Trump team considers Hail Mary plan to avoid hush-money felony conviction: report

Donald Trump's legal team is considering asking jurors to consider misdemeanor crimes as a way to avoid a likely felony conviction in the hush money trial set to start in Manhattan Monday, according to a report.

A Trump team insider told Politico that his lawyers are floating the option as they see acquittal in the trial as increasingly unlikely.

“The fact is most criminal defendants who go to trial end up being convicted,” Politico reported. “Trump himself is also incredibly unpopular in Manhattan, and his courtroom antics in recent months have probably not endeared him to many prospective jurors in the borough. Worse still for the former president, Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over Trump’s criminal trial, significantly narrowed Trump’s potential lines of defense in a series of pretrial rulings on legal and evidentiary issues.”

Politico’s source, who is unnamed but reportedly familiar with the former president's trial strategy, said lawyers have “tentatively” considered the option.

Trump is facing 34 felony counts involving alleged payments made to an adult movie star to buy her silence about an affair the pair reportedly had.

Trump is accused of business fraud for covering up the payments. Prosecutors say he was trying to hide the liaison from voters in the 2016 election.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies the affair.

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“Now, obviously he doesn’t want” a conviction, the source told Politico. “But a misdemeanor conviction in state court in Manhattan is going to have absolutely no effect on this guy’s ability to run for office or on his liberty.”

Under New York law, at any time before the case goes to the jury, Trump’s defense could ask the judge to give jurors an option of convicting him on lesser misdemeanor offenses of falsifying business records instead of the felonies.

Politico reported that to convict on misdemeanors, the jury would need to be convinced that he falsified business expenses, but not that he did so to commit or conceal another crime — which a felony conviction requires.

Politico reported that a misdemeanor conviction would likely be much less damaging to Trump’s reputation and campaign.

Trump’s lawyers didn’t respond to Politico’s requests for comment.