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He will not formally assert a so-called advice-of-counsel
defense at the first-ever trial of a former U.S. president, due
to begin March 25, Trump's lawyers said. But Trump's team does
plan to argue that the involvement of his prior lawyers in the
matter showed that he lacked criminal intent, they added.
Trump, seeking to regain the presidency this year, is accused in
the case of falsifying business records to cover up his
reimbursement of former lawyer Michael Cohen for his $130,000
payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the
2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had with
Trump a decade earlier.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying
business records, and denies the encounter with Daniels. The
case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
In the newly released filing dated March 11, Trump's lawyers
said they would ask Cohen, expected to be a key prosecution
witness, about Trump's awareness of his lawyers' involvement in
the actions at issue in the case.
Formally invoking an advice-of-counsel defense would have
required Trump to prove that he fully disclosed all relevant
facts to his lawyers, and relied on their advice in good faith.
It also would have required him to turn over communications with
those lawyers, which are normally shielded by privilege.
This is the first of the four criminal cases Trump that faces to
reach trial. Trump is the Republican candidate challenging
Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
Trump also has pleaded not guilty in the other three cases,
which stem from efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to
Biden and his handling of sensitive government documents after
leaving office in 2021.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
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