Former President Donald Trump's son Eric Trump got a brutal fact-check after he got the timeline of his father's corrupt scheme to influence the 2016 election with hush money payments wrong during a Fox News interview.
The criminal trial in New York revolves around accusations that Trump falsified business documents in an attempt to conceal "hush money" payments made to adult film performer Stormy Daniels before the 2016 general election.
Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, reportedly paid $130,000 to Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump. These payments were later reimbursed to Cohen by the Trump Organization through monthly installments, which were recorded as payments for legal services, over the course of Trump's first year in office. But the payment to Daniels, and the scheme to conceal it, was hatched prior to the election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. News outlets recently confirmed that 12 jurors—seven men and five women—and their alternates were selected to determine the fate of the first president ever to face criminal charges.
But Eric Trump complained about his father being brought to trial mere months before November's election and wrongly claimed the elder Trump—who was not yet president when the scheme was devised—was too busy running the country to have engaged in it.
He said:
“Every time I watch my father walk into that courtroom it breaks my heart because [the Democrats] will stop at nothing […] to take the man down and no one believes this nonsense, right?”
“My father was focused on running the United States of America, not bookkeeping, not that anything was done wrong in the bookkeeping.”
You can hear what he said in the video below.
People were quick to point out the discrepancy.
The trial is now in its sixth day.
Prosecutors began by calling their first witness, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who provided brief testimony about employing “checkbook journalism” to pay for stories — a tactic prosecutors allege Pecker used to support Trump’s White House bid. In opening statements, the prosecution pledged "damning" testimony from a key witness, while Trump's defense team argued that Trump's actions did not amount to criminal behavior.
As the hearing progressed, the discussion between Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche and New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan became increasingly contentious, focusing on Trump's alleged violations of the gag order.
Blanche argued that Trump had the right to comment on witnesses as part of his 2024 presidential campaign. He also contended that Trump should not be penalized for reposting content from news sites or other individuals. Merchan was not persuaded by Blanche's argument, which he questioned for not having "case law to support that."
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