A former president — who could find himself back behind the Oval Office desk in January — came face-to-face for the first time in years with the adult film star whom he’s accused of silencing with a hush money payment, CNN reported on Wednesday.

What came next was tawdry, compelling, and achingly embarrassing to Trump, who was forced to sit scowling as Daniels painted a detailed scene of a black-tiled hotel suite that allegedly hosted a liaison that the ex-president still denies.

It was the latest unfathomable lurch of an election campaign like no other. And for a normal candidate who lacked Trump’s Teflon political hide, it would probably be the end of the road.

But as so often happens, one devastating legal blow to the ex-president was followed by a silver lining. He learned late Tuesday afternoon that Judge Aileen Cannon, whom he appointed, indefinitely postponed a trial in his classified documents case in Florida. This means Trump almost certainly won’t face a jury on federal charges of mishandling classified information before the election — a reality that prompted his former White House counsel Ty Cobb to accuse Cannon of slow walking the case, indulging frivolous motions and misunderstanding applicable law. “This is a case of bias and incompetence,” Cobb told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

Cannon’s move comes with Trump’s two election interference cases, both of which have become swamped by his pre-trial delaying tactics and fulsome appeals, also unlikely to go on trial before voters make their fateful choice in November. The Georgia Court of Appeals said Wednesday it will consider an effort by Trump and his co-defendants to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis from the 2020 election subversion case – another sign that pre-trial efforts to delay a trial are succeeding.

So, while the hush money case is widely regarded as the weakest of the bunch facing Trump, it’s likely the only one that could create the never-before-seen scenario of a convicted felon asking voters to elect him president.

That made the testimony of Daniels even more critical. And the most important question after her first bruising three-and-three-quarters hours on the stand is whether her salaciousness testimony made a guilty verdict more likely — or ended up undermining the case.

Furthermore, will the risqué nature of her description of her relationship with Trump break through in a way that previous unflattering revelations of the ex-president’s character have failed to do and shift any critical swing state votes in November?

Daniels, along with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, is one of two star witnesses in the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president. She told the jury Tuesday about a $130,000 hush money payment she received from Cohen before the 2016 election. Such payments are not illegal. But prosecutors allege Trump falsified business records to hide it and to mislead voters in an early bout of election interference. He’s pleaded not guilty.

 “Stormy gave new information about her brief liaison with Donald Trump and additional information about many of the key elements in the case,” legal analyst Norm Eisen told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “It was one of the biggest days yet in this very eventful trial.”

The drama was even greater than it first appeared.

A transcript of the day’s proceedings revealed an exchange between Judge Juan Merchan and Trump’s attorney that had not been audible in court. The judge complained that the ex-president was “cursing audibly” during Daniels’ testimony and was shaking his head. “It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that.” The judge told the lawyer, Todd Blanche, that he spoke to him at the bench to avoid embarrassing the defendant but that the behavior needed to stop. CNN’s Jeremy Herb, who was in court, reported that Trump was more engaged on Tuesday than at any previous moment in the trial.

Trump was already on thin ice with the judge a day after Merchan warned he could face jail if he continued violating a gag order intended to protect jurors and witnesses. He did manage to avoid crossing the line while speaking to reporters in a courtroom corridor at the end of the day. But the blush-inducing testimony from Daniels may provide the most arduous test yet of his shaky self-discipline and bring the possibility of a new gag order showdown with Merchan closer.