For the longest time, we’ve heard Donald Trump say he kept his fling with Stormy Daniels under wraps because he didn’t want his wife, Melania to hear about it. Now, however, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has turned Trump’s “Melania defense” upside down with the 34-count indictment against the former president.

Newsweek reports that the statement of facts filed by Bragg on Tuesday shows that Trump had ordered one of his attorneys to put off paying adult film actress Stormy Daniels “as long as possible,” including waiting until after the 2016 election in case he lost. Because if he did, he could “avoid paying altogether.”

“At that point it would not matter if the story became public,” the filing read.

If Bragg has evidence that Trump was only concerned about when the story of his alleged infidelity would break, it will make it that much harder for Trump to argue that he made the hush money payments to “protect” his marriage to Melania as well as his youngest son, Barron.

Obviously, if Trump thinks it would be okay if the story was published after his electoral defeat, it means he wouldn’t care if Melania found out about the purported tryst.

“Here’s the chef’s kiss,” Joyce Vance, a legal analyst for MSNBC, said. “They structured at least one of the deals so they wouldn’t have to pay out funds if Trump lost election. It was never about protecting Melania.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and continues to deny having an affair with Daniels. He also accuses prosecutors of waging a politically motivated witch-hunt.

Joe Tacopina, one of Trump’s attorneys has been making the media rounds and has supported using this defense, telling ABC’s Good Morning America last month that the payments “are not directly related to the campaign.”

“He made this with personal funds to prevent something coming out [that was] false but embarrassing to himself, his family, his young son,” Tacopina said.

“Bragg’s office is trying to anticipate Trump’s legal and factual defenses and get out ahead of them,” said former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, Neama Rahmani, in an interview with Newsweek.

Michael McAuliffe, a former federal prosecutor, and elected state attorney agreed that the statement of facts means that Bragg has additional factual details that will tank Trump’s Melania defense. He told Newsweek the most obvious evidence that disproves this is the timing of the hush money payments.

“None of it occurred in a vacuum,” McAuliffe said. “Additionally, the statement of facts refer to recordings, contemporaneous written documents, and sworn testimony all focusing on reasons for the catch and kill scheme that are not concern for his wife.”

And prosecutors are gearing up against the so-called Melania defense, pointing to evidence that Trump, and Michael Cohen, his fixer and attorney at the time were plotting alongside former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker to kill negative stories before the election.

“That’s why the separate statement of facts, which is not needed or typical in a criminal prosecution, sets out the election-related purpose of the payments in detail,” Rahmani said.

But Trump has also done something else that will undermine his defense, by admitting something that will unravel his claims of protecting his family, said Dave Aronberg, the State Attorney for Palm Beach County.

Because Trump has continually denied having an affair with Daniels, Aronberg said it would be difficult for him to contend he was attempting to shield Melania if there was nothing to shield her about.

Rahmani notes there’s a long haul ahead for prosecutors, however.

“This case is far from a clear win,” he told Newsweek. “Trump’s lawyers have decent legal and factual defenses, so the state needs to make sure that they have responses ready.”

Considering Bragg’s tenacity and diligence, I think those lawyers are going to be exhausted by the time this case is over.