Former President Donald Trump admitted that he was part of the non-disclosure agreement at the heart of his criminal trial for the first time publicly while standing outside the courtroom, MSNBC's Vaughn Hillyard reported Thursday.
The same observation was made by Allison Gill, who co-hosts the "Jack" podcast about the special counsel probe.
"Wow. In his daily courthouse remarks, Trump just admitted that he was part of the NDA with Stormy Daniels," Gill pointed out.
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"I have the only illegal NDA," Trump said. Hillyard said he was reading from an article by Andrew McCarthy, a former prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, who wrote a column for the National Review, ranting that NDAs are legal for everyone else.
"Yet, Bragg alleges Trump’s was illegal … though he won’t exactly say why," McCarthy says.
So, Trump stands before the press and reads the comments from McCarthy, saying, "I have the only illegal NDA."
"Trump then stopped, looked up at the cameras, and added in his own words, 'I have the only illegal NDA.'"
Hillyard said that, as far as his notes, Trump has never admitted he had an NDA with actress and director Stormy Daniels. In 2019, Trump admitted that the NDA existed between Daniels, Cohen, and other parties.
He's admitted it in another court in California, but he's never confessed to it publicly.
Legal analyst Andrew Weissmann said that NDAs can be completely legal.
"There are components that actually — at this trial — there are components that probably aren't okay, which is Michael Cohen's provision that he added about the million dollar penalty. Keith Davidson said that it probably wouldn't hold up," Weissmann said, citing Daniels' former lawyer.
"There are lots and lots of things that Donald Trump has said that are completely inconsistent with a defense," Weissmann explained.
In the California NDA case, Trump admitted that he did reimburse Cohen for the hush money. When Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, gave his opening statement, he said that the evidence would show Trump never gave Cohen funds to reimburse Daniels.
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