“This is a very dangerous day for America,” former President Donald Trump said Tuesday ahead of closing arguments in the New York v. Trump lawsuit.
“Today is a very dangerous day for America. It’s a very sad day,” Trump told media on Tuesday morning before heading to the Manhattan courtroom.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m here because of the evil Joe Biden. He’s the worst president in the history of our country, and he’s destroying our country. This country is being destroyed not slowly, but rapidly. On the border, on energy, on inflation, on getting out of Afghanistan, on everything. He’s destroying our country in everything he’s done, and he’s destroying it by weaponizing it. And this is pure weaponization,” Trump added in his speech.
Trump has been surrounded by several allies in the courtroom in recent days, and on Tuesday he was joined by his sons Tiffany, Eric and Don Jr. Trump has repeatedly denounced the trial as a “sham” pushed by the Biden administration to inflict political damage on him ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
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Former President Donald Trump attended the first day of his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on April 15, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP, via Associated Press, POOL)
Trump is nearing the end of his trial in Manhattan, where he is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors are trying to uncover evidence that he paid $130,000 to former porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election and then falsified business records to cover up the payment to silence her allegations that she had an affair with Trump in 2006.
Trump has maintained his innocence and has repeatedly denied having any affair with Daniels.
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Presiding Judge Juan Marchan said last week he expected closing arguments to last most of Tuesday and possibly part of Wednesday. Marchan is also due to deliver jury instructions this week, which he expects to last about an hour.
Trump is expected to sit in the courtroom throughout the trial, including during the verdict if the jury makes any recordings.
Closing arguments followed a motion by Trump’s legal team to dismiss the case following testimony from the prosecution’s main witness, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen left his home and headed to Manhattan Criminal Court on May 14, 2024, to stand trial for former U.S. President Donald Trump on charges of concealing hush money payments related to an extramarital affair in New York City. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said last week that “there were no false business filings” and no evidence of any ties to Trump.
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“How on earth is it a crime to hide false information from voters?” Blanche said.
“The court should not send this case to a jury with Mr. Cohen’s testimony,” he added.
Former US President Donald Trump and lawyer Emile Bove watch as Michael Cohen is questioned by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger during Trump’s criminal trial in state court in Manhattan, New York, US, on May 14, 2024. Cohen is accused of falsifying business records to hide payments made to silence porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016. In this courtroom sketch, (Reuters/Jane Rosenberg)
Cohen testified in court that he personally paid $130,000 to Daniels using a mortgage-backed loan that he said he concealed from his wife, and also admitted to stealing thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization.
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Cohen said he embezzled $30,000 from a technology company that provided services to the Trump Organization by inflating payments to the company. Cohen said he told Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, in 2017 that he paid $50,000 of his own money to a technology company called Red Finch that still needed to be repaid.
In 2017, Messrs. Weisselberg and Cohen calculated that, including a $130,000 payment to Daniels and an alleged $50,000 payment to Redfinch, the total repayments to Cohen came to $420,000.
“You stole from the Trump Organization, right?” Blanche asked Cohen last Wednesday morning.
“Yes, that’s right,” Cohen replied.
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A courtroom sketch showing prosecutor Susan Hoffinger questioning Michael Cohen in the criminal trial of former US President Donald Trump, who is charged with falsifying business records to hide payments made in 2016 to silence porn actress Stormy Daniels, presided over by Judge Juan Marchan, on May 13, 2024, in Manhattan State Court in New York, USA. (Reuters/Jane Rosenberg)
Trump also said Tuesday morning that his team has election experts who testified last week and will attest to former Federal Election Commissioner Bradley Smith that “everything was perfect.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is trying to prove to jurors that Trump not only falsified business records about his payments to Daniels, but also did so in furtherance of another crime: conspiring to promote or impede the election.
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No election experts testified after Judge Marchan ruled that Smith could speak in court about basic definitions surrounding election law but could not go beyond that.
“There are many other people out there. There are 40 other people saying the exact same thing as these people,” Trump said on Tuesday, adding that today was a “dangerous day for America.”
