The moment of truth is closer in former President Trump’s New York case after defense and prosecutors made their closing arguments Tuesday.
Initially, the court day stretched much longer than its usual end time to hear both arguments from Todd Blanche, who is defending Trump, and then from prosecutor Joshua Steinglass.
Judge Juan Merchan is expected to give instructions to the jury Wednesday, after which the matter will be in their hands.
President Trump has been charged with 34 felonies for falsifying business records.
The charges stem from a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels during the final stretch of the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denied the affair and any knowledge of the payments.
Here are five takeaways from Tuesday:
Trump’s team targets Cohen’s credibility
Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who paid Daniels to keep him from going public about the Trump case, was always going to be the prosecution’s flawed star witness.
Cohen, who later received repayments from Trump’s personal bank accounts and a Trump trust, served time in prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, violating campaign finance laws and lying to Congress.
Prosecutors allege the refunds were misclassified as legal expenses to conceal their true nature as part of a secret deal with Daniels. Prosecutors also said this constituted election interference because it was done to influence the outcome of the election, not simply to relieve Trump’s personal embarrassment.
Trump’s team claims the money paid to Cohen, who has previously said he would stick to his guns but has also been an aggressive critic of the former president, was actually for legal services.
Blanche tried to boost Cohen’s credibility on Tuesday.
The Trump lawyer’s most memorable line was when he called Cohen “a liar’s MVP.”
Later, Blanche modified the well-known acronym to call Cohen “GLOAT: the greatest liar of all time.”
The soundbite was intended to make a broader argument that convicting Trump based on Cohen’s tarnished words was unfair.
But there was one instance where Blanche seemed to have gone too far. It comes as lawyