Donald Trump's Team Made 'Huge' Admission in Court—Legal Analyst

Donald Trump's lawyers admitted in court that the former president reimbursed his former attorney for payments to Stormy Daniels, according to a legal analyst.

Harry Litman, an attorney and law professor at University of California, Los Angeles, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday that the apparent admission had slipped by largely unnoticed but could have huge consequences in the trial.

"While it slipped by almost without notice, the admission of Trump's admission in the civil suit with stormy that he reimbursed Michael Cohen for the money Cohen paid," Litman wrote in a post, adding in another post it could be "Huge in the overall scheme of the case."

Trump, the presumptive Republican 2024 presidential nominee, is the first former president in United States history to stand trial in a criminal case. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has continually said that this case and other criminal and civil matters involving him are politically motivated.

The prosecution seeks to prove that before the 2016 presidential election, Trump paid, or discussed paying, two women—adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal—to not disclose his alleged affairs with them. He denies affairs with either woman.

Daniels completed her testimony on Thursday after a sometimes heated cross-examination with Trump attorney, Susan Necheles.

Newsweek sought email comment from Trump's attorney on Friday.

Litman also said there was now proof that Cohen and then Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, had formulated the details of the payments to Daniels, which had to have been with Trump's "knowledge and approval."

In 2018, Daniels failed in a lawsuit requesting she be released from a nondisclosure agreement she signed with Cohen.

Evidence was given in that case of the $130,000 Cohen paid to Daniels to remain quiet about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

During that 2018 case, it allegedly emerged that Trump had reimbursed Cohen for his payments to Daniels. Trump's lawyers allegedly admitted this detail in the hush money case this week, Litman wrote.

Litman also wrote that Thursday was "a very eventful day in court, dramatic at times, but quite a lot happened in addition."

He wrote that Necheles' cross-examination of Daniels was "ineffective" and that, while Necheles landed a few jabs at Daniels, she needed a knockout.

"Overall, Stormy seemed more in control of the dynamic than Necheles. Necheles also was over aggressive and even offensive in spots," he wrote.

He also noted that Judge Juan Merchan again "positively excoriated the defense" for "making it all about Stormy's credibility' in their opening statement to the jury. This then allowed Daniels to introduce more graphic information about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump as a way to prove her credibility, Litman wrote.