Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

At one point during their dinner, Daniels says Trump suggested she appear on his reality TV show The Apprentice.

Daniels testifies that she didn't think it was plausible for a major network to allow an adult-film star on the show. But Daniels says Trump told her she reminded him of his daughter, Ivanka Trump, saying that people also underestimated her because she was beautiful.

Daniels says she wanted to be taken seriously as a writer and director at the time, outside of the adult-film industry as well as within it.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Daniels is now telling the court about sitting with Donald Trump at the dining room table in his hotel suite.

She says he asked her a lot about her family and upbringing and asked "business-like" questions about her work in the adult film industry.

We're not seeing much reaction from Trump as Daniels shares a host of details about this alleged meeting.

He's shifting his head from side to side and looking forward with a straight expression.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

A reminder that what Stormy Daniels is telling the court right now, about her alleged encounter with Donald Trump, is not new information.

We've heard her tell portions of her story in news interviews and her book, and a great deal has come out through news reporting.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We’re getting more details leading up to the alleged sexual encounter between Trump and Daniels.

Daniels says Trump’s hotel suite door was “cracked open” when she got there, so she walked in to a massive suite with black and white tiled floor.

Prosecutors ask if she had any expectations for the dinner.

“I didn’t really have any expectations other than Keith had said to just come up here and meet him here and you guys could go downstairs together,” she says.

Daniels says Trump was wearing silk or satin pyjamas when she greeted him, which she made fun of him for.

“Does Mr Hefner know you stole his pyjamas?” she says she asked him, referencing Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We’re now hearing about Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller.

Daniels says Schiller asked her if she wanted to have dinner with Trump at the celebrity golf tournament, and asked Daniels for her phone number.

"What did you say at that time?" Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks.

"F no," Daniels replies.

"What?" Hoffinger asks.

"No", Daniels responds.

As Trump’s long-time bodyguard, Schiller could be a key witness for prosecutors and is on their list of potential witnesses.

Daniels’ publicist eventually told her to go to dinner, given Trump’s celebrity. She recalls that her publicist asked “what could possibly go wrong?” There are big laughs from the public in the overflow room at that line.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Stormy Daniels - the adult-film star who was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about allegedly having sex with Donald Trump - has just been asked to look directly at the former president for the first time in the courtroom.

“Do you see Trump in the courtroom today?” Hoffinger asks her.

She looks around before pointing at Trump and describing what he's wearing - a navy blue suit.

Trump appears to look down while she looks at him.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Daniels continues her story of meeting Trump.

She says that after the golf tournament, she met Trump again in a suite. He remembered her and other women who attended the tournament with her adult-film company, but he “remembered me specifically…that I was the smart one.”

Later, one of Trump's assistants came back and told Daniels he wanted to have dinner with her. She also took a photo with Trump, which prosecutors are now displaying on the screen.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We’re now getting to the alleged sexual encounter that led to the hush-money payment.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is asking Daniels about the celebrity golf tournament in 2006, in Tahoe, where she met Trump.

There’s a picture of the two at the event. Daniels says she went to help promote the tournament and she met Trump on the golf course.

“It was a very brief encounter,” she says about meeting him.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Stormy Daniels is speeding through some of her work credits, which include adult films but also small appearances in mainstream movies like the 40-Year-Old Virgin.

She says she's also written a book, called Full Disclosure, where she recounts her story about an alleged sexual encounter and subsequent meetings with Donald Trump.

Daniels also talks about the recently-released documentary, Stormy, which looks at her life and involvement in this particular Trump legal saga.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Daniels is forthcoming and can also be light-hearted.

She laughs as she explains how she became an adult film star, explaining women can compete in contests called “Miss Nude North America”.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Stormy Daniels is wearing a long black sheath dress, and what appears to be a very long black shirt or light coat.

She’s sporting glasses today. It's a modest look, perhaps deliberately.

She’s speaking quickly and prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks her to “slow down a little bit”, so the court reporter can transcribe her work.

From my perspective, she might be nervous, but also appears composed on the stand. Trump, meanwhile, is staring at her from the defence table.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We’re hearing more now about Daniels’ upbringing, and what led her to the adult-film world.

She started working as a dancer on the weekends to help pay bills in high school, before working as a nude model at age 21, she explains.

Her mother was neglectful, she says, adding:

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

She says she was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and was mostly taken care of by her mother.

Daniels now lives in Florida with her partner, she says.

With a soft southern accent, Daniels says her parents split up when she was young and that she comes from a low-income family.

She says she went to a Christian elementary school and then an engineering high school and that she wanted to be a veterinarian.

Daniels has said in media interviews that she met Trump at a charity golf tournament in July 2006.

She alleged the pair had sex once in his hotel room at Lake Tahoe, a resort area straddling California and Nevada. A lawyer for Trump "vehemently" denied this at the time.

Trump's wife, Melania Trump, was not at the tournament and had just given birth to their son.

Daniels says Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid her $130,000 in "hush-money" to keep her quiet about their affair, just ahead of the 2016 election - and she took it because she was concerned for the safety of her family.

She also says she was legally and physically threatened to stay silent.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Stormy Daniels walked into the room wearing a black shirt and black sweater.

Donald Trump looked in her direction as she took the stand.

The jurors all seemed to shift in their seats when Daniels was called.

Now we're about to hear from a key witness in this case - Stormy Daniels - the adult-film star who was paid $130,000 (£103,500) to keep quiet about allegedly having sex with Donald Trump.

It's how that payment was recorded in Trump's financial records that is at the heart of this criminal trial.

Stay with us.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We've just finished with Sally Franklin's testimony.

We're expecting our second witness of the day, Stormy Daniels, shortly.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

During their redirect, prosecutors have Franklin read another excerpt from one of Trump's books about signing cheques (or "checks" in the US).

"I even try to sign as many checks as possible," Trump writes.

"When you sign a check yourself, you’re seeing what’s really going inside the business," the passage continues, "and if people see your signature at the bottom of the check, they know you’re watching them."

Why does this matter? Yesterday the prosecutors showed a series of cheques to Michael Cohen, reimbursing him for the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, that bore Trump's trademark Sharpie signature.

Cohen filed his invoices as "legal expenses", which wasn't true.

Prosecutors need to prove that Trump knew what those payments to Cohen were truly for when he was signing the cheques, so they may be using this testimony to show he cared about the details of such transactions.

One of Donald Trump's books currently being discussed in court has a respectable rating of 3.63 out of 4 stars on Goodreads, the social media reading site used by millions.

But when the guide to "everything you need to know about success, real estate, and life" came out in 2004, Publishers Weekly panned it. Publishers Weekly is an industry publication for book publishing around the world, and its reviews carry weight with consumers on Amazon.

"Unfortunately, the book is packed with more cliches and glowing comments about his various properties (including his Mar-a-Lago resort, 'one of the most beautiful places on earth') than practical advice," according to the review.

It sums up: "Though Trump claims in the book's introduction that 'if you absorb only ten percent of the wisdom in this book, you'll still have a good shot at becoming a millionaire,' many a reader will likely finish this book feeling distinctly unenlightened."

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Prosecutors are now responding to Blanche's questioning, outlined in our last post. They're arguing that anything a ghostwriter wrote for Trump's books would have to be approved by Trump himself.

Does the ghostwriter work for the author or does the author work for the ghostwriter? prosecutors ask.

"The ghostwriter works for the author," Sally Franklin replies.