Judge Jeffrey Manning told a defense attorney in the trial of state Sen. Jane Orie today that he was "pushing the envelope" in trying to suggest to the jury that the Republican Party's annual Lincoln Day Dinner was not a political event.

A variety of witnesses in the trial have described being assigned to work at the dinners and obtaining nomination petition signatures there for the senator and has sister, state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.

In cross-examining Audrey Rasmussen, a former Orie aide, attorney William Costopoulos has sought to characterize the event as a public policy forum in which issues such as immigration are discussed.

"Anyone who doesn't know that the Lincoln Dinner is a political event doesn't know the sun rises in the east," Judge Manning advised Mr. Costopoulos after the jury left for a mid-day break.

The defense lawyer insisted that that was a question for the jurors to decide.

The exchange came after a morning focused on still more testimony that the senator had used public resources for campaigning. While much of that testimony echoed statements from earlier witnesses, one intriguing note emerged as Ms. Rasmussen testified that sometime in 2008, fearing that her state computer system had been hacked, Ms.

Orie asked the state attorney general's office to examine her computers. There was not immediate testimony on what may have emerged from that review.