Trump Lawyer's Questions Boost Stormy Daniels 'Credibility': George Conway

Questions posed by former President Donald Trump's legal team on Thursday are boosting the "credibility" of Stormy Daniels, lawyer George Conway said on Thursday.

On X, formerly Twitter, Conway, a frequent critic of Trump, responded to a post about questions asked by the former president's attorney, Susan Necheles and said, "this line of cross is actually bolstering Stormy's credibility."

On Thursday, Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan continued for its fourth week as the former president has been accused of making hush money payments to Daniels, a former adult film star, in 2016.

In April 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Trump "fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal crimes that hid damaging information—including a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels—from the public during the 2016 presidential campaign."

The former president has continued to deny any wrongdoing in the case while saying that it should be dismissed and criticizing New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the trial.

The post from Conway was responding to a line of questioning to Daniels, where she was asked about an interview with Vogue magazine in 2018. In the questions, Daniels was asked about the interview and if she was asked "if Trump did anything that made you feel like you had to have sex with him" Anna Bower of LawFare reported.

"But on Tuesday you said he stood over you and you felt a power imbalance? I have maintained he did not put his hands on me, he did not give me drugs or alcohol... I was not physically threatened or drugged or drunk," Bower wrote in a post on X, detailing the question to Daniels and her answer.

Bower shared several other posts on X, detailing the questions posed by Trump's attorney to Daniels. In another post, Bower wrote about Necheles showing Daniels a message from Trump that said, "IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU!"

Bower wrote in her post that Necheles said, "You testified that you thought this was about you, Necheles reminds Daniels. But did you know that at the time there was a Republic PAC that had been attacking President Trump?"

"Necheles is trying to say that the post could have been about that and not about Daniels," Bower wrote.

Conway pointed to this exchange in a post on X, saying that "so counterproductive for the defense."

Some other legal experts also criticized the questions posed to Daniels by Trump's lawyer.

"Trump is his lawyers' worst enemy. The smart strategy would have been to *stipulate* that the encounter with Daniels took place so there would be no reason for her to testify. Instead, they're heeding his wish, going after her hard on cross-examination. Jurors won't like it," former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti wrote on X.

Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman wrote on X, "Stormy suggesting elsewhere in interview w/ Anderson Cooper she says didn't have dinner. If that's accurate and it comes out on redirect, it's very bad for Necheles. This is the best point she's scored to date."

Newsweek's Katherine Fung, who has been inside the court room, reported that during the cross examination of Daniels, Necheles read a statement from 2018 where Daniels denies a sexual encounter with Trump.

It reads, "Rumors that I had received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false."

"Correct," Daniels replies, "because it wasn't a rumor, it was the truth." Daniels confirms that she did not write the statement, but was told to sign it.

Conway later tweeted in defense of Necheles' tactics, replying to a comment that the defense "had been shaped by" Trump.

"Correct. If you are working for a very dumb and highly sociopathic client, this is what you're forced to do, even if you're a lawyer as intelligent and skilled as Necheles is," Conway wrote.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.

Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican White House nominee, continues to deny the allegations in this and other criminal and civil cases, saying that they are politically motivated.