A lawyer for ex-President Donald Trump previewed on Sunday what is likely to be his client’s main argument going into his criminal trial in Manhattan: That the charges against him are politically motivated, and were a direct result of his White House ambitions.

Joe Tacopina made the assertion during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, arguing that an American without public prominence would not be facing the same criminal charges. Mr Trump is reported by multiple news outlets to be facing 34 criminal counts related to his former attorney’s hush payment to a porn star on his behalf in 2016, days before the presidential election.

“If he was not running for reelection, there’s no way this would have been brought,” said Mr Tacopina.

Mr Tacopina further went on to argue that Americans of all political stripes should be outraged by the indictment. He asserted that experienced federal prosecutors had looked at the case (despite the indictment not yet being public) and believed it to not hold water.

Many legal experts not tied to the case firmly disagree with that assertion, however.

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