CNN anchor Jake Tapper confronted Trump attorney Will Scharf for saying former President Donald Trump “did nothing wrong,” noting “Trump himself” acknowledged “authorizing payments to Stormy Daniels.”

Trump’s trial — on 34 felony counts in the case that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has brought involving alleged hush money payments to Daniels — began Monday morning with jury selection.

CNN was on the scene with branded coverage entitled “Trump Hush Money Trial” featuring custom graphics and live reports from outside the courthouse.

During that coverage, as arguments were being heard in court, Tapper asked Scharf how his insistence Trump “did nothing wrong” squares with the ex-president’s public admission he authorized payments to Daniels:

JAKE TAPPER: So you said on Fox yesterday that Mr. Trump had not done anything wrong. And I’m wondering if that’s going to be part of the defense’s argument on on the merits, not the politics. Whether the defense is going to argue that Donald Trump did not pay hush money to Stormy Daniels, that he did not participate in the falsification of business records, to hide those payments weeks before an election.

WILL SCHARF: Well, Jake, I think it’s really important to note again that this is not a hush money trial. This is a business records trial. This relates to business records, entries, largely from 2017.

And yes, I think with respect to those business records, President Trump absolutely did nothing wrong. The truth is 100% on his side. And I think that that narrative, that story is going to be borne out as we get deeper and deeper into this trial.

JAKE TAPPER: Well, tell me more, because you’re right. The hush money is not the the alleged violation of law. It’s the falsification of business records. And but, you know, there is a paper trail here. I could show you the checks signed by Donald Trump reimbursing Michael Cohen.

Donald Trump himself acknowledged in 2018 that that he did authorize payments to Stormy Daniels. So what exactly is the argument here in terms of what you’re saying when you say he didn’t do anything wrong?

WILL SCHARF: Well, first of all, you’re making some dangerous assumptions there, Jake. At the height of the core of this case is payments that were made to Michael Cohen that were registered as legal retainer payments.

And the jury is going to have to decide whether that was a fair characterization of payments that President Trump was making to one of his lawyers at the time were legal retainer payments an accurate description of the payments being made to Michael Cohen.

That’s going to be a question for the jury, that’s core to this case. And we believe again that with respect to those business records, entries, with respect to these payments, President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.

Watch above via CNN’s “Trump Hush Money Trial” coverage.

The post CNN’s Jake Tapper Confronts Trump Lawyer Live On Air: ‘Trump Himself’ Admitted ‘Authorizing Payments To Stormy Daniels’ first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/FQlKrow