now concluded, has included salacious details about her affair with Trump, including his comparing her to his daughter, Ivanka, as well as an excuse Daniels used to avoid sex with him another time. But her testimony could also be very damaging to Trump’s case, as he can’t lie about her statements under the penalty of perjury.

Trump is facing 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime by paying off Daniels through his former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen. He has pleaded not guilty to all of them.

Donald Trump’s youngest son is about to join the new family business: leading the Republican conference.

After he graduates from high school next week, Barron Trump will assume his role as a Florida delegate to the Republican National Convention. The 18-year-old was selected as an at-large delegate, along with his siblings Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Tiffany Trump, according to a list released Wednesday by the Florida Republican Party.

Other family members named on the list include Tiffany’s husband, Michael Boulos, and Don Jr.’s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, whose name was misspelled to omit the first ‘L’ in her last name. Ivanka Trump—the presumed GOP presidential nominee’s former star child who left politics in an attempt to salvage her social life—was not listed.

The lineup also includes a wide swath of Trump allies and state-level officials who opted to back Trump over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the presidential race.

“We are fortunate to have a great group of grassroots leaders, elected officials, and members of the Trump family working together as part of the Florida delegation to the 2024 Republican National Convention,” Florida GOP chairman Evan Power said in a statement.

With his children’s selection as delegates, Trump is even closer to completely taking over the Republican Party. Eric Trump’s wife, Lara Trump, has assumed the reins at the Republican National Committee. Since becoming co-chair in March, Lara has focused all of the RNC’s power on putting her father-in-law back in office.

Meanwhile, Trump has chosen to fly off to a Minnesota GOP rally on the same day as his son’s high school graduation on May 17, even after his attorneys fought to get him the day off in his New York hush-money trial in order to be with his family.

“We are thrilled to welcome President Trump back to Minnesota,” said Minnesota GOP chairman David Hann, announcing that Trump would be headlining the event after the former president was excused from his Friday attendance in New York. “I can think of no one more fitting to join us this year than President Trump.”