With his freedom and potentially even campaign for president possibly on the line, Donald Trump is not testifying after all amid his criminal case in New York City on felony allegations of falsifying business records. The main bulk of arguments wrapped up on Tuesday with no appearance on the stand by the former president. If he’d done so, it would have come during defense arguments.
“Just a reminder: the jury absolutely cannot hold it against Trump for not testifying. BUT YOU CAN,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) posted online on Monday, when an apparent lack of any Trump testimony after all was already becoming clear. “If Trump promised you at a press conference that he’d testify and then doesn’t, you should conclude he’s guilty as hell.”
Rick Wilson, a longtime GOP operative involved with The Lincoln Project, spoke similarly. “Of course the Coward Trump won’t testify. “Only criminals take the 5th”…right, Donald?” he posted on X.
Alina Habba, a lawyer known for alignment with Trump, was claiming as recently as Monday that Trump was interested in taking the stand. “We know he wants to testify,” she claimed, as highlighted by Republican Voters Against Trump. “He is willing. He is able. He has nothing to hide at all. He’s absolutely ready to tell the truth.”
But she herself noted a role for Trump’s defense team for the trial in determining how all of that would actually go, and there’s a key factor here. Trump, though he obviously likes to talk, would be under threat of serious penalties — like detention — if he was caught lying on the stand, and he’s already known as someone with a testy relationship with reality. So whether originating with Trump or his lawyers, one could easily imagine that that’s the problem here. Trump can’t say whatever he wants. And so, he’s not testifying.
