‘I thought it went quite poorly on cross-exam,’ says CNN legal analyst Elie Honig.
A CNN legal expert told the network the testimony of porn star Stormy Daniels in former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” case was detrimental for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig on Tuesday evening described Daniels’ responses during cross-examination as “disastrous” for prosecutors, saying her hatred for Trump undermined the credibility of the case.
“Her responses were disastrous. I mean, ‘do you hate Donald Trump?’ Yes, of course she does,” Honig told a CNN panel. “That’s a big deal. When the witness hates the person whose liberty is at stake, that’s a big damn deal. And she’s putting out tweets, fantasizing about him being in jail. That really undermines the credibility.”
He went on to say Daniels is also compromised by the fact that she hasn’t adhered to a previous court order mandating she pay half a million dollars to Trump.
“The fact that she owes him $500,000, she, by order of a court, owes Donald Trump a half million dollars and said, ‘I will never pay him, I will defy a court order,’ the defense is going to say, ‘She‘s willing to defy a court order. She‘s not willing to respect an order of a judge. Why is she going to respect this oath she took?’” Honig continued.
“So I thought it went quite poorly on cross-exam. At the end of direct, I thought, ‘Okay, they got what they needed,’ but I think the cross is making real inroads.’”
The blistering CNN analysis comes as former Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti on Tuesday released a damning statement saying he refused to participate in a documentary about her due to his former client falsifying business records and defrauding Trump in a bid to avoid paying him legal dues.
