BARE WITNESS

Stormy Daniels offered up the most salacious testimony yet in Trump’s criminal trial. But when it comes to actually proving Trump’s guilt, the prosecutors have another star witness: the documents.

• Adult film actress Stormy Daniels took the stand at disgraced former President Donald Trump’s election interference (aka “hush money”) trial today. She delivered the most sensational, if not most legally important, testimony so far. Jurors heard Daniels describe her (okay first of all: yuck) sexual encounter with Trump, including how she smacked the former President of the United States across the butt with a rolled up magazine. Her detailed recounting prompted Trump’s lawyers to move for a mistrial, on the grounds that the information was unfairly prejudicial. Judge Juan Merchan denied the request, but acknowledged that some of the testimony went further than he’d agreed to allow. This could be an issue that comes up later on appeal if Trump’s convicted.

• Daniels’ lurid testimony reportedly made Trump fidgety, perhaps because he’s repeatedly denied that this affair ever happened. During the lunch break, Judge Juan Merchan told Trump’s lawyer to stop his client from “cursing audibly” and shaking his head in a way that might intimidate Daniels or shape the jury’s opinion. Trump’s lawyers have (so far) done little to refute her version of events. Still, despite all this hoopla, her testimony isn’t the heart of the D.A.’s case. Paying for a paramour’s silence isn’t illegal. Trump stands accused of what allegedly happened next: engineering a scheme of reimbursements, false records and false documents to illegally hide the nature and existence of the payments from voters and tax authorities. For that, prosecutors have more boring evidence, made up of more tangible stuff: documents, audio tape and checks signed by Trump.

• What about the politics of this tawdry spectacle? Trump, of course, has overcome so many outrageous scandals that conventional wisdom holds he’s impervious to infamy. But there is reason to suppose the impact of this trial may be underrated with one key group: moderate GOP and independent women. Take Pennsylvania’s recent GOP presidential primary. Trump won, but Nikki Haley captured 17% of the vote, despite not even being in the race. Haley scored similar results in other states, at times capping 20% against Trump. That suggests a GOP electorate still divided over Trump, with swaths of moderate, non-MAGA Republicans casting protest votes in critical swing states.  

Will it matter in November? We’ll see. But, politically speaking, there’s no realistic universe where weeks of testimony about adultery and hush money actually help Trump with the demographics where he’s weakest.  

NEWS NEWS NEWS

President Biden on Tuesday reaffirmed the White House’s “ironclad” support for Israel as an independent Jewish state despite deepening disagreements with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, during a speech commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day at the U.S. Capitol. Biden condemned what he called surging antisemitism, saying Americans have already begun to forget the realities of the Holocaust and who was responsible for Hamas’s attack on October 7.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) appears to be backing off her threat to force a vote on ousting Speaker Mike Johnson from his post. Greene and her allies spent the last two days giving Johnson a list of demands, and now Greene says she’ll give him just a little bit of time to meet them. Donald Trump asked MTG to back off, ABC News reported, citing an unnamed source. The scramble to unify fractured Republicans helps explain why Johnson and his fellow Republicans are so frantically accusing everyone else of antisemitism. MTG told the press after her meeting with Johnson: “I am so done with words.” We friggin’ wish you were, Marge!

House Republicans’ ruling majority is now officially down to just one vote. Yesterday’s swearing in of Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-NY), who won a special election last week, puts the House at 217 Republicans and 213 Dems.

TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance sued the federal government on Tuesday, alleging that the new law forcing the platform’s divestment and sale within 270 days isn’t practical and will violate the free speech rights of hundreds of millions of users. Hoards of teens are reportedly creating a new dance trend in protest.

Ukraine apparently foiled a plot by two of its military officers to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on behalf of Russia.

Trump-appointed federal judge Aileen Cannon delayed a key deadline in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago classified documents and obstruction case, all but guaranteeing Trump won’t face trial on the 40 counts against him before the election. The judge also officially nixed a proposed May 20 start date (though it’s been clear for months that date wasn’t real.) Thanks, Judge Cannon! The possible future president knows you’ve been very good this year!

The far-right freaks over at The Daily Wire have founded a men’s lifestyle brand and are now selling “supplements” that they claim increase sperm count and “brain cognition” (lol, okay guys) and fight the scourge of wokeness. That’s right: Gas station dick pills to own the libs.