A secret conspiracy to cover up negative coverage of former President Donald Trump before the 2016 presidential election deprived Americans of their right to choose their candidate at the ballot box, prosecutors in his hush money trial in New York said in closing arguments on Tuesday.
Mr. Steinglass’ closing statement reminded jurors of a meeting that took place at Trump Tower in the summer of 2015, where the real estate mogul sat with then-advisor Michael Cohen and tabloid chief David Pecker.
Pecker said the meeting was an opportunity for them to inform him of any negative news that could harm Trump’s campaign and for them to work to bury it, including allegations from Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who allegedly had an affair with Trump about a decade ago.
“Three wealthy, powerful men high up in Trump Tower sought to consolidate their power by controlling the information that reached voters,” Steinglass said.
“The value of this fraudulent transaction. This turned out to be one of the most valuable contributions to the Trump campaign. It’s entirely possible that this scheme that these men concocted at this point led to Donald Trump’s election.”
Steinglass recounted how the plan worked after an embarrassing headline emerged: When a hot-mic recording of Donald Trump bragging about grabbing women’s “privates” was released on October 7, 2016, his campaign panicked. Campaign staffers tried to do damage control, classifying Trump’s comments during the Access Hollywood taping as “locker room banter.”
“The media’s strategy has shifted from deny, deny, deny to impression management,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said during closing statements in Trump’s hush-money criminal trial in New York.
Two women accuse him of sexual misconduct It appeared a few days laterThe Trump campaign knew their grip on the allegations was weakening and that one more allegation could cost them the support of female voters. So when Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who alleged she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006, appeared to ask for money in exchange for her silence, it was an attractive offer.
“You can’t understand this case without understanding the atmosphere,” Steinglass said. “He was negotiating to silence a porn star who was threatening to go public.”
“Stormy Daniels was a walking, talking reminder that not only was the defendant worse, but he completely undermined his strategy to fabricate the Access Hollywood tapes.”
“Simply put, Stormy Daniels is the motive,” Steinglass said in his closing statement.
Steinglass’ closing argument came after Trump’s lawyers delivered hours of closing arguments that included eyebrow-raising allegations, such as a conspiracy to win the election that was always brewing, and that he said could last four and a half hours.
“It doesn’t matter whether there was a conspiracy to try to win the election,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said of the bribery allegations surrounding Trump, who is accused of meddling in the election and stoking civil unrest in an attempt to stop Joe Biden from being inaugurated. “Every election campaign in this country is a conspiracy to promote a candidate.”
Blanche’s comments came as she urged jurors that Trump did not falsify business records and did not try to do so. She also argued that jurors should not consider allegations that Trump tried to sway the 2016 presidential election by concealing potentially damaging coverage. Prosecutors have alleged that Trump hatched the plot to capture and kill him in the summer of 2015 during a meeting with then-operative Michael Cohen and tabloid mogul David Pecker.
“A lot of politicians work with the media to boost their image,” Blanche said, adding that Pecker had been giving Trump favorable press for decades, long before he ran for office, “because it’s good for business,” he said. He called this symbiotic relationship between the media and politicians “standard operating procedure.”
Blanche did not acknowledge that Trump conspired with associates to influence the election results by making hush money payments, denying that there was any conspiracy or collusion, but presented it only as a hypothesis. “Even if there was collusion between the media and the campaign, it’s not criminal, it’s not criminal activity. It’s common,” Blanche said.
“It must be found that this effort was undertaken through illegal means,” he said.
At the end of his closing statement, Blanche listed 10 reasons why the jury should acquit Trump beyond a reasonable doubt, including that Cohen, not Trump, prepared the invoices for legal services and that there was no evidence that Cohen saw the receipts or checks that prosecutors allege were illegal.
Branche also said there was no evidence that Trump was trying to defraud anyone, noting that Cohen had been issued tax documents, and that because Daniels’ account was already public, there was no reason for him to do anything illegal to cover it up.
