The presence in the courtroom of Donald TrumpThe GOP’s Republican sycophants in the ex-president’s hush-money trial may ultimately do Trump more harm than good, a former lawyer for the presumptive Republican nominee said Wednesday.
Tim Parlatore told CNN’s Brianna Keilar that he didn’t know “how effective” the endorsements of high-profile Republicans like Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy would be with the jury in 2024.
“I heard there was an incident where some elected officials came in, made some kind of fuss and didn’t wait for a break,” Parlatore recalled.
“I think if you do things like that it can have a negative impact on the jury,” he continued. “I don’t think having that kind of theater in court is necessarily going to be helpful, especially when you have the judge who was apparently visibly irritated by that as well. That also has an effect on the jury.”
Keilar asked Parlatore if he thinks Trump himself should take the stand to refute allegations that he falsified company records to cover up a payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to silence her about their alleged affair. Trump denies the claims.
“I think it’s a possibility [Trump will testify]But I don’t think he should do that,” said Parlatore, who was part of Trump’s legal team on the classified documents case before resigning last year. There is “no benefit” to him from doing so, he added.
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Parlatore’s assessment was echoed by former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann during an interview with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace.
“The prosecutor probably hopes so,” Weissmann said.
“I think it would be a big mistake,” he argued, but conceded: “You never know with Trump.”
Watch that interview here:
