Former First Lady Melania Trump has been absent and silent as her husband Donald Trump attends his hush money criminal trial, but she reportedly shares his view it’s ‘a disgrace’.
Melania agrees with Donald that the trial unfolding in Manhattan Criminal Court is unfair, several sources who know her thinking told The New York Times on Tuesday.
‘In private, she has called the proceedings “a disgrace” tantamount to election interference,’ reported the newspaper based on an account from a person with direct knowledge of what Melania allegedly said.
The report on Tuesday comes a day after Donald’s historic criminal trial started. On Monday the presiding judge, Justice Juan Merchan, said that Melania could be a potential witness in the proceedings.
Trump is the first former or current US president to face a criminal trial. He has been charged with falsifying records during his 2016 presidential campaign to cover up an alleged extramarital scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels that happened while Melania was pregnant with their son, Barron.
Melania was livid when reports of the hush payment emerged in January 2018 and flew from the White House to the couple’s Mar-a-Lago home and spent some time there away from him.
In private, Melania has apparently long referred to her husband’s hush money case as ‘his problem’ and not one of hers.
Merchan has already ruled that jurors are allowed to hear about an alleged relationship between Donald and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, but not about it continuing while Melania was pregnant.
Details about Trump’s alleged affairs could upset Melania at a time when her support could boost her husband’s chances of winning the 2024 presidential election.
‘At the end of the day, she can make or break his candidacy,’ Melania’s former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, told The Times. ‘And at the end of the day, she could probably make or break him.’
The report on Melania’s stance behind closed doors came as the second day of the hush money trial concluded with seven of 12 jurors selected. Melania, who was last spotted publicly with Donald at a Mar-a-Lago Easter celebration, was nowhere to be seen.
Donald has been accompanied by his legal team and aides including his deputy director of communications, Margo Martin, who has a striking resemblance to Melania and was mistaken for her in a court appearance last year. The hush money trial resumes on Thursday.
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