US House in session with major agenda but its speaker is AWOL at Trump trial

Devout Christian Mike Johnson supporting ex-president in court over hush-money payments to porn star after extramarital affair

The US House was in session on Tuesday with vital business to complete but its speaker, Mike Johnson, headed 200 miles north to attend another day in the criminal trial of Donald Trump, the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee charged over hush-money payments to an adult film star who claimed an affair.

Punchbowl News first reported Johnson’s decision to appear at the courthouse in Manhattan where Trump faces the first 34 of 88 criminal charges.