Professor Gregory Germain recently spoke with Salon on Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial.
In the article, Germain says it is “quite strange” that Trump is being charged with a cover-up but not the crime itself.
“The D.A. has very strong evidence that Trump was trying to cover up the payment,” he said. “Whether his reason for the cover up was to hide a campaign finance crime, or to avoid personal or political embarrassment rather than to cover up a crime, is the main weakness in the case” that prosecutors will have to address at trial.
As to Trump employing the advice-of-counsel defense, “whether lawyer advice is an excuse depends on what the defendant knew and intended,” says Germain.