Former President Donald Trump and Manhattan prosecutors are preparing to make final statements to jurors before they begin deliberations on whether to convict him in a hush-money scheme that led to charges of falsifying business records in New York state.
Both sides will hold closing arguments Tuesday, summarizing the testimony of 22 witnesses, with each trying to craft a story they believe will persuade the 12 in New York in their favor.
Judge Juan Merchan, overseeing the trial, warned jurors that adjournment could be extended for a second day.
“In a fairly lengthy case like this, the summary is not going to be completed anytime soon,” Marchan told them.
The jury returns to court a full week after witness testimony concludes. Judge Marchan reluctantly excused them earlier this week until after the Memorial Day holiday, lamenting that he had never given lawyers such a long break before.
“Unfortunately, that’s the way the calendar works,” the judge said.
When the trial resumes on Tuesday morning, New York state law dictates that Trump’s defense team will be the first to make closing arguments.
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Branche, previously told jurors they would quickly acquit the former president on all charges because there would be “sufficient” reasonable doubt at the end of the trial.
“He is shrouded in a veil of innocence,” Blanche told the jury, “and that veil of innocence will not disappear from President Trump today. It will not disappear any day during this trial. And it will not disappear as you deliberate. You will find that he is innocent.”
Many legal experts have suggested it is unlikely that all 12 New York jurors would unanimously agree that Trump is innocent, and that the defense would instead hope that just one disagreeing juror would vote for acquittal, leading to Judge Marchan issuing a mistrial.
“If I were advising the defense, I would tell them not to seek an acquittal,” said John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School who has followed the case closely.
“You can talk about it, but you should emphasize that in order to get a unanimous verdict, you address each juror and tell them it is their duty to make up their own mind no matter what others say,” he continued.
To that end, much of the defense’s strategy has relied on attacking the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, who made the hush money payments at the center of the case, portraying Trump’s then-fixer as a habitual liar.
Trump is charged with falsifying business records by disguising payments to Cohen as monthly stipends to conceal $130,000 in hush money paid by Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies any wrongdoing.
Cohen provided perhaps the most damning testimony against Trump of any witness, saying the former president was always informed of the hush money arrangements and repayment plans.
The defense has thrown several punches, highlighting Cohen’s past admissions that he lied in depositions, implying he lied about a key phone call with Trump and getting him to admit to stealing from the Trump Organization.
Katherine Christian, a former Manhattan special assistant district attorney now in private practice, called the blows “minor missteps” by the prosecution but said she expects the defense to repeat them again.
“Whoever gives the summary will call Michael Cohen a liar, a thief, untrustworthy, vindictive, hateful and that he wrote a book called ‘Revenge,'” Christian said.
The defense may also re-call as a key witness Robert Costello, a former lawyer for Mr. Cohen who challenged Mr. Trump’s involvement in the hush-money deals and his alleged pressure on Mr. Cohen not to switch sides when federal investigators closed in on him in 2018.
Costello’s appearance quickly caused disruption, however, and the judge dismissed the courtroom after harshly criticizing the witness for improper decorum, and although the jury had been dismissed prior to the admonition, some of the witness’ audible reactions were observed.
“The damn Michael Cohen is going to be heavily questioned as a defendant, and it’s going to be interesting if he mentions Costello,” Christian said.
The defense has previewed several other strategies it may use to argue that the hush money payments were made to prevent embarrassment for Melania Trump, not the campaign, that the 34 allegedly falsified records were genuine and that prosecutors failed to prove that Trump intended to defraud.
After Tuesday’s hearing, the Manhattan district attorney’s office will have one last chance to vindicate Cohen, who they called as their 20th and final witness.
Coffee, the Columbia Law School professor, said the strategy reduces Cohen’s role by placing the onus on former witnesses to explain the goals of the alleged conspiracy.
“The prosecution will likely emphasize that Mr. Cohen’s testimony overlaps with that of most other witnesses … It’s like a jigsaw puzzle and he’s the only piece that fits together and makes everything else consistent,” Coffee said.
It was a theme repeatedly emphasized to jurors by prosecutors, who listened to nearly four weeks of testimony and reviewed dozens of emails, text messages, call records and other documents.
“Once all of the evidence has been presented, I will have an opportunity to speak to you all again in closing arguments,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told jurors at the start of the trial.
“My colleague Joshua Steinglass examines all of that evidence and explains how it inevitably leads to only one conclusion: Donald Trump is guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.”
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