On April 12th, former President Donald Trump said that he'd testify in his trial about a hush money payment to a porn star.
“I’m testifying. I tell the truth,” Trump said, standing outside at his Mar-a-Lago club. “I mean, all I can do is tell the truth. And the truth is that there’s no case. They have no case.”
"“I will testify," he added. "It's a scam. That's not a trial. It's a scam...It's not even a crime.”
Legal experts on both sides of the aisle said that Trump's testimony would probably undermine his case. “It would be suicide for” Trump to testify, liberal attorney Norm Eisen told CNN, while Trump's erstwhile lawyer, Tim Parlatore, said he “personally would suggest that he probably should not” take the stand.
Still, critics, such as centrist group Third Way, pressed him to do so. Yet, when ultimately given an opportunity to tell his side of the story, Trump demurred.
Trump's liberal critics were quick to pounce.
"Releases a video advocating for a 'unified Reich,' then deletes it after backlash," the "Never Trump" Republican political action committee Lincoln Project posted on X after the defense rested its case. "Whines about being silenced for weeks, then chooses not to testify. Donald Trump is a coward."
Best-selling liberal author Seth Abramson floated his own partisan take following Trump's decision not to testify: "Draft-Dodger, and Career Fraudster Who Had Sworn He Wanted to Testify—Tucks Tail and Refused to Testify in Case Where He Is 100% Guilty." (Trump has plead not guilty in the case.)
The liberal political action committee Really American, meanwhile, also blasted the ex-president as a "coward."
"Despite a tremendous amount of bluster and bravado from Donald Trump insisting he wants to testify, the defense just rested its case without his own testimony," the group posted on X. "Because Trump is terrified."
"It’s not his lawyers, it’s not the court stopping him," pointed out liberal SiriusXM host and comedian Dana Goldberg. "Donald Trump CHOSE not to testify in his own defense."
But was it a bad idea for Trump not to testify? Were Trump's liberal critics right?
If Trump's prior cases are any indication, they almost certainly weren't.
"While this case marks Trump’s first criminal trial, the ex-president has recently taken the stand at several of his recent civil trials, testifying about defamation allegations brought against him by writer E. Jean Carroll and the fraud allegations brought against him and his company," Forbes' Alison Durkee noted. "Neither testimony appeared to help his case, as he was found liable in both cases and ordered to pay $88.3 million and $454.2 million, respectively.
Durkee continued, "In his order finding Trump and his co-defendants liable in the fraud case, Judge Arthur Engoron argued Trump 'severely compromised his credibility' when testifying, noting the ex-president 'rarely responded to the questions asked, and he frequently interjected long, irrelevant speeches on issues far beyond the scope of the trial.'"
