Former Donald Trump lawyer Tim Parlatore on Thursday advised the ex-president not to speak at his sentencing. (Watch the video below.)

Earlier in the day, Trump was found guilty of disguising hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels as legal expenses to keep their alleged hookup out of the public eye before the 2016 election.

Trump faces sentencing on July 11 before Judge Juan Merchan, whom the Republican candidate repeatedly criticized during the trial (though he did not take the stand). Merchan threatened Trump with jail time for repeatedly defying a gag order regarding potential witnesses and others in the court.

Now that Trump is convicted, Parlatore recommended silence.

“I’ll tell you one thing ― and I’ve done sentencing before Judge Merchan before ― I would not suggest the defendant speak at the sentencing,” he said on CNN. “Of course, that’s his right, whether he wants to speak or not.”

“Even to say he’s remorseful?” CNN’s Laura Coates asked. “Which we don’t think he might say.”

“That’s the point,” answered Parlatore, who represented Trump in the Justice Department’s probe of his role in the January 2021 insurrection, and in the classified documents case against him, before leaving Trump’s legal team in May 2023. “I don’t think he would say that, so that’s why you don’t want him to talk.”

“You’re gonna instead say that, ‘My client does still maintain his innocence and he’s going through the appellate process. We believe that there are certain appellate issues here, so don’t hold that against him,’” Parlatore said. “But instead, focus on issues such as history and characteristics of the defendant, lack of criminal history, all of those types of things.”

All 34 counts Trump was convicted of are felonies punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and up to four years in prison. But appeals lie ahead.

Attorney Todd Blanche, who defended Trump in the hush money trial, asserted that his client should not be given time behind bars because “other 77-year-old first-time offenders would never be sent to prison for this conduct.”

H/T Mediaite