Melania Trump Privately Called Husband's Hush Money Trial A 'Disgrace,' NYT Reports
Melania Trump has called the hush money trial against her husband, Donald Trump, a “disgrace” that amounts to election interference, according to The New York Times.
The former first lady made the remarks in private, New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers reported, citing a person with knowledge of the comments who would not speak publicly out of fear of jeopardizing their personal relationship with the Trumps.
The trial centers around a 2016 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who claims she had an affair with Donald Trump a decade earlier. The former president is accused of falsifying business records to obscure the transactions.
In January 2018, The Wall Street Journal broke the news about the $130,000 payment to Daniels. Melania Trump was reportedly furious.
According to Stephanie Grisham, who served as the former first lady’s press secretary at the time, Melania “didn’t take it lightly at all.”
“We went to the State of the Union separately,” Grisham recalled recently on CNN. “She refused to walk out to Marine One with [Donald] because she didn’t want to be like Hillary Clinton and standing by her man.”
Melania Trump has kept a low profile since leaving the White House, scarcely appearing with her husband on the 2024 campaign trail.
But according to the Times, she now stands with her husband and shares his view of the hush money trial, believing it to be unfair.
Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the trial, indicated Monday that the former first lady could also be a potential witness for the case.
Grisham, who went on to become Melania Trump’s chief of staff and then Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, told MSNBC on Sunday that the former president “fears” his wife.
He is also charged with felonies in three other criminal cases concerning his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Read The New York Times’ reporting here.
