Trump Posts, Deletes Rant About Stormy Daniels Testifying

Stormy Daniels is expected to take the stand Tuesday at Donald Trump’s ongoing criminal hush-money trial, and even the former president seemed caught off guard by the news. 

Attorneys for Daniels, the adult film paid off by Trump to mask an alleged affair, told multiple outlets ahead of court on Tuesday that Daniels expects to be called as a witness. Trump posted — then quickly deleted — a furious rant about the prosecution’s plan to call Daniels shortly before The Associated Press reported on it.

“I have just recently been told who the witness is today. This is unprecedented, no time for lawyers to prepare,” the former president wrote. “No Judge has ever run a trial in such a biased and partisan way. He is CROOKED & HIGHLY CONFLICTED, even taking away my First Amendment Rights. Now he’s threatening me with JAIL, & THEY HAVE NO CASE.” 

Trump stands accused of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to allegations that the then-candidate and his associates made hush money payments to women, including $130,000 to Daniels, in order to aid his 2016 presidential election campaign. In order to cover up the alleged illegal campaign expense, prosecutors have accused the former president of unlawfully masking reimbursement payments to his former attorney, Michel Cohen, as legal expenses. As the woman at the center of the alleged scheme, Daniels’ testimony is expected to be a central component in the prosecution’s case against the former president. 

Last week, former tabloid boss David Pecker, who aided Trump and Cohen in arranging several of the hush money payments made in 2016, testified that the former president knew the details of the payment to Daniels. Pecker recalled that Trump complained to him that Stormy Daniels had breached the hush-money deal she’d made with Trump fixer Michael Cohen after the porn star gave a televised interview about her alleged affair with the former president. 

The post may have been deleted because Trump is explicitly barred from attacking or commenting on witnesses in the case through a limited gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan. On Monday, Merchan ruled for the second time that Trump had violated the order through his public statements and social media posts, finding him in contempt of court and threatening him with jail time if he violates the order again. 

“It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent,” Merchan told Trump on Monday. “The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail. You are the former president of the United States, and possibly the next president as well. There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for you.”