Donald Trump’s likely defense has one major problem

Donald Trump’s likely most important defense in his trial against falsifying company records about hush money paid to his former lawyer Michael Cohen will not pass muster, legal experts say.

Former FBI lawyer Andrew Weissmann and Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe have criticized the former president for his claims that the $130,000 he reimbursed Cohen should be classified as “legal fees” since the lawyer represented Trump at the time.

Trump has denied being guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to money he arranged for Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep secret an alleged affair she had with Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 elections.

The money was listed in Trump’s business records as “legal fees,” which prosecutors say was part of an unlawful effort to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential race. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, admits he paid back Cohen’s $130,000 hush money but denies having an affair with Daniels.

In a post on Truth Social ahead of the New York trial that continues Monday, Trump asked why a payment of money to an attorney for legal services “should not be referred to in a ledger as LEGAL FEES.” What other term would be more appropriate? ??”

Weissmann wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Trump’s claims that his business records were not falsified because they covered Cohen’s apparent legal fees.

“Trump’s final defense, which we will undoubtedly see at trial, that the 34 corporate documents were not false because they were legal payments (reimbursing his lawyer Cohen for making the $130,000 hush money payment), is believed by contemporaneous notes that the payments were for ongoing legal services provided during a given month,” Weissmann said. “Oops.”

In response, Tribe said that if Trump’s argument were true, any activity by a lawyer could be classified as legal fees if he is paid for it.

“To call these refunds ‘legal payments’ is to accept the foolish claim that any payment to a lawyer to cover what it cost him to commit a crime at your request is ipso facto a ‘legal’ payment,” said Tribe. “That dog won’t hunt.”

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

Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office will argue that Trump’s efforts to conceal his alleged affair with Daniels were not intended to protect his marriage but to prevent personal details about him from coming out that could damage his hopes for the 2016 elections.

In April 2023, the Manhattan district attorney’s office released a statement of facts about its investigation, stating that Trump instructed Cohen to delay paying Daniels the $130,000 sum for as “long as possible” in the hope that after could not afford the 2016 elections at all. because at that point it wouldn’t matter whether the story became public.”

Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Corrupt, Soros-funded District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has completely lost control of violent crime in New York, says payment of money to an attorney for legal services rendered should not be allowed. referred in a ledger as LEGAL FEES. What other term would be more appropriate???

“Believe it or not, this is the pretext under which I was charged, and which legal scholars and experts CANNOT BELIEVE. It’s also the perfect Crooked Joe Biden STORY – to be stuck in a courtroom and not allowed to campaign for the presidency of the United States!”

The jury is now seated in the corporate document falsification trial, and proceedings continue on Monday with opening statements and first witness statements.