EFE
The defense of former President Donald Trump, accused of falsifying documents to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels and protect his 2016 electoral campaign, assured this Monday that the Republican is innocent and that he acted under the “umbrella” of democracy.
“I have a spoiler alert: there is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It's called democracy. "They try to make it something sinister," said lawyer Todd Blanche, in charge of opening this first day of the initial arguments phase for Trump's defense.
Blanche maintained that the payments made to Michael Cohen, a former lawyer who worked for Trump until 2017, worth $420,000 were made to compensate for his legal services and not to compensate him for orchestrating a plan to hide information that could harm the former president, such as the prosecution alleges.
The lawyer argued that Trump has the right to the presumption of innocence, “something that some of his critics lose sight of,” and that the prosecution has presented “a very nice and simple story” because they do not understand that the figure of the former president “overflows reality".
Likewise, he took advantage of this statement to criticize Stormy Daniels, whom he described as a biased person who has made a career of selling her alleged affair with Trump.
And he also lashed out at Cohen, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges stemming from the payment, which he called obsessed with Trump.
“He has a goal, an obsession with taking down President Trump. He cannot be trusted, I assure you,” said Blanche.
Finally, Blanche addressed the jury asking them to use common sense when making a decision in this case, the first criminal case faced by a former US president in the entire history of the country.
“Use your common sense. We are New Yorkers. That's why we are here. If they do, there will be a verdict of innocence very quickly,” he concluded.