As the Manhattan DA’s investigation into Donald Trump’s hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels has ramped up over the last several weeks, ultimately leading to his arrest and arraignment on Tuesday, the former president has maintained that the payments in question were made to protect his marriage to Melania Trump.
But MSNBC host Alex Wagner doens’t it, and she argued Tuesday that the DA’s investigation has effectively dismantled that claim.
“The news is not good for him, and might I also say, his defense, or the defense that has been floated, that Trump was making these payments not for his campaign but to shield his family and to shield Melania—that was taken apart today,” Wagner said, speaking on a live panel with fellow MSNBC figures Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid, among others.
Wagner said she believes the DA’s emphasis on Trump’s desire to delay the payments until after the 2016 election are key to understanding that protecting Melania’s feelings had little to do with it. They were instead meant to silence Daniels until at least Election Day.
“The one line of defense he has, Bragg cites effectively – Trump advised Cohen, basically, that they wanted to delay the Stormy Daniels payments until after the election because they could avoid paying them altogether because after the election, it didn’t matter,” Wagner said. “Now, presumably he thought Melanie Trump and Barron Trump were going to be alive after the election, right? It just lays out in very plain English this whole defense that’s been floated, by your lawyers, could be a joke.”
Maddow chimed in saying that Trump’s insistence to delay the payments up to 12 days before the election is one of the two hangups she’s had about the whole case.
“Why did it take Michael Cohen so long to make the payment to Stormy Daniels? Why was it delayed? Why was her lawyer threatening him? Why did they get to 12 days before the election?” she questioned. “It wasn’t because Michael Cohen was having a hard time taking out his home equity line of credit, it’s because Trump said, ‘Delay it, delay it, delay it—because I’m about to lose this election. Who cares what Stormy Daniels says?’”
Watch the full Tuesday night segment in the video.