Trump has been ‘deserted,’ former federal prosecutor says – NJ.com
Former President Donald Trump, right, stands with his wife, Melania Trump, as they arrive for a GOP fundraiser, Saturday, April 6, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)AP
Donald Trump had loyal staffers with him inside the courtroom for the first day of his criminal trial Monday.
But some people were noticeably absent from the room: His family.
“I have rarely seen a defendant facing trial alone with no family, at least one person, in the courtroom for him. It’s a sad commentary for a former president with four grown children & a wife, all of whom seem to have deserted him in the moment,” Joyce Alene, a former U.S. attorney under Barack Obama, posted to X, formerly Twitter.
I have rarely seen a defendant facing trial alone with no family, at least one person, in the courtroom for him. It's a sad commentary for a former president with four grown children & a wife, all of whom seem to have deserted him in the moment.
Trump returns to court Tuesday as a judge works to find a panel of jurors who will decide whether the former president is guilty of criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged effort to keep salacious — and, he says, bogus — stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign. On Monday, Trump called the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a “scam” and “witch hunt.”
Trump has five children and both Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. took to social media Monday to bash the proceedings.
Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump’s White House aide, meanwhile, said on CNN recently that Trump’s wife why Trump’s wife is unlikely to show:
“This is an embarrassment for him … with his family and, more importantly, with his wife Melania.
“I’ve spent a ton of time with her when the news was breaking about Stormy Daniels when we were in the White House and then, of course, when Karen McDougal, who was the former Playboy Playmate, when those came out, that he allegedly had those affairs. And she didn’t take it lightly out at all.
“We went to the State of the Union separately. She refused to walk out to Marine One with him because she did not want to be like Hillary Clinton in standing by her man.
“This is very, very embarrassing for her. It’s humiliating for her. And I can guarantee you that she’s not happy right now and that he’s quite worried about that.”
The charges center on $130,000 in payments that Trump’s company made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen. He paid that sum on Trump’s behalf to keep porn actor Stormy Daniels from going public with her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the sexual encounter ever happened.
Prosecutors say the payments to Cohen were falsely logged as legal fees. Prosecutors have described it as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories Trump feared could help his opponent in the 2016 race, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.
Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment and that it was designed to stop Daniels from going public about the alleged encounter. But Trump has previously said it had nothing to do with the campaign.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 4/4/2023), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 12/31/2023).
© 2024 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us).
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.
Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.
YouTube’s privacy policy is available here and YouTube’s terms of service is available here.
Ad Choices