Attorneys representing Donald Trump have stated that they will not formally invoke an “advice of counsel” defense during the upcoming trial, where Trump faces charges of allegedly falsifying business records in New York. However, they indicated in a court filing on Tuesday that Trump will assert that he did not intend to violate the law because he was aware that various lawyers were involved.
Trump's defense team had a deadline this week to inform the court whether they intended to assert an advice of counsel defense at the trial, which is set to commence on March 25th.
Defense lawyers intend to argue that “President Trump lacked the requisite intent to commit the conduct charged in the Indictment because of his awareness that various lawyers were involved in the underlying conduct giving rise to the charges,” according to the filing.
According to the filing submitted on Tuesday, Trump's defense lawyers aim to argue that Trump had a general awareness of lawyers being involved in the payments and did not possess any intent to violate the law.
As the filing noted, “President Trump intends to elicit these facts from witnesses, including former AMI executives and Michael Cohen, whom we expect will testify about President Trump's awareness of counsel's involvement in the charged conduct. This is not a formal advice-of-counsel defense.”
Defense lawyers highlighted that the defense strategy may evolve based on the witnesses called during the trial and the evidence admitted by the judge.
