Trump and his lawyers are now trying to convince the judge to bar former White House staffers from testifying against him in Manhattan.
Jose Pagliery of The Daily Beast was in the courtroom and posted:
I *think* the judge just said he’ll deal with it as soon as the trial goes through.
Next, the judge says he will rule next week on Trump’s claim that he “believes his conduct was lawful because Cohen as an attorney negotiated the payments in question.”
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— Jose Pagliery (@Jose_Pagliery) April 19, 2024
Executive privilege, which is where Trump and his lawyers are safe to assume are going, doesn’t apply because it doesn’t cover criminal activity. No matter how much Trump tries to make it so, executive privilege does not give presidents the right to commit crimes.
The second point made by Trump and his legal team seems equally absurd. A crime is suddenly not legal if a lawyer assists in committing it. However, the idea that Trump thought he could commit crimes as long as he had a lawyer involved is a very Donald Trump way of thinking.
With each passing moment Trump spends in court, his attempts to evade justice seem to grow more far-fetched and desperate. For years Trump’s defense in this case has blamed Michael Cohen, so it appears the plan is to evade conviction by blaming Cohen.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a member of the White House press pool and a congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
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