Number 10 on Blanche’s list was Cohen.
“Mr. Cohen is the embodiment of reasonable doubt,” said Mr. Branche, who referred to the initials “Goat” used to describe top-level athletes and performers.
“You guys ever heard of the GOAT, the GOAT, the greatest GOAT of all time?” he said, noting that Tom Brady has been called the GOAT of football. “Michael Cohen is a GOAT, the greatest liar of all time.”
Trump, who is likely to win the Republican presidential nomination, is charged with falsifying business records in connection with a $130,000 payment he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for keeping quiet about an alleged sexual relationship.
Prosecutors argue that recording the payments in business records constitutes election interference because at the time the bribes were made, Trump was running for president in 2016 and trying to cover up a potentially damaging scandal.
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For weeks, the testimony has captivated the nation and the world as the former U.S. president faces the possibility of being found guilty of a crime. But the details of the affair and Trump’s connections to Daniels laid out before a Manhattan jury appear to have little impact on the 2024 presidential election, where Trump still holds a narrow lead over Joe Biden in head-to-head polls and is performing well in battleground states crucial to his victory.
Trump denies all the charges.
Trump, wearing a crimson tie and crisp white shirt, was accompanied by his daughter Tiffany and sons Eric and Donald Jr. In court.
At the heart of the case is the testimony of Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and once-feared fixer, who has offered key evidence about Trump’s role in the hush-money scheme but also been grilled by Trump’s lawyers about his history of lies, his apparent dislike of his former boss and his desire to see him jailed.
The outcome of the case will likely depend on how much weight the jury gives to the credibility of Cohen’s testimony. A guilty verdict could mean prison time for Trump, but that’s considered unlikely. A guilty verdict would almost certainly lead to a lengthy series of appeals.
Blanche repeatedly emphasized Cohen’s credibility during his closing statement. “What Michael Cohen said to you on the stand is important. It’s important,” Blanche said. “He said a number of things on the stand that he lied about.”
He stressed that the charging documents in the case were filed by Cohen, adding, “President Trump cannot be convicted. President Trump cannot be convicted of any crime beyond a reasonable doubt based on the word of Michael Cohen.”
Blanche urged jurors to look for more than Cohen’s testimony and, with regard to Daniels, “more than the word of a woman who claims something happened in 2006.”
He also argued that the prosecution’s main argument that business records were falsified because he falsely claimed the repayments were for legal services doesn’t stand up, and that Cohen is Trump’s personal lawyer and “provided services to President Trump as his personal attorney in 2017.”
In his closing argument, Steinglass sought to address concerns about Cohen’s credibility as the defense repeatedly argued that he was dishonest and vindictive. He acknowledged that Cohen had an interest in the case beyond testifying and told jurors they were free to take that into account when reaching their verdict.
“Michael Cohen is rightly angry,” Steinglass said. “So far, he’s the only one who has paid the price. Pecker got a non-prosecution agreement. Cohen was Defendant’s puppet for years – his right hand man, his advisor… and then when things got bad, Defendant discarded him like a hot potato and tweeted to the world that Cohen was a scumbag and a scumbag. All the while, the election violations for which Cohen pled guilty were carried out at Defendant’s direction!”
Steinglass continued, saying that while Cohen “made his own bed,” he “cannot be blamed for making money off the only thing he had left: inside knowledge of the Trump phenomenon.”
“Obviously they want this case to be about Michael Cohen. It’s not. That’s an euphemism,” he said. “This case is not about Michael Cohen. This case is about Donald Trump and whether Trump should be held accountable for making false statements in his business records.”
“Michael Cohen’s importance in this case is that he gives color and context to the documents. He’s like a tour guide.”
Trump also faces three criminal trials in Georgia for trying to sway the 2020 election, his actions surrounding the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, and his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House. But all three cases have been significantly delayed and are not expected to be concluded or even begin before the November presidential election.
