Stormy Daniels Is Shining in Court in Key Area—Attorney

Stormy Daniels is performing far better under cross-examination than she did in direct testimony, a lawyer attending Donald Trump's hush money case has said.

Attorney and legal analyst Norm Eisen told Newsweek that Daniels's "toughness" is showing in cross-examination in a way that was not seen when she was answering prosecutors' questions.

"Some witnesses just do better under the pressure of cross-examination, and I thought her toughness really came out for the jury," Eisen said.

Daniels's cross-examination continued on Thursday with some tense exchanges with Trump's lawyer, Susan Necheles. At one point, Judge Juan Merchan told Necheles to stop interrupting Daniels and to let her speak.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's attorney via email for comment on Thursday.

Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, is the first former president in United States history to stand trial in a criminal case. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and has continually said that this case and other criminal and civil matters involving him are politically motivated.

The prosecution seeks to prove that before the 2016 presidential election, Trump paid, or discussed paying, adult film actress Daniels not to disclose an alleged affair they had. Trump denies having the affair.

Eisen said that, under direct evidence, Daniels didn't listen to the questions and was far less controlled.

"It was not a question of talking too much; it was that she was not listening to the questions and volunteering additional information that was not asked for, some of which was outside the scope of the case," he said.

"So it wasn't as much a talking problem as a listening one. But I will say that the judge got a hold of it, that the DA talked to her before she took the stand again on [Tuesday] afternoon, and that she settled down much better."

On Thursday, Necheles pressed Daniels about her life in the adult film industry and suggested that her career was in making "phony stories about sex" look "real."

Daniels said that the sex in her films is real, just as it was when she allegedly had sex with Trump in Lake Tahoe.

"The sex in those films is very real—just like what happened in that room," she said, according to a Newsweek court report.

Necheles also asked Daniels if she had said she would be "instrumental" in putting Trump in jail. Necheles pointed to a post by Daniels on Twitter in which she said she'd be the "best person to flush the orange turd down."

Daniels replied: "It doesn't say President Trump. It says orange turd, so if that's what you're interpreting then..." She later confirmed to Necheles that the tweet was "absolutely" referring to Trump.