Donald Trump's lead defense attorney said the former president "wanted to get his story out" but decided against testifying in his hush money trial in New York City on the advice of counsel.
Todd Blanche appeared on CNN later Thursday after a jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Host Kaitlin Collins asked Blanche why Trump didn't take the stand.
"That's a very personal question to him. ... It's a very difficult question," he said.
"He wanted to get his story out. I think the judge had made some decisions before the trial, the day the trial started, about what would be allowed to be asked of him by the prosecutors if he took the stand. Some of those questions were really complicated to answer because they're still appeals going on," Blanche said.
"Ultimately it's his decision and he listened to us and relied on our counsel, and he reached the decision that he thought was right, which I very much agreed with," the lawyer said.
Blanche emphasized that Trump was an active participant in his defense.
"It was both of us. If there's a lawyer that comes in and says that they're in charge of their defense strategy, they're not doing a service to their client," he said.
"Every decision that we made, we made as a team — and not just President Trump and myself, but the whole team. Again, every defendant, everybody who has their life on the line in history, will tap their lawyer every once in a while and say, 'Hey, what about this? What about that?'" Blanche said.
