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The lawyers representing Donald Trump are employing a defense strategy that is, according to a legal analyst, “doing him no favors” in his hush-money defense.
Former assistant attorney for New York Tristan Snell, who was on the team which prosecuted Trump University for aggressive marketing and deceptive advertising practices, took to Twitter/X to say that Trump’s lawyers, by objecting to every introduced article of evidence, were making it appear as if Trump has “something to hide.”
The trial is now in its forth week. It is expected to settle the matter of whether the former president fraudulently altered his business records relating to payments to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star with whom he allegedly had an affair. The payments were facilitated by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen, and were meant to keep Daniels quiet about the relationship in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney, leads the prosecution team arguing that the payments were a key feature of a plot to prevent the leak of potentially damaging stories about then-candidate Trump.
Trump, who is now the presumptive 2024 nominee for the Republican ticket, has repeatedly denied any improper comment in the matter. He pleaded “not guilty” to all 34 counts of feloniously falsifying his business records.
During a court session on May 6, the defense objected to the introduction of witness emails into evidence, as well as emails from those who worked with and for the former President at the time the payments allegedly occurred. The judge in the case overruled the objections, allowing the emails to be entered as evidence.
Trump’s apparent pressuring of his lawyer to object to everything, Snell speculated, might be intended to make it feel as if his attorneys are fighting hard on his behalf.
When Newsweek reached out to Trump for comment, a representative speaking on the former President’s behalf said that they’d never heard of “Ristan Smell.”
Speculations abound in popular legal circles about how the jury will react to the defense’s endless objections.
