Defense counsel: ‘Trump had nothing to do with’ false business records

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Former President Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche delivered opening statements Monday in a Manhattan courtroom after the prosecution’s opening arguments in the hush money trial.

Blanche described him as an innocent man who is the victim of the government in a case that “should never have brought.”

Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and is facing up to four years in prison if convicted.

According to Blanche, the state’s case is “baseless,” further arguing the former president has not committed a crime.

Blanche revealed defense strategy will argue the entire point of a presidential campaign is to try to influence an election.

“It’s called democracy,” Blanche told jurors Monday.

“Trump had nothing to do with” false business records, “except that he signed the checks, in the White House, while he was running the country,” Blanche said.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, for the first time in American history, Manhattan prosecutors are presenting charges in a criminal case against a former American president to a jury.

President Donald Trump’s motorcade arrived in New York City on Monday morning ahead of opening statements.

Republicans are saying Democracy is under attack because of the timing of the trial.

In an “emergency broadcast” email to his base Sunday, Trump wrote, “while I am being relentlessly persecuted, I need to know now more than ever that you will join me and NEVER surrender.”

“I’m not scared of facing life in prison … I’m scared that losing this fight to the radical left Democrats will mean complete destruction of the America we know and love,” Trump wrote in a second email to supporters on Sunday.