What happened
Stormy Daniels, the porn actress at the heart of former President Donald Trump’s ongoing hush-money trial, took the stand Tuesday, testifying in sometimes graphic detail about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. Judge Juan Merchan reprimanded Trump, who denies having sex with Daniels, for glowering and “cursing audibly” during her testimony. But the former president got good news later Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed another one of his four criminal trials, for illegally retaining and hiding top secret documents.
Who said what
Daniels went into such detail about what at times sounded like “nonconsensual sex” that Trump’s lawyers “complained bitterly” that her “account of a possible sex crime had hopelessly tainted the jury” against the ex-president, The Washington Post said. Merchan denied their request for a mistrial, but the sordid testimony could give Trump “solid grounds to appeal if he is found guilty.”
In Florida, Judge Cannon said it would be “imprudent” to set a new trial date as she works through Trump’s myriad “pending pretrial motions” and special evidentiary questions. “Some legal observers” suggest Cannon is “deliberately slow-walking the case on behalf of the man who appointed her to the court,” the BBC said.
What next?
Cross examination of Daniels is expected to continue Thursday. Cannon’s ruling makes it unlikely Trump will face trial in that case before he faces voters in November.