Suspicious Melania doesn't want to 'embarrass' herself at Trump hush money trial: analyst
Former First Lady Melania Trump is unlikely to appear at her husband's side in his Manhattan hush money trial because she believes the allegations against him could be true and has her own reputation to defend, CNN's Kirsten Holmes suggested Tuesday.
This comes after former President Donald Trump's son Eric became the first other Trump family member to attend the trial, raising natural speculation about whether Trump's wife might follow suit.
Holmes' co-panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House communications official in the Trump administration, said she's not counting on it.
"I would be very surprised if she ended up showing up in this specific case," she said.
Trump stands accused of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump pleaded not guilty and denied affairs contended by Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.
"These allegations have been out there since he ran in 2016," Griffin said. "Voters have familiarity with them, but the difference this time is if someone like Karen McDougal or someone affiliated with her takes the stand, that's under her oath. That carries a different weight than going and giving a media interview and alleging that you had some kind of affair. I think that Americans interpret that differently. They take it with a different level of weight and seriousness. And that is where this stands to just really damage him in the court of public opinion."
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Holmes jumped in to argue Melania might not buy Trump's contention that the charges against him were trumped up.
"I think that she is her own person" said Holmes. "She believes that some of this might be true."
Holmes also pointed to the age of the allegations and the role they played in the Trump's marriage.
"It caused a lot of tension when he was in office when these first reports came out," Holmes said. "And I was told by an advisor that at the time that Melania Trump knows who she married, but she doesn't want to be embarrassed. And the part of this is that she's not going to choose to come here and listen to these salacious details. She's never been a stand-by-your-man type of first lady."
"So the idea that you would start here when they're on trial talking about these affairs that he had one in particular, when she ... had just given in birth, as seems completely out of norm for Melania Trump," Holmes added, noting that "she hasn't even appeared once by his side during the campaign."
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Alyssa Farah Griffin and Kristen Holmes on Melania Trump www.youtube.com