Prosecutors plan to use Trump’s “Art of the Deal” book against him at hush-money trial: report

Manhattan prosecutors intend to use Donald Trump’s words, including quotes from books of his like “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” against him in his criminal hush money trial later this month, according to recent court filings. In a defense filing, the Manhattan district attorney’s office gave the former president’s legal team a list of past remarks he made — including four dozen quotes from books published between 1987 and 2015 — that they plan to introduce as evidence during the trial, ABC News reports. 

Lawyers for Trump have rebuked the strategy, arguing that it risks prejudicing the jury and is limited in relevance to the case. “Whatever President Trump’s style of business operations was in 1987, 2004 and 2007 … is by no means probative for how he would have operated those businesses when he was President of the United States of America,” attorney Todd Blanche argued in a filing released this week. But prosecutors will likely use the quotes, which pertain to Trump’s business approach, to show how involved he was with his companies, former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann predicted. 

“What they want to show is he is a hands-on boss, that he is frugal, he watches every dime — that’s going to be the theory of their case. That’s why these statements are going to be relevant to them,” Weissmann said on MSNBC News Thursday. “Obviously, those are bricks that you use to build a wall … and the defense will have to figure out how they’re going to attack that,” he added. “But that’s the reason for why those statements are going to be something that the prosecution wants to introduce to help build their case.” 

Trump has denied all wrongdoing in the case, which is slated to go to trial March 25.