By Calder McHugh

Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media alongside his attorney Todd Blanche (right) after leaving the courtroom at the end of the day today. | Pool photo by Dave Sanders

MIXED FORTUNES — The prosecution in the Trump trial got what they wanted from former American Media CEO David Pecker this week — a concession that the Hush Money Payments he made on behalf of Trump were done in order to help Donald Trump’s campaign for president.

Over the course of five days, Pecker made more than a few assertions that were useful in the case against Trump. He testified that he made “catch and kill” deals with a former Trump Tower doorman and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep potential bombshell stories quiet in the midst of the election.

All were direct torpedo hits to the defense’s opening statement Monday, in which Trump lawyer Todd Blanche argued that any and all hush money payments were to keep negative stories from reaching Trump’s family’s eyes, rather than the voting public. Prosecutors want to prove the payments corrupted the 2016 election, Trump’s lawyers want the jury to believe that they had little to do with politics and everything to do with protecting Trump’s family.

In the midst of his testimony, Pecker provided new details about Trump’s 2016 campaign and White House operations. Pecker detailed a “thank you” dinner that Trump hosted for him at the White House in July 2017 for his help keeping these stories private. “It’s your dinner,” Pecker testified Trump told him. When Pecker arrived, Trump also inquired as to how Karen McDougal was doing.

The former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid also testified as to Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s insistence that Trump “has [then-attorney general] Jeff Sessions in his pocket,” altogether painting a picture of the former president as a man willing to bend rules and regulations to his personal and political benefit.

The prosecution’s successful week in Manhattan court was made all the more important by another legal proceeding about 250 miles away in Washington.

In a hearing at the Supreme Court on Thursday concerning Trump’s claim of immunity from federal criminal charges, Trump’s team had a shockingly good day. While legal observers generally assumed the Court would swat down Trump’s argument that a former president should be immune from prosecution relating to his time in office, at least three justices — John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch — suggested that the Court would at the very least have to send the case back to lower courts to determine just what evidence special counsel Jack Smith could bring to trial. That’s in addition to two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who appeared to fully accept Trump’s claims of presidential immunity.

Alito went so far as to put forward the argument that not granting full presidential immunity from prosecution would in fact make the president more likely to commit crimes in an attempt to stay in office.

Even if the Court doesn’t entirely endorse Trump’s insistence that he’s fully immune, sending the case back down to a lower court would end any hope that prosecutors had to bring it before the election. And that’s a victory of sorts for Trump — if he wins in November, the decision would for all intents and purposes stop him from being prosecuted for his attempts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election at all, given that he would be able to shut down the work of the special counsel as president.

The Manhattan hush money case is largely considered to be the weakest legal case of the four criminal cases in which Trump has been indicted. But the big, bright spotlight on it grew even more intense this week. All indications are that this is the only bite at the apple that criminal prosecutors around the country are going to get at Trump this year.

And with next week scheduled to feature testimony from additional witnesses — who have yet to be identified — the two sides are digging in. Trump’s lawyers are trying to undermine Pecker and other witnesses in order to stick to their argument that none of the payments were politically motivated. The prosecution, meanwhile, seeks to tie all of the hush money payments to malfeasance related to the 2016 election.

Legal observers have likened this trial, largely about falsifying business records, to getting Al Capone on tax evasion. But the events of the week revealed that it’s suddenly more important than originally thought — it’s the only case that will conclude before the presidential election. If the pressure wasn’t ratcheted all the way up before, it certainly is now.

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COHEN’S BANKER — The prosecution called Gary Farro, a private client advisor at Flagstar Bank, worked with Michael Cohen.

Gary Farro testified that Michael Cohen answered “no” on paperwork to open an LLC called Essential Consultants that asked if the entity is “associated with Political Fundraising/Political Action Committee (PAC).” If Cohen had answered “yes,” Farro said, that would have triggered additional review of the account.

In a formation document, a bank employee listed Cohen’s description of that LLC as “a real estate consulting company to collect fees for investment consulting work he does for real estate deals.” Essential Consultants is the LLC prosecutors say Cohen used to pay the $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels.

RELUCTANT WITNESS — The prosecution called Rhona Graff, Trump’s former assistant, who testified that Trump kept contacts in the Trump Organization computer system for Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. “You don’t want to be here, do you?” Trump lawyer Susan Necheles asked Graff. “Correct,” Graff replied. She testified that she was there pursuant to a subpoena.

— Biden’s student loan chief to depart as mass relief plan looms: Rich Cordray, the Biden administration’s top student loan official who has been a key ally of progressives pushing for debt relief, will leave the Education Department at the end of June, the agency confirmed today. Cordray’s departure comes as the administration has been scrambling to recover from its troubled rollout of a new student aid system that delayed college financial aid offers for millions of families this spring and drew bipartisan criticism in Congress.

