Trump trial to resume after Stormy Daniels taunts former president: Live updates

The tennis superstar became the latest to join a growing list of celebrities dragged into Trump’s yesterday – following the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tiger Woods and Hulk Hogan – after Madeleine Westerhout revealed she was on a list of names of people the former president “frequently spoke to” in early 2017.

Kelly Rissman and Alex Woodward have more on this unexpected twist.

Back on the witness stand this morning will be Madeleine Westerhout, a Trump White House aide who was working at the Republican National Committee (RNC) when his infamous Access Hollywood tape leaked right before the 2016 election.

That tape is important because prosecutors say the political firestorm it caused hastened the payment to Daniels.

Westerhout, who went on to serve in the West Wing as Trump’s personal secretary, told jurors on Thursday that the tape rattled RNC leadership so much that “there were conversations about how it would be possible to replace him as the candidate, if it came to that.”

Here’s Alex Woodward on the moment she burst into tears yesterday recalling affectionately her time at Trump’s side and the circumstances of her dismissal in 2019.

The admirably patient Judge Juan Merchan yesterday shot down Trump’s latest attempt to lift the gag order imposed on him after his legal team argued he should be able to respond to Stormy Daniels’ evidence against him.

The justice said he was not only concerned about attacks against Daniels and other witnesses but with “protecting the integrity of these proceedings as a whole.”

The order is in effect “precisely because of the nature of these attacks, the vitriol,” he said on Thursday.

Mike Bedigan and Alex Woodward report.

Trump’s New York hush money trial will resume once more at Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday following another day of fiery testimony from porn star Stormy Daniels, who returned to the witness stand to face more cross-examination from the defendant’s lawyers on Thursday.

Over two hours of fierce questioning from the defendant’s legal team yesterday, Daniels fought off attacks designed to undermine her credibility and cast her as a liar and opportunist.

In a series of quippy relies to Trump attorney Susan Necheles, she told the court that if if her account of having sex with the former president was a fabricated story “I would’ve written it better.”

Here’s Alex Woodward’s report on another astonishing day in court.

I think we might have a new, extremely-unlikely national treasure on our hands.

Meanwhile, in another, even darker corner of the internet, Trump has been lashing out at the trial in his customary all-caps and challenging the president to a TV debate while, oddly, hitting out at poor old Howard Stern, whose show he was once a regular guest on.

Graig Graziosi has the story: