Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We're just minutes into Stormy Daniels' testimony today, but already, she sounds more rehearsed and composed.

She's giving shorter answers to Necheles' questions - and she's reiterating the same point - that she wanted to get her story out, and she wanted her family to be safe.

It's a sharp contrast to her meandering testimony under prosecutors' questioning on Tuesday, when Daniels' frequently cracked jokes and gave explicit details.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

We begin with some housekeeping about evidence.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger raises the prospect that Donald Trump's team may try to bring up an arrest record for Stormy Daniels in 2009.

Trump's lawyer Susan Necheles said she just wants to ask Daniels about aspects of the incident, but Justice Merchan does not allow it because it never resulted in any conviction, fine, or other punishment.

Anyone can get arrested just for walking outside, he says, and that doesn't make it relevant.

Daniels has just returned to the courtroom.

She is again wearing black, flowing clothes, but her hair is down and styled today. The click of her heels echoes through the courtroom as she sweeps past the defence table, where Trump is seated.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Donald Trump just walked into the courtroom, with a larger than usual entourage that included US Senator Rick Scott of Florida.

Scott takes a seat at the benches behind the defence table, along with Trump's legal spokeswoman Alina Habba and attorney Boris Epshteyn.

There are several other people here too, filling the reserved rows behind Trump completely. So far, I haven't spotted his son Eric, who was in court on Tuesday to hear Stormy Daniels' first day of testimony.

Justice Juan Merchan has taken his seat at the bench, and court is now in session. We'll have our witness soon.

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from court

More than 200 members of the public were just turned away after they were told the overflow courtroom is full.

Some of them had been waiting in line since 4am.

One woman, exasperated, asked just how much earlier she had to arrive to get a seat. Others took it extremely well and just shrugged and moved on.

The historic nature of the trial still draws a big crowd weeks in.

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump has arrived and took a moment, as he has every day in court, to speak to the media in the hallway.

The former president starts off with politics, taking aim at Joe Biden's policies in Israel and Gaza.

He again complains about the gag-order in this trial, which he says is "unconstitutional".

Trump reads from a piece of paper which has several quotes from various politicians and legal experts who have commented on the case.

He says there should be no trial and claims there is no legal case against him. These are comments he has repeated throughout this trial.

Image source, Getty Images

Stormy Daniels arrived at the New York courthouse earlier today.

Donald Trump should be arriving shortly.

Court is scheduled to start at 09.30 local time (14:30 BST).

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles led an aggressive cross-examination of Stormy Daniels on Tuesday, and we can expect that to pick up today.

Necheles has tried to cast Daniels as a Trump hater and a liar, and is likely trying to discredit her in the eyes of the jury.

We’re curious to see if Stormy's demeanour on the stand changes after a day off from court.

On Tuesday, Daniels spoke so quickly and at such length that Justice Juan Merchan had to remind her to slow down and stay on topic.

She took on a defiant tone with Necheles, who at times asked her if she hated Trump and if she was motivated by money.

Necheles will be trying to get under Daniels’ skin again today. We’ll be watching to see if it works.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Donald Trump's hush-money trial in New York.

We will pick up where we left off on Tuesday, with testimony from one of prosecutors’ star witnesses - adult film actor Stormy Daniels.

On Tuesday, speaking at a rapid pace, she walked us through the events that led up to her alleged sexual encounter with Trump (which Trump has denied ever happened).

Daniels often provided salacious details that even the judge himself said “would have been better left unsaid”.

She told the court about how Trump greeted her in silk pyjamas in his hotel room, and how they had a long chat at a dining room table before allegedly had sex.

She also spoke of the aftermath - how she tried to sell the story of the alleged encounter at points but ultimately decided to sign a non-disclosure agreement, for which Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen paid her $130,000.

Daniels proved to be a difficult witness for prosecutors during her morning testimony.

But after some direction from prosecutors (and Trump's lawyers calling for a mistrial), her afternoon testimony proved more succinct.

We’ll see how it plays out today.