Trump legal team could gain 'very significant advantage' in hush-money case, Jonathan Turley says

close

Video

Taking ‘cliff option’ away from NYC jury could give Trump a ‘very significant advantage’: Turley

Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley on the strategy Trump's team can do in response to the New York hush money trial

Fox News contributor and GWU Law professor Jonathan Turley explained on "Fox & Friends" Friday the legal card Trump's defense team could use to their advantage in the hush-money case, even though it may be met with "personal resistance" from the former president. 

DECK STACKED AGAINST TRUMP IN 'POLITICALLY DRIVEN' HUSH MONEY CASE: GREGG JARRETT

JONATHAN TURLEY: The second issue involves a fairly standard motion that occurs when you believe that the jury may not agree that the big ticket item of a charge, the felonies, is proven, and you want the court to give an instruction saying you can always convict on a lesser included offense –  in this case a misdemeanor. Now, sometimes the defense doesn't want to do that. Sometimes they just want to leave the jury with the cliff option, thinking that they don't want to go over the cliff so they'll go ahead and acquit. But many times, this works in favor of the defense. For Trump, there could be personal resistance to even suggesting a possible misdemeanor conviction, but politically and legally, it would be a very significant advantage for him.

Former President Donald Trump, left, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, right. Photographer: Mary Altaffer/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Getty Images)

Trump's hush-money trial, which is scheduled to start on Monday, is the first of his four criminal indictments slated to go to trial and would be the first criminal trial ever of a former president.

He is accused of falsifying his company's records to hide the nature of payments to his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who helped Trump bury negative stories during his 2016 campaign. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Cohen's activities included paying porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to suppress her claims of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

Fox News' Bradford Betz, Maria Paronich and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Video