Trump lawyers unveil hush mon­ey strat­e­gy: Pros­e­cu­tors’ facts show ‘noth­ing ille­gal’

NEW YORK — Attor­neys for Don­ald Trump unveiled their defense strat­e­gy dur­ing open­ing argu­ments in his hush mon­ey case on Mon­day, large­ly choos­ing to dis­pute the laws under which pros­e­cu­tors have charged Trump rather than the alle­ga­tions them­selves.
For the defense’s open­ing state­ment, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told the jury that Trump was not involved in nor aware of the specifics of hush mon­ey pay­ments because Trump left it up to his for­mer lawyer and fix­er Michael Cohen to man­age. Blanche said his client had “noth­ing to do with” cre­at­ing 34 checks, the hush mon­ey along with oth­er com­pen­sa­tion to Cohen, or the alleged­ly fal­si­fied entries on the ledger.
But he said many ele­ments of the indict­ment against Trump seek to crim­i­nal­ize actions that are not actu­al­ly ille­gal.

Attor­neys for for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump Todd Blanche, front, and Emil Bove, rear, exit the New York State appel­late court, Mo …