CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig fact checked several claims made by former president Donald Trump in a rant outside a New York courthouse on Thursday at a pretrial hearing in his hush money case.
Trump claims that the state case was brought by President Joe Biden and that no crime has been committed even if he is found guilty of falsifying business records in an alleged scheme to bury stories about extramarital affairs during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“So first of all, we have to address the tired and tiresome claim that this is all coming out of the Biden White House. This is a state case. There’s zero evidence whatsoever that [President] Joe Biden or the administration had anything to do with this prosecution,” Honig said.
He continued: “Second of all, Donald Trump said, “This is not a crime.” There’s a fair debate about how serious this is, but this is a crime if proven as alleged in the indictment. There’s some question about whether it would be just a misdemeanor, falsification of business records, or a higher level felony. But under any reasonable construction, if proven, this is a crime.”
“And the third thing Donald Trump said that I noted is he said there’s absolutely no case here. This is a debatable case. It will be tried to a jury, but this is a case that has a good faith basis,” Honig added. “There’s a basis of fact in the indictment. It will be up to a jury.”
Trump has been charged him with 34 felony counts of falsification of business records related to his hush money payment too adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election. He has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
Trump has asked Judge Juan Merchan to dismiss the case. The judge denied Trump’s request and set a trial date for March 25.
