Legal expert hits CNN panel with truth on why Stormy Daniels' testimony was 'disastrous' for prosecutors: 'Big damn deal'

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor, believes Stormy Daniels' testimony went "quite poorly" for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

On Tuesday, the former porn actress took the witness stand in Donald Trump's hush money trial, testifying for hours about her relationship with Trump. At one point, Trump's attorneys called for a mistrial — a move that New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan rejected — because Daniels provided salacious details about her relationship with Trump, even suggesting their sexual encounter was nonconsensual. Trump's attorneys argued such testimony was "extraordinarily prejudicial."

"Prosecutors went too far in the details they elicited."

Reacting to the testimony on CNN, Honig said that Daniels' answers on cross-examination were "disastrous" for the prosecution.

"Her responses were disastrous. I mean, 'Do you hate Donald Trump?' Yes, of course she does. That's a big deal. When the witness hates the person whose liberty is at stake? That's a big damn deal," Honig explained.

"And she's putting out tweets fantasizing about him being in jail? That really undermines the credibility," he noted.

Not only does Honig believe that Daniels' undermined her credibility as a witness, but he explained how Daniels may have shown that she doesn't respect the legal system.

"The fact that she owes him $500,000," Honig said. "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?'"

"So, I thought it went quite poorly on cross-exam. At the end of direct, I thought, 'OK, they got what they needed.' But I think the cross is making real inroads," he explained.

Honig also believes prosecutors damaged their case by taking "cheap shots" during Daniels' testimony.

Those cheap shots, he explained, are the questions that prosecutors asked Daniels to extract "extraneous detail about the sexual encounter" between Daniels and Trump.

"Prosecutors went too far in the details they elicited," Honig said. "I think, yes, it was the right move by Donald Trump's team to ask for a mistrial."

Daniels is expected to take the witness stand again on Thursday.

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