Stormy Daniels Delivers Intense Testimony in Trump’s Trial: 5 Takeaways

“The people call Stormy Daniels.”

So began the intense and often uncomfortable testimony of Ms. Daniels, who spent almost five hours in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday recounting her story of a 2006 encounter with Donald J. Trump and the ensuing hush-money cover-up that has become the bedrock of the prosecutor’s case.

Ms. Daniels spoke quickly and at length about her now infamous first meeting with Mr. Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nev., sometimes veering off topic, which opened her to objections by the defense.

After the lunch break, Mr. Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche moved for a mistrial, calling Ms. Daniels’s testimony prejudicial and arguing the prosecution’s questions for her were designed to embarrass Mr. Trump and “inflame this jury.”

The judge, Juan M. Merchan, agreed that some of Ms. Daniels’s graphic testimony “may have been better left unsaid,” but denied a mistrial.

The former president is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to Ms. Daniels just before the 2016 election. Mr. Trump, 77, has denied the charges and says he did not have sex with Ms. Daniels. If convicted, he could face prison time or probation.

Here are five takeaways from Mr. Trump’s 13th day on trial.

Prosecutors took a risk with their witness.

Jurors heard a vivid account of the Lake Tahoe encounter and met the woman who received the hush-money deal. The impact could be profound, and could be a risk for prosecutors, depending on whether the jury received Ms. Daniels’s story of Mr. Trump’s actions as prurient or powerful.