Trump is too "frugal" to have paid so much money for a hush payment, his lawyer says

In his opening statements, Donald Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche took a stab at painting the criminal defendant as an innocent and “frugal” family man, telling jurors Monday that his client is “larger than life" and indeed should be referred to as “President Trump out of respect.”

Blanche started his argument by stating that the DA’s office should never have brought the case in the first place and telling the jury that they would ultimately find Trump not guilty, NBC News reported.

Blanche, speaking after prosecutors presented their opening argument, claimed that Trump is “a man just like me,” one “doing what any of us would do: Defending himself.” 

That argument comes as Trump argues that he is anything but a normal person, with his legal team asserting before the U.S. Supreme Court that he entitled to absolute immunity, for life, as a former president of the United States.

In his opening statement, Blanche argued that Trump was also too cheap to have done what prosecutors allege that he did: Pay off an adult film star, Stormy Daniels, but also reimburse his former attorney, Michael Cohen, for his time and effort making the payment on his behalf .

“Would a frugal businessman… would a man who pinches pennies” spend $420,000 total to cover a hush payment of $130,000, Blanche asked (prosecutors note that Cohen also sought reimbursement for the taxes he would have to pay as a result of misclassifying the hush payment as legal expenses).

Blanche insisted that Trump had "nothing to do" with the effort to silence his accusers head of the 2016 election. He also asserted that there is "nothing wrong with trying to influence an election," describing such an effort as "democracy." Prosecutors maintain that the hush payments violated campaign finance law, charging Trump with 34 felony counts related to the alleged scheme.