Former President Donald Trump's lawyers think they have a surefire defense if he gets hit with charges over his hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels -- but Rolling Stone reports that he's been reluctant to pull the trigger.
According to Rolling Stone's sources, Trump's lawyers are telling him to claim that he made hush-money payments to Daniels so as not to hurt his marriage with wife Melania Trump, rather than trying to cover up news of their affair ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The trouble is, however, that Trump has insisted to Melania that the affair never happened, and that admitting it did happen would invite her wrath.
Former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told Rolling Stone that Trump has long seemed particularly fearful of Melania's reaction to his affair with Daniels, which occurred shortly after the former first lady had given birth to their first child, Barron Trump.
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"He at one point called me, after the Stormy Daniels news broke, to ask if we [in the first lady’s office] would be responding to her allegations — and I could tell he was trying to take my temperature to see if his wife was pissed off,” she explained. “He never, ever called me to ask if the East Wing was going to respond to something. Never. And he never did again."
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to facilitating the hush payments on Trump's behalf, but Trump himself has never been charged for authorizing them.