Stormy Daniels 'Exposed' Alvin Bragg in Donald Trump Case—Legal Analyst

On Thursday, adult film actor Stormy Daniels testified for the second time in the criminal trial against former President Donald Trump.

This marked her second day of testimony; her first was on Tuesday when she described an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006. Fox News legal analyst and commentator Gregg Jarrett said calling Daniels to the stand was "wholly unnecessary."

After her initial testimony, Jarrett wrote an opinion piece stating, "the folly of District Attorney Alvin Bragg's prosecution was further exposed" when Daniels took the stand. "Bragg's team of unscrupulous prosecutors called this untrustworthy witness for only one purpose: to slime Trump. That's obvious," he wrote. Newsweek reached out to Jarrett for comment via his website contact page.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records brought by the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The prosecution claims Trump covered up his former lawyer Michael Cohen's $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. He has denied all the charges and the sexual relations and has repeatedly stated that the lawsuits are politically charged. He must appear in court every day, temporarily preventing him from campaigning for his 2024 presidential run. Trump is the first former president to be on trial in a criminal lawsuit, and he currently faces a total of four criminal cases.

"Their [prosecutions] goal was to malign and vilify Trump with an irrelevant witness," Jarrett wrote. Daniels is at the center of the case, as she is one of two women the prosecution is claiming Trump paid off to protect his presidential run in 2016. Jarrett added that "the decision by [Judge Juan] Merchan to even allow such inflammatory testimony is so appalling that it prompted Trump's lawyers to demand a mistrial." Trump's defense team argued that the prosecution's questioning of Daniels went beyond the scope permitted. The judge denied the request. Newsweek reached out to Trump's legal team for comment.

For Jarrett, if Daniels "only wanted to get her story about Trump out to the public...Then why did she sell her story to Trump's lawyer for a load of cash in exchange for remaining silent?" Today, Daniels is questioned by the defense team, who are reportedly inquiring why she accepted the hush money payment.

So far, over a dozen individuals have testified in the lawsuit including, former Trump aides, the former National Enquirer publisher, and lawyers. The jury was selected on April 15. Judge Merchan previously said he expects the trial to last around six weeks.