“It was never about protecting Melania”: Legal experts say DA’s evidence blows up Trump defense

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg released a 34-count felony indictment against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, accusing him of falsifying business records. In a separate statement of facts, Bragg alleged that Trump’s alleged hush money payment was made to influence the election — not to save face in front of his family. 

Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina floated the “Melania defense” last month, arguing that the payment, which itself is not illegal, was intended to prevent “embarrassment” to Trump and his wife rather than to aid his campaign. 

According to Bragg’s statement of facts, Trump in 2015 met with David Pecker, the chairman of National Enquirer parent company American Media Inc., to ask the outlet to act as his “eyes and ears” and kill any negative stories that might threaten his presidential campaign. Bragg’s investigation found that AMI caught three stories, paying off two and handing over the third to Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen. Following the election, the document states, Trump hosted Pecker twice “to thank him for his help during the campaign.”

Bragg also found that Trump only agreed to pay porn star Stormy Daniels after his campaign was suffering from the fallout from the Access Hollywood tape in October 2016. However, Trump still tried to get out of paying her, the statement of facts states, with the former president telling Cohen, “if they could delay the payment until after the election, they could avoid paying altogether, because at that point it would not matter if the story became public.”

Cohen and Pecker both testified in front of the grand jury that indicted Trump, and admitted that they participated in an illegal hush money payment to influence the election in Trump’s favor, according to the D.A.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance wrote on her Substack that “Trump supporters who had suggested the ‘catch and kill’ scheme was about protecting Melania Trump saw that defense blow apart” on Tuesday.

Vance cited the three alleged payoffs in the case to Daniels, Playboy model Karen McDougal, and a Trump Tower doorman who received a $30,000 hush money payment after claiming Trump fathered a child out of wedlock who is hidden from the public, according to the D.A.

“Trump met with Pecker after the election and before the inauguration to thank him for his help with the election. They met again after the election and before the inauguration, where Trump ‘thanked the AMI CEO for handling the stories of the Doorman and Woman 1 [Karen McDougal], and invited the AMI CEO to the Inauguration,'” Vance wrote. “After Trump became President, he invited Pecker to a White House dinner in the summer of 2017 ‘to thank him for his help during the campaign.'”

“Pecker is cooperating,” she continued. “He was the final witness Bragg brought before the grand jury, and, presumably, we will hear this story in his own voice,” at trial.

“Here’s the chef’s kiss,” Vance added. “They structured at least one of the deals so they wouldn’t have to pay out funds if Trump lost the election. It was never about protecting Melania.”

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Former FBI special agent and attorney Asha Rangappa agreed with Vance’s assessment, writing that if “Bragg can prove this” it would tank Trump’s “‘I just wanted to save Melania the embarrassment’ defense.'”

“What a cheapskate!” she added.

NYU Law professor Ryan Goodman agreed that the document includes “evidence this was election driven,” undercutting the “Melania defense.”

Melania Trump as well as Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump were noticeably absent from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago speech on Tuesday after his criminal arraignment.