Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric have already testified in the New York fraud trial, and their father, Donald Sr., is scheduled for Monday. Former federal prosecutor Shan Wu doesn't anticipate there's much the former president can do to save himself that his sons haven't already said.
"If I were [Donald Trump's] lawyer, I would not want him to be exposed for it," explained Wu, speaking to Symone Sanders-Townsend. "But he has a tendency to go off. I think it'll start off kind of concise and focused, but I'm sure he'll start to meander and speechify in terms of substance. There isn't that much that he can say that would convince the judge any different from what his two sons of already testified to. He's unlikely to do a better job than they have done, which isn't that great. So, I do look for him to meander off and start to make a lot of statements."
He went on to tell the MSNBC host that if Trump wanted to take the Fifth Amendment, it would be unlikely to help him because the judge would take an "adverse inference." It means the judge will assume you're taking the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination because if you said something you would incriminate yourself.
"But I think there's a lot of ego involved," Wu continued. "I think he wants to get up there and say, this is wrong, I'm the victim, and make his best pitch for it, and then he'll campaign for it."
See the full conversation below or at the link here.
There's not much Trump can do in court on Monday to convince the judge: legal expert youtu.be