Wilmington, Delaware
CNN
—
Dominion Voting Systems can’t bring up the January 6 insurrection during its upcoming defamation trial against Fox News, a Delaware judge ruled Tuesday, who also revealed at a hearing that he has been receiving death threats.

The voting technology company sued Fox News over the right-wing network’s promotions of false claims that Dominion voting machines rigged the 2020 election. But almost all of the allegedly defamatory statements mentioned in Dominion’s lawsuit occurred before the January 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said at a hearing Tuesday that invoking January 6 would be too prejudicial with the jury, and that the case isn’t about whether Fox News “influenced” the insurrection.

“That may be for another court at another time, but it’s not for this court at this time,” Davis said.

Holy Week has been hijacked by the spectacle of white evangelicals crying over their savior Donald Trump. The former president was charged by a Manhattan grand jury this week with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. While the indictments are related to hush money Trump allegedly paid to cover up affairs and improperly recorded as business expenses, some supporters see this as Trump’s passion play. That is, they see his prosecution as a persecution, as a punishment Democrats are inflicting on him because he was their chosen one, the messiah who gave them power.

Trump’s arrest may be a first in American history, but for evangelicals who support him, it is the fulfillment of their prophecy of persecution for Trump, for whom many of them have shoved aside Jesus to praise. But this new passion play, which is centered around alleged adultery and payoffs, isn’t anything like the story of Jesus. This week’s story revolves around alleged behavior antithetical to Christian belief, behavior that has historically been anathema to evangelicals: adulterous sex — with a porn star, no less — and lying. Yet, white evangelicals are still supporting Trump.

A group of Trump-aligned evangelical pastors came together on a call to pray for Trump’s victory after his arraignment, and James Dobson, the evangelical pastor who founded “Focus on the Family,” prayed that God would “restore him to influence and power.” But the support for Trump goes far past mere prayers for him.