Former President Donald Trump will not take the stand after all in the weekslong criminal hush money trial.
“We’ll be resting pretty quickly — resting meaning resting the case. I won’t be resting,” Trump said outside the courtroom Tuesday morning. “I don’t rest. I’d like to rest sometimes, but I don’t get to rest.”
The decision to keep Trump off the stand comes after weeks of uncertainty. The former president hinted to reporters he could testify, a risky move legal experts warmed Trump against. However, Trump would often flip-flop on the matter and at other times ignoring persistent questions on the issue.
Last week, Trump’s own attorneys signaled they were unsure whether their client would take the stand, just days before the Manhattan district attorney’s office was expected to rest its case-in-chief.
“That’s another decision that we need to think through,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche told the judge on Thursday.
The former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment Cohen made to porn actress Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 election to stay quiet about her alleged affair with Trump, which he denies.
