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The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House
Donald Trump should not be convicted on the word of “the greatest liar of all time”, the former president’s defence told a New York jury during closing statements at the former president’s “hush money” trial, while prosecutors defended the account given by their star witness.
The days-long testimony of Michael Cohen, a former Trump acolyte turned sworn enemy, is crucial to establishing that the then-presidential candidate orchestrated a scheme to buy the silence of porn actor Stormy Daniels, who alleged an extramarital affair in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
Cohen, then a lawyer for Trump, paid Daniels with $130,000 of his own money. Trump is charged with falsely recording reimbursements to Cohen as legal expenses, in order to circumvent election laws.
Both sides homed in on Cohen during their closing statements, which lasted for nine hours on Tuesday.
Todd Blanche, an attorney for Trump, told jurors that Cohen — who once also acted as Trump’s general purpose “fixer” — had previously lied to federal judges, to US Congress, to his family and to banks, and was therefore the “human embodiment of reasonable doubt”. Cohen pleaded guilty to a suite of federal charges in 2018 and is a convicted perjurer.
Cohen “is biased and motivated to tell you a story that is not true”, Blanche added. Cohen had revealed he has made more than $1mn from books and podcasts in which he recounts his animus towards Trump.
In response, prosecutors spent hours walking the jury through cheques, invoices, text messages, call logs and even extracts from Trump’s books that they said supported Cohen’s narrative. “Those documents tell you everything you need to know,” assistant district attorney Joshua Steinglass said. “You don’t need Michael Cohen to connect those dots.”
Steinglass emphasised that the prosecution did not “choose Michael Cohen as a witness” or “pick him up at the witness store”.
“The defendant chose Michael Cohen,” he said. “He was his fixer.” Trump was “frugal, immersed in the details and insists on signing his own cheques” for whom the “cardinal sin” is overpaying for a service, Steinglass claimed, casting doubt on the idea that Trump was ignorant of how the alleged reimbursement scheme was set up.
Trump is a “micromanager” who “set in motion a chain of events that led to the creation of the false business records”, Steinglass claimed. Cohen’s payment — designed to prevent a damaging story from leaking — amounted to a “campaign contribution that massively exceeded the $2,700 limit” but also violated city, state and federal tax laws, he claimed.
“The law is the law and applies to everyone equally,” he told jurors as he wrapped up his hours-long presentation.
The duelling remarks came as the trial entered its final stretch, after the testimony of 22 witnesses over five weeks, including Daniels.
A verdict could come as soon as Wednesday, when the seven men and five women who make up the jury are likely to be handed the case for deliberations.
If found guilty, Trump is unlikely to be jailed but would probably face financial penalties and, if he were to win November’s election, would become the first US president to be a convicted criminal. He is also likely to appeal against any conviction. The trial — which comes in one of four criminal cases he is facing — has done little to dent his standing in the presidential polls.
While closing arguments were taking place on Tuesday, the campaign team for President Joe Biden for the first time sent surrogates to speak outside the Manhattan courthouse, including Hollywood actor Robert De Niro and two former police officers who were at the Capitol during the January 6 2021 riots and are now campaigning for the incumbent president.
“Donald Trump wants to destroy not only this city but the country, and eventually he could destroy the world,” said De Niro, a native New Yorker. “He doesn’t belong in my city,” the actor added. “I don’t know where he belongs, but he certainly doesn’t belong here.”
Trump, who was joined in court by his sons Eric and Don Jr, and by his daughter Tiffany, once again decried the case as “election interference” in his morning remarks. “They should have brought this case seven years ago, not in the middle of a presidential election,” he said.
Additional reporting by Lauren Fedor
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