Mike Johnson skips vital US House session to support Trump in New York

The US House was in session on Tuesday with vital business to complete but its speaker, Mike Johnson, was 200 miles north, attending 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.

“President Trump is innocent of these charges,” Johnson told reporters outside court in Manhattan, where Trump faces the first 34 of 88 criminal counts.

Michael Cohen, who as Trump’s lawyer and fixer made the payments to Stormy Daniels, was on the witness stand.

Trump has used his trial as a loyalty test for supporters and vice-presidential hopefuls, both at the courthouse and on social media and TV. On Tuesday, Johnson was joined in court by the governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, the Florida representatives Byron Donalds and Cory Mills, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who ran for the Republican presidential nomination.

Before proceedings began, as Johnson and other supporters stood behind him, guarded by court officers, Trump spoke to reporters.

“I do have a lot of surrogates and they are speaking very beautifully,” he said. “They come from all over Washington, and they’re highly respected and they think this is the biggest scam they’ve ever seen.”

Regarding such surrogates’ ability to comment on the trial unencumbered by a gag order over which Trump has been fined and threatened with incarceration, Trump told reporters: “You ask me questions that I’m not allowed to answer.”

Complaining about the courtroom, Trump said: “I’ve been here for nearly four weeks in the ice box,” adding: “Vivek … can speak for himself.” Ramaswamy smiled.

The charges against Trump cast the hush-money payments,