In an appearance on CNN‘s Smerconish on Saturday morning, legal analyst and attorney Elie Honig said he doesn’t believe former President Donald Trump has to take the stand for a successful defense in his criminal hush money trial.
In his opening commentary, host Michael Smerconish stated that Trump is “uniquely qualified” to put his own version of his motivation for the payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
However, Honig countered that Trump’s defense team could lean on the prosecution’s own witness testimony to make the case that the former president made payments to Daniels as a personal expense meant to spare him and his family embarrassment.
“I do not actually agree that he needs to take the stand to make that defense. I think he can do it through the prosecution’s witnesses,” Honig said. “Michael Cohen doesn’t have to say, ‘Donald Trump wanted to protect his family.’ But as long as they establish that he had a wife and children, and any normal human being would be embarrassed by this disclosure, that’s enough for the defendant to make that argument.”
The Context:
Trump, the presumed 2024 GOP presidential nominee, is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to reimbursement payments made to ex-attorney Michael Cohen for $130,000 in hush money payments Cohen made to Daniels during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign in a criminal case brought on by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Daniels alleged that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. Trump has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Legal experts, meanwhile, believe the outcome of the first-ever trial of a former U.S. president hinges on Trump’s intent for that payment. Prosecutors look to prove that he knew that Cohen’s hush money payment to Daniels was meant to sway the election and that Trump falsified records to cover it up.
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What We Know:
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