Home | WebMail | Register or Login

      Calgary | Regions | Local Traffic Report | Advertise on Action News | Contact

Posted: 2024-04-23T10:50:17Z | Updated: 2024-04-23T12:57:40Z

Jesse Watters seems to have accidentally told viewers what Donald Trump allegedly did wrong in the hush money case.

His lawyer paid Stormy and, after the campaign was over, the money was reimbursed and booked as a legal expense, the Fox News host said Monday, hours after opening statements were delivered at the former presidents historic trial.

Thats pretty much what prosecutors say happened and not what Trumps legal team says happened.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. According to prosecutors, just before the 2016 election, Trumps then-attorney, Michael Cohen, paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence on her claim she had an affair with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump then reimbursed Cohen in a series of payments from the Trump Organization described falsely as retainer fees, obscuring expenditures that hid damaging information from the public before the election, prosecutors allege.

During his opening statement, Todd Blanche, Trumps lead attorney, acknowledged that Daniels signed a nondisclosure agreement in October 2016 in exchange for $130,000, arguing that it was perfectly legal to do so.

However, he claimed payments from Trumps company to Cohen were not reimbursements for the hush money, but legitimate legal services.

Watters made the apparent slip while arguing that this wasnt campaign business, this was personal, when Trump sought to suppress Daniels story before the election.

You cant use campaign funds for personal matters, and now you cant use personal funds for personal matters during a campaign? So, I guess the real crime is that Trump ran for president and beat Hillary Clinton, Watters said.

Critics were quick to pounce.

Umm...well...hmm...you know you just described the crime. I dont understand what you dont understand about what you just said, former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele wrote , sharing a clip of the moment on X.

Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of the anti-Trump MeidasTouch network, wrote , I guess the main problem with this is its the exact opposite of what Trumps lawyer said in his opening statement.

See some more reactions below.