Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Two women face off for Mexico's presidency on Sunday, a new women's professional basketball league raised new seed funding, and Donald Trump's history with women proves to be his weak spot yet again. Have a fun weekend!
- Verdict's in. Once again, Donald Trump's history with women has proven to be his downfall. The former president was found guilty on 34 felony counts yesterday in the trial over falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Daniels' (legal name Stephanie Clifford) experience with Trump dates back to 2006 when she met the then-businessman and accepted his invitation up to his hotel suite, where they had sex—an event Trump tried to cover up during his 2016 run for the presidency.
Since becoming associated with Trump, Daniels has told her own story on tour as a performer and in a documentary and been a target—attacked by Trump supporters online and judged by people in her day-to-day life. She testified in this trial, telling the long tale of her time with Trump and everything that followed.
“I used to be very adamant that I’m not a victim, but I kind of am at this point," she told New York Magazine last year.
Daniels' story is very different from other women's experiences with the former president. E. Jean Carroll, the journalist and author, accused Trump of rape; he was found liable in civil court. Carroll won $83.3 million in a defamation suit against Trump, who spewed insults at her on Truth Social and other platforms. Tens of other women have described inappropriate encounters with Trump over the years, all of which he has denied.
While Carroll's experience is one she has always called sexual assault, Daniels has an evolving perspective on her own experience with Trump. She told New York Magazine that she has reflected more at the power dynamics at play in her encounter with Trump, and that she did not provide an enthusiastic "yes" to sex with him. “It was not rape. I was very adamant in the beginning about saying I wasn’t a victim. But looking back? I kind of was,” she says.
Carroll and her attorney Robbie Kaplan were among the first to hold Trump to account in court, as they recalled at a Fortune Most Powerful Women dinner earlier this month. (Carroll said in that interview that she and Daniels came close to meeting, but haven't spoken; Carroll posted an image of Daniels with the caption "Justice!!" on Instagram after the verdict.) And now, Trump is the first American president to be a convicted felon—thanks to his history with Daniels. (Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg brought the case.)
Trump is still the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, and it's unclear what this conviction means for his political prospects. His sentencing is scheduled for July 11; possible sentences range from probation to four years in prison. He called the trial a "disgrace" and "rigged" and has already begun fundraising off of the verdict, calling himself a "political prisoner."
For now, what we know is that Trump's history with women is what has come closest to derailing his political future time and time again. From the 2016 discovery of the "grab 'em by the pussy" video to Carroll's victory to this verdict—this is his weak spot. Whether that matters enough to voters, we'll find out this year.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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