A verdict in former President Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial is drawing near, with closing arguments ending after a long day in court Tuesday.
The prosecution and defense summed up nearly one month and a half worth of arguments and testimonies in one final effort to win over the jury.
Trump’s team centered their concluding argument on undermining the credibility of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness. Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, argued that the prosecution’s entire argument rested on Cohen, so if Cohen couldn’t be believed, neither could the case.
“What Mr. Trump knew in 2016, you only know from one source,” he said. “And that’s Michael Cohen.”
Blanche described Cohen as “The human embodiment of reasonable doubt,” “An M.V.P. of liars,” and “The greatest liar of all time,” the New York Times reported.
The prosecution, meanwhile, sought to portray Trump’s alleged actions as a massive conspiracy that may just have decided the fate of the 2016 election. Trump’s alleged hush money payments and efforts by the National Enquirer to buy and hide negative stories against Trump was a form of election fraud, attorney Joshua Steinglass argued.
“This scheme, cooked up by these men, at this time, could very well be what got President Trump elected,” he said. “This was overt election fraud, an act in furtherance of the conspiracy to promote Mr. Trump’s election by unlawful means.”
Prosecutors also pushed back against Blanche’s claim that the prosecution’s entire argument hinged on Cohen, pointing to the other evidence brought forward during the trial.
“They want to make this case about Michael Cohen: It isn’t,” Steinglass said. “It’s about Donald Trump.”
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Trump is being charged with 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business records around hush money payments given to porn actress Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors introduced as evidence 11 checks, 12 ledger entries, and 11 invoices used to pay Cohen a total of $420,000 in 2017. Trump denies both the affair and the hush money payments.
When court resumes, Judge Juan Merchan will instruct the jurors on the legal questions at the heart of the case. They will then deliberate before delivering a verdict in the historic case against a former president.
