‘Melania Trump knew’: Why Trump’s Stormy Daniels defense could be flawed

If Donald Trump’s attorneys try to drag his wife Melania into his Stormy Daniels legal drama, he may have a problem.

A former friend of Melania Trump said Tuesday that the former first lady “knew” about her husband’s alleged affair with Daniels — before he ordered his then-fixer Michael Cohen to pay the porn star $130,000 to buy her silence in the days before the 2016 presidential election.

“‘Melania Defense’ in Stormy Daniels Hush-Money case WON’T WORK,” tweeted the ex-friend, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. “Why not? Melania Trump knew…”

‘Melania Defense’ in Stormy Daniels Hush-Money case WON’T WORK.

Why not?

Melania Trump knew…@MELANIATRUMP @MichaelCohen212 https://t.co/Wz2Ult14pe

— Stephanie Winston Wolkoff (@SWinstonWolkoff) March 14, 2023

Trump’s legal team has publicly argued that the hush-money payment to Daniels had nothing to do with trying to affect the outcome of the election, Vice reported. But Manhattan prosecutors, reportedly close to indicting Trump, may argue that the payout violated New York state election law because it would have benefited his candidacy to keep Daniels from revealing their alleged affair.

Trump’s lawyers say he had other reasons to buy Daniels’ silence. The payoff, they say, was Trump’s way to save himself from some personal embarrassment and to keep his wife Melania from finding out that he allegedly had a tryst with the porn star in July 2006. Daniels has said that the hookup took place at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe about four months after Melania gave birth to their son Barron.

“It’s not directly related to the campaign,” Trump attorney Joe Tacopina said in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday, Vice reported. “He made this with personal funds to prevent something coming out (that was) false but embarrassing to himself, his family, his young son.”

Trump’s alleged affair with Daniels has put the much-investigated former real estate mogul and reality TV star in a legal mess — being the first former president in U.S. history to be indicted for a criminal offense. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has sent strong signals that he’s planning to charge Trump on possible violations of business and campaign finance law, related to the hush-money payment, the New York Times reported last week.

Cohen, considered a crucial witness in the D.A.’s case against Trump, testified before a grand jury Monday, the New York Times reported. Cohen had a bitter falling out with Trump after he was prosecuted in 2018 and served time in federal prison for crimes related to the hush-money payment. When pleading guilty in federal court, Cohen said Trump directed him to make the payment to Daniels to prevent her from selling her story.

The Manhattan case looks at whether Trump’s company falsified business records — a misdemeanor — by creating a phony retainer agreement with Cohen and saying that Trump’s monthly reimbursement checks to Cohen were for legal expenses, the New York Times reported. To elevate the case to a felony, Manhattan prosecutors need to show that Trump also intended to commit or conceal a second crime — the violation of New York state election law, the New York Times also said.

In a Truth Social post last week, Trump said he “did absolutely nothing wrong” and referred to the investigation as a “witch hunt,” the New York Post reported. He also repeated his position that he never had an affair with Daniels. “I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels,” Trump said.

Winston Wolkoff had her own falling out with Melania Trump and the rest of the Trump family after she said the family set her up as a scapegoat in media reports about potential crimes related to the fundraising for Trump’s 2017 inauguration. A former unpaid White House aide, Winston Wolkoff has since joined Cohen in becoming an outspoken critic of the former president and his family. Winston Wolkoff wrote about her doomed friendship with Melania Trump in her 2020 book, “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady.”

While promoting her book, Winston Wolkoff released several audio recordings that proved to be highly embarrassing to Melania Trump. The recordings revealed conversations in which the former first lady complained about having to decorate the White House at Christmas time and was overheard saying the young immigrant children were excited about their accommodations in federal detention after being separated from their parents at the U.S. border under her husband’s “zero tolerance” policy.