Adult Film Star Stormy Daniels Testifies That Donald Trump Told Her She Reminded Him of 'His Daughter'

Daniels also testified that the former president told her he and his wife, Melania, sleep in separate bedrooms

Stormy Daniels testified under oath on Tuesday that Donald Trump told her she reminded him of "his daughter" during their alleged tryst in 2006.

The former adult film actress, 45, took the stand in Manhattan on Tuesday as part of 77-year-old Trump's trial on 34 felony counts of falsified business records with a broader implication of election interference.

Daniels factors heavily into the so-called "hush money" case, which traces back to an alleged affair she had with Trump, rumors of which surfaced in 2018, when the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump arranged a $130,000 payment to the ex-porn star a month before the 2016 election so she'd keep quiet about the alleged sexual encounter they'd had years earlier.

Trump has repeatedly denied the affair, though Daniels testified Tuesday that the two spoke for a "long time" during their 2006 meeting, when she allegedly visited his Lake Tahoe penthouse hotel room following a celebrity golf tournament.

Related: Everyone Who Might Testify in Donald Trump's Criminal Trial, Including First Witness David Pecker

Among the claims made by Daniels on Tuesday were that Trump told her "you remind me of my daughter," who he described as being smart, blond, and consistently underestimated. Though she did not say which daughter, the reference calls to mind Ivanka Trump, who is also blonde and served as a senior adviser to her father during his term in office from January 2017 to 2021.

Daniels also testified that she at one point playfully spanked Trump with a magazine during their meeting. After the real estate magnate pulled out a magazine, Daniels says she told him, "Someone should spank you with that," to which he "gave me a look" as if daring her to do it.

"So I took it from him and I said turn around, and I swatted him" on the butt, she testified, per various news outlets. "And he was much more polite."

NBC News reports that Daniels' description of the magazine incident led many jurors to "no longer keep a poker face." According to the outlet, "One woman was seen rubbing her face while trying to hold back laughter (without making noise)."

Elsewhere in her testimony, Daniels said she and Trump spoke about his wife, Melania Trump, with Trump allegedly telling her the two slept in separate bedrooms. At that claim, Trump "shook his head at the defense table and appeared to say something under his breath," the Associated Press reports.

Related: How Donald Trump Learned of His Indictment — and Spent His Weekend Preparing for Court Surrender

While Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen initially denied the claims of an affair, Cohen later admitted that there was a payment made to Daniels.

Trump is accused of falsifying business records by calling the so-called hush money payments to Daniels and others "legal expenses" in the Trump Organization's financial records.

The former president was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan last spring, when he became the first-ever sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal charges. He has since earned three more indictments — two of which were at the federal level — though none of those cases have gone to trial yet.

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