Bradley Smith, who was originally set to appear as a defense witness in Trump’s New York trial, identified for lawmakers what he viewed as legal errors in District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case., Smith mapped out in detail how Bragg’s claim that Trump violated campaign finance laws to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels could not have amounted to, as Bragg alleged, a conspiracy to throw the 2016 election.
A nefarious plot to hide the expenditure until after the election was impossible because of these deadlines, Smith said. Trump’s defense team initially planned to call Smith to testify at trial, but defense attorneys reversed course after Judge Juan Merchan narrowed the scope of what Smith could speak about from the witness stand. Merchan warned that as an expert witness, which is what Merchan deemed Smith, the former FEC official could not reference any facts about Trump’s case and could instead speak only in general terms.