New York, New York - Donald Trump's defense team was again denied a mistrial Thursday following the lengthy testimony of porn star Stormy Daniels in the former president's historic hush money case.

At the close of Daniels' marathon testimony, which lasted approximately eight hours over two days, the defense asked her if she knew anything about Trump's bookkeeping – the actual crux of the case.

She said she does not.

But that wasn't the point of calling Daniels to the stand, one prosecutor said later – she was there to detail why Trump would've wanted to cover up her story at the finish line of his White House bid.

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That reasoning came up after jurors had been dismissed for the day during a motion hearing that saw Team Trump try once more for a mistrial.

It was again denied, but not before Judge Juan Merchan skewered Trump's lawyers in front of him.

"I disagree with your narrative that there is any new account here. I disagree that there is any changing story," he said, audibly irritated.

In his extraordinary dressing down of the defense's lawyering, Merchan said their very insistence that Daniels had made the encounter up cleared the way for the prosecution to include evidence – much of it salacious – to the contrary.

Necheles spent much of her cross hammering on the very details they were holding up as grounds for a mistrial, Merchan said, "drilling it over and over and over again into the jury's ears."

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"I don't understand the reason for that," he said during his dramatic critique, asking why the defense had not objected to the presentation of those details during direct questioning.

And that Trump's team has been attacking Daniels from the very beginning, including during opening statements, "pits your client's word against Ms. Daniels' word," Merchan said.

"That, in my mind, allows The People to do what they can to rehabilitate her and corroborate her story," he said, using a term for the prosecution.

"Your motion for a mistrial is denied."

Amid his bid for re-election, Trump is also facing criminal charges in Florida, Washington, and Georgia.