Trump plans a trial tactic that 'did not go well for him' last time: former prosecutor
Trump says he is ready to sing again under oath.
"Yeah, I would testify," Trump said earlier Friday during a presser with Speaker Mike Johnson, who made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago. "That's not a trial, that's a scam."
It sounds like a declaration of strength to flex his truth-telling.
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But former federal prosecutor Ankush Khadori wonders if former President Donald Trump remembers how the other times went.
"It's generally not a, good idea for defendants to testify in their own defense in criminal cases," said Khadori while interviewed on CNN's "Out Front."
He then pointed to the damage Trump inflicted on himself when he took the stand in other instances.
"Trump has done this in civil cases, of course, very recently, including the New York Attorney General's civil business fraud trial, and E. Jean Carroll's second trial — and those did not go well for him."
Back in November, Trump was sworn in to speak during his civil fraud disgorgement trial where Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron appeared to have lost his patience with Trump calling the state A.G. Letitia James "a political hack" and pumping up his real estate success.
“This is the opposite of fraud,” Trump declared. Referring to James, a Democrat whose office brought the lawsuit, he said, “The fraud is her.”
Engoron had to plead with one of Trump’s attorneys at one point and saying: “I beseech you to control him if you can. If you can’t, I will.”
And when Trump appeared in court and spoke under oath in E. Jean Carroll's second defamation case, it was after Judge Lewis Kaplan had to quiet down numerous outbursts by the 45th president.
But when he finally took the stand, Kaplan kept the questions limited to a couple questions.
He was asked, “You viewed your deposition?” to which Trump responded: “I stand by it 100%, yes.”
And, “Did you instruct anyone to hurt Ms. Carroll?” to which Trump responded: “No."
These appearances didn't sway the judge in the civil fraud case nor the jury in Carroll's case. Trump lost both.
For Khadori, he maintains it might be wiser for Trump to stay mum in the first criminal trial involving falsification of business records because the previous efforts were "counterproductive and probably made matters worse for him."
He added, "so it's not a good idea, but maybe he'll do it."