The moment of truth is approaching for former President Trump after the defense and prosecution delivered closing arguments at his trial in New York on Tuesday.
The court hearing extended well beyond its usual end time to hear nearly five hours of closing statements, first from Todd Blanche, for Trump’s defense, and then from Joshua Steinglass, for the prosecution.
Judge Juan Merchan is expected to give instructions to the jury on Wednesday, after which the case will be left in the jury’s hands.
Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The charges stem from a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denied any knowledge of the affair or the payment.
Here are five takeaways for Tuesday.
Trump campaign sharply criticizes Cohen’s credibility
Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels to stop her from going public about her affair with Trump, was sure to be the prosecution’s flawed star witness.
Cohen, who later received repayments from Trump’s personal bank accounts and the Trump Trust, pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress and served prison time.
Prosecutors allege the payments were part of a hush-money deal with Daniels that was misclassified as legal expenses to conceal its true nature. They also argue that they amounted to election interference because they were made to influence the outcome of the election, not simply to avoid personal embarrassment for Trump.
Trump’s team maintains that the money paid to Cohen, who once said he would take a bullet for Trump but became a fierce critic of the former president, was indeed for legal services.
On Tuesday, Mr. Blanche sought to launch a sweeping attack on Mr. Cohen’s credibility.
Trump’s lawyer’s most memorable remark came when he denounced Cohen as the “MVP of liars.”
Later, adapting a well-known acronym, Blanche called Cohen a “GLOAT,” the biggest liar of all time.
The soundbite was intended to make a broader argument that it would be unjust to convict Trump based on Cohen’s smeared comments.
But there was one instance when Branche appeared to exceed her authority, when the lawyers told jurors that Trump should not be sent to “jail” based on Cohen’s words.
The jury can only decide guilt or innocence, and if guilty, the sentence is decided by the judge.
After the jury was dismissed, Judge Marchan said Blanche’s comments were “highly inappropriate.” When the jury returned for afternoon deliberations, the judge instructed them to disregard Blanche’s comments.
Prosecutors try to silence allegations against Cohen
Prosecutors know how important Cohen’s testimony will be, so Steinglass sought to shore up jurors’ confidence in the former Trump aide while acknowledging Cohen’s shortcomings.
He defended Cohen’s expressed desire to see Trump convicted, saying it was natural for Trump to want to see Cohen pay a price given his legal troubles.
While Steinglass defended the fundamental veracity of Cohen’s testimony, he argued that Cohen is not to blame for the case.
He told jurors it didn’t matter whether he liked Cohen or not.
“The question is whether the defendant had useful and reliable information… and the truth is that the defendant was in the best position to know it,” the prosecutor said.
“This case isn’t about Michael Cohen. It’s about Donald Trump.”
Defense instructs jurors not to view case as a “referendum” on Trump
Questions about how jurors will separate their feelings about Trump from the facts before them have shadowed the trial from the beginning.
Jury selection was also intended to eliminate potential jurors with particularly strong feelings toward the former president.
In her closing statement, Ms Blanche urged jurors not to think of the case as “a referendum at the ballot box on who you voted for in 2016, who you voted for in 2020 and who you intend to vote for in 2024”.
He added: “The sentence you must impose will be based on the evidence heard in this court.”
More flashbacks from the ‘Access Hollywood’ tapes
The trial was in some ways a repeat of the chaotic final stages of the 2016 election campaign.
So the lawyers’ brief offered a starkly different characterization of the threat the release of the “Access Hollywood” tapes posed to the Trump campaign.
The tape, which was released about a month before Election Day but is several years old, features Trump bragging that his fame has allowed him to be rough with women, including grabbing them by their genitals.
Prosecutor Steinglass said the release of the tape had caused “huge confusion” within the Trump campaign.
Speaking for Trump, Blanche said this was not a “doomsday event.”
This issue is important because the more serious the impact of the tape, the stronger President Trump’s political incentive will be to silence Daniels’ sensational new allegations.
Robert De Niro cameo
President Biden’s campaign has mounted its most aggressive effort yet to extract political advantage from the trial.
Actor Robert De Niro, a longtime critic of Trump who also narrates a new campaign ad for Biden, appeared near the courthouse with two former Capitol Police officers, Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone, who were at the scene during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
Most of the star power went to De Niro, 80, who warned that Trump “never goes away” if re-elected in November and portrayed the former president as a danger to America and the world.
Trump aide Jason Miller hit back, calling De Niro a “failed actor.”
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