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Former President Donald Trump's biggest risk in the Manhattan hush money trial could be what he himself says if he takes the witness stand, former Trump administration White House lawyer Jim Schultz argued on CNN Monday.

This came as the trial's first day opened with the jury selection process, with Trump sitting at the defense table and some experts remarking that he appeared diminished.

"Does today matter?" asked anchor Phil Mattingly. "Does what they see from these potential jurors matter in that kind of strategy process?"

"Look, I think all of it's going to matter, right?" said Schultz, a longtime defender of the former president who has nevertheless admitted the recent string of civil and criminal trials has been rough for him.

"How he interacts, how they interact with him, how they feel — how the lawyers feel that the jurors are, how much appeal there is from the jurors as to whether they're going to put him on the stand. But I think at this — at this stage in the game, I think they're probably leaning towards putting him on the stand."

Anchor Erin Burnett then chimed in. "And what would you do?" she asked. "You know him. You've worked with him. You think that's a gamble you'd take, to put him on the stand?"

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Schultz replied, "I think again ... in this particular case, hearing from him is likely going to matter. I think he'd want to testify in this case. I think he's going to push his lawyers to testify in this case. And quite frankly, the problem with putting Donald Trump on the stand is that you never know what Donald Trump's gonna say, whether he could say something that's completely irrelevant to the case, he could say something that damages the case just by making a flippant remark.

"So there is a huge danger of putting him on the stand, but I think he's going to be pressing to do it."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Jim Schultz says Trump is a "huge danger" to himself on the stand www.youtube.com