The main reason the DA has to go through as many of the sleazy gross details as the judge will allow? Because trump’s defense — repeated by his lawyers during their opening statement — is that it never happened. That any money paid to Stormy was pure extortion by someone he’d never met for a false accusation. It’s the same defense he used in the E. Jean Carroll case (and how did that work out?). It’s the same response he initially tried with the Access Hollywood tape, as Hope Hicks testified: “I never said that!”
trump has a problem, because the only one who can testify to deny that he did it is trump himself, and most agree that trump cannot testify. His lawyers can only argue based on testimony — they can’t assert facts not in evidence. So the best they can do is to ask “do you believe Ms Daniels?” In a criminal trial, prosecution cannot, of course, point out the jury has not heard trump deny it, but juries can figure that out on their own.
The main reason the DA has to go through as many of the sleazy gross details as the judge will allow? Because trump’s defense — repeated by his lawyers during their opening statement — is that it never happened. That any money paid to Stormy was pure extortion by someone he’d never met for a false accusation. It’s the same defense he used in the E. Jean Carroll case (and how did that work out?). It’s the same response he initially tried with the Access Hollywood tape, as Hope Hicks testified: “I never said that!”
trump has a problem, because the only one who can testify to deny that he did it is trump himself, and most agree that trump cannot testify. His lawyers can only argue based on testimony — they can’t assert facts not in evidence. So the best they can do is to ask “do you believe Ms Daniels?” In a criminal trial, prosecution cannot, of course, point out the jury has not heard trump deny it, but juries can figure that out on their own.