Donald Trump seems to be hesitating about testifying in his criminal hush money trial, despite his earlier firm assertion that he would “absolutely” do so.
The former president phoned into Newsmax on Thursday evening following the end of the seventh day of his unprecedented trial. Anchor Greg Kelly questioned him about his plans to testify in his defense, considering his observations of the trial proceedings thus far.
“Well I would if it’s necessary,” Trump answered. Right now, I don’t know if you heard about today. Today was just incredible. People are saying – the experts, I’m talking about legal scholars and experts – they’re saying, ‘What kind of a case is this? There is no case.’
He continued: “Uh, you know they had David Pecker, testifying today. And he was, you know, people are saying there’s no case. There’s literally no case!”
Trump cited conservative lawyers Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Turley and Mark Levin to back up his baseless insistence that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg having no case against him.
Bragg charged the the ex-president with 34 counts of falsifying business documents to hide a payment intended to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels and bury claims of an affair prior to the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s comments about testifying were much more reserved than his previous statements on the case.
Speaking with reporters at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month – just three days before jury selection got under way in the case – Trump declared: “Yeah, I would testify, absolutely. That’s not a trial. That’s a scam.”
So far in the criminal hush money trial, jurors have heard from testimony from David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Inc. (AMI),who has described the infamous “catch and kill “catch and kill” deal involving former Playboy model Karen McDougal that Michael Cohen allegedly reached on behalf of the former president.
