“In terms of the sexual act, it will be just very basic. It’s not going to involve descriptions of genitalia or anything of that nature,” Hoffinger said.
Could someone explain how paying a person not to publicly talk about what you did is illegal? If a company does this, it's called NDA. Is it because prostitution is illegal in the US?
Interestingly, the defense used the salacious nature of the testimony to call for a mistrial. Judge Merchan personally had to step in throughout the testimony to keep it focused.
When the mistrial was called for, Merchan refused and admonished the defense for doing their job for them. They should have objected more in order to keep the testimony on track.
Honestly, this was the diciest part of the trial so far and it's not entirely clear how beneficial it was for the prosecution, but it was important nonetheless.