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:
By the end of Friday, the full jury had been selected for Trump’s trial, along with six alternates. Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, said: “We’re going to have opening arguments on Monday. This trial is starting.”
Also on Friday, Trump said he will personally testify in the case, potentially meaning prosecutors may be allowed to bring up other legal actions against him, such as the E. Jean Carroll defamation case and his New York civil fraud case, during the trial.
Trump told reporters last week that he will testify in the case, “I’m testifying. I tell the truth. I mean, all I can do is tell the truth. And the truth is that there’s no case. They have no case.”
Newsweek contacted Trump lawyer Todd Blanche via his website on Saturday afternoon. This article will be updated with any provided comments.
Views:
Honig pointed to former Senator John Edwards’ trial in 2012 as a close example of a successful defense when another high-profile defendant didn’t take the stand.
Edwards, a presidential and vice-presidential hopeful, was indicted in 2011 on six felony charges of violating federal campaign contribution laws to cover up an extramarital affair. After a six-week trial, he was found not guilty on one count, and the judge declared a mistrial on the remaining five charges after the jury failed to come to an agreement.
“He made a similar defense, ultimately successfully, where his team argued the reason for the payments was to protect against personal humiliation,” Honig said. “John Edwards never took the stand, but they managed to do that through the prosecution’s own witnesses.”
Trump’s pledge to testify would be a “win for the prosecution,” according to Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama during the Obama administration on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.
In an article on her Substack blog, Vance wrote Trump’s legal team is likely to advise him against testifying in person, but that this could be ignored by the defendant.
Referring to Trump’s possible appearance at the witness stand, she posted: “Will he or won’t he? In every criminal trial, the smart money says no. Absolutely, absolutely not. Very few defendants take the witness stand in their own defense, and Trump, given his past performance and proclivities, should not be one of them…”
Vance added: “If he testifies, he will be subject to relentless and free-ranging cross-examination by a highly skilled prosecution team in Manhattan. As much as I’d like to see this, it’s a sure thing Trump’s lawyers will do everything they can to keep him off the stand.”
What’s Next?
Trump faces three other indictments involving allegations that he mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House in 2021 and obstructed their return to the proper authorities as well as his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election on the state and federal level.
He has pled not guilty to all counts and insists the cases against him are politically motivated.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.