Donald Trump's Likely Defense Has One Major Problem

Donald Trump's likely main defense in his falsifying business records trial over hush money paid to his former lawyer Michael Cohen will not pass scrutiny, legal experts have said.

Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann and Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe have criticized the former president over his claims that the $130,000 he reimbursed Cohen for should be classed as "legal fees" as the attorney was representing Trump at the time.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to money he arranged for Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair she had with Trump secret in the run-up to the 2016 election.

The money was listed in Trump's company records as "legal fees," which prosecutors suggest was part of an unlawful attempt to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential race. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, admits reimbursing the $130,000 hush money to Cohen but denies having an affair with Daniels.

In a post on Truth Social ahead of the trial in New York continuing on Monday, Trump asked why a payment of money to a lawyer for legal services "should not be referred to in a Ledger as LEGAL EXPENSE. What other term would be more appropriate??"

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Weissmann hit out at Trump's claims that his business records were not falsified as they were covering Cohen's apparent legal expenses.

"Trump's latest defense, which we will see at trial I'm sure, that the 34 business records were not false because they were legal payments (reimbursing his lawyer Cohen for making the $130,000 hush money payment) is BELIED by contemporaneous notations that the payments were for ongoing legal services rendered during a certain month," Weissmann posted. "Oops."

In response, Tribe said that if Trump's argument were true, then any activity conducted by a lawyer could be classified as legal fees if they are paid for it.

"Calling those reimbursements 'legal payments' requires accepting the crazy claim that any payment to a lawyer to cover what it cost him to commit a crime at your behest is ipso facto a 'legal' payment," Tribe posted. "That dog won't hunt."

Trump's legal team has been contacted for comment via email.

Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office are set to argue that Trump attempts to hide his alleged affair with Daniels were not to protect his marriage, but to stop personal details about him coming out that could damage his 2016 election hopes.

In April 2023, the Manhattan DA's office released a statement of facts about its investigation saying that Trump instructed Cohen to delay paying Daniels the $130,000 sum for as "long as possible" in the hope that after the 2016 election they could "avoid paying altogether, because at that point it would not matter if the story became public."

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said: "The Corrupt Soros Funded District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who has totally lost control of Violent Crime in New York, says that the payment of money to a lawyer, for legal services rendered, should not be referred to in a Ledger as LEGAL EXPENSE. What other term would be more appropriate???

"Believe it or not, this is the pretext under which I was Indicted, and that Legal Scholars and Experts CANNOT BELIEVE. It is also the perfect Crooked Joe Biden NARRATIVE—To be STUCK in a courtroom, and not be allowed to campaign for President of the United States!"

The jury has now been seated in the falsifying business records trial, with proceedings continuing on Monday with opening statements and the first witnesses' testimonies.