— Florida GOP Rep. Posey abruptly announces retirement: Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) abruptly announced today that he will not seek reelection, after initially planning to run for another term. Posey’s announcement — if made earlier — could have easily attracted a spirited Republican primary, with politicians from the state’s Space Coast region already eyeing the seat once Posey retired. Florida’s 8th congressional district is a solid Republican seat. Instead the 76-year-old incumbent’s announcement came shortly after qualifying officially ended and after his hand-picked replacement — former state Senate President Mike Haridopolos — had already quietly jumped into the race.

— Biden delaying plan to ban menthol cigarettes: President Joe Biden is delaying an FDA plan to ban menthol cigarettes, a move that could effectively kill any chance the rule will be released before the election in November. “This rule has garnered historic attention and the public comment period has yielded an immense amount of feedback, including from various elements of the civil rights and criminal justice movement,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement today. “It’s clear that there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time.”

TIT FOR TAT — If Nebraska Republicans changed their electoral college rules to help Donald Trump this November, a top Maine Democrat said her party would try to do a similar move to counteract the impact.

The state House majority leader, Maureen Terry, said in a statement today that the Democratic-controlled Legislature would “be compelled to act in order to restore fairness,” should Nebraska’s Republican governor sign legislation that made the state a winner-take-all election in 2024.

STATE OF THE DEBATE — President Joe Biden participated in a surprise live interview today with radio host Howard Stern, the latest example of the White House favoring media personalities and nontraditional outlets ahead of the president’s reelection. Biden said in the interview that he planned to debate former President Donald Trump this election cycle, but did not know when or where it would happen. “I am happy to debate him,” Biden said.

Although Trump did not participate in any of the presidential primary debates, his campaign has called on Biden to debate and has suggested adding more debates to the general election schedule. The Biden campaign had previously been noncommittal about participating.

RAHM TO THE RESCUE — At the low point of President Joe Biden’s polling this winter, top New York Democratic donors pushed to bring the legendary Democratic politico Rahm Emanuel back from his posting in Japan to run the re-election campaign.

Two prominent Democratic sources told Semafor that they’d been involved in discussions aimed at bringing the combative and connected Emanuel — a former top Clinton aide, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman, Chicago Mayor, and member of a legendary set of brothers — in to energize what they saw as an isolated and somnolent Biden inner circle that seemed to be hiding the president from public view. The donor-led push — like most efforts to influence Biden’s tight inner circle — was received coolly in Wilmington and Tokyo. Emanuel dismissed the effort as “not real” in a text message to Semafor.

Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive to attend the Easter Matins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on March 31, 2024. | Hollie Adams/AP

ROYAL RETURN — King Charles III will resume some public-facing duties as his treatment for cancer continues, Buckingham Palace announced today. In an update carefully-choreographed for the U.K.’s 6 p.m. broadcast news bulletins, Buckingham Palace said the U.K. head of state’s treatment for cancer isn’t over, but that doctors are “very encouraged by the progress made so far and remain positive about the King’s continued recovery.”

Charles — who ascended to the throne following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 — first sought treatment for an enlarged prostate in January, with Buckingham Palace announcing the following month that cancer had been detected.

EASTERN PROMISES — Two British men have been charged with helping Russian intelligence after a suspected arson attack on a business linked to Ukraine. Prosecutors announced today that Dylan Earl, aged 20, and Jake Reeves, 22, had been charged with national security offenses after a blaze at a warehouse in east London in March.

A statement from the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Earl, who was arrested earlier this month, had been charged with “assisting a foreign intelligence service,” as well as aggravated arson and planning conduct which could endanger life or create “a serious risk to the health and safety of the public in the United Kingdom.” The CPS named the foreign state as Russia.

POLITICO IS BACK AT THE 2024 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO will again be your eyes and ears at the 27th Annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles from May 5-8 with exclusive, daily, reporting in our Global Playbook newsletter. Suzanne Lynch will be on the ground covering the biggest moments, behind-the-scenes buzz and on-stage insights from global leaders in health, finance, tech, philanthropy and beyond. Get a front-row seat to where the most interesting minds and top global leaders confront the world’s most pressing and complex challenges — subscribe today.

ON A KNIFE’S EDGE — In the Central African Republic, the Wagner Group patrols freely, working with the Russian government. Its citizenry, after years of feeling left behind by French colonialism and general Western influence, has complicated feelings about this fact. But as Wagner and rebels continue skirmishes in the countryside, the mood of the place is on edge. James Pogue went to the CAR for Granta Magazine to get a sense of the scene, and he ended up at one point detained by the government. Read the story here.

On this date in 1989: Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe in the 1973 court case (left) and her attorney Gloria Allred hold hands as they leave the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., after sitting in while the court listened to arguments in a Missouri abortion case. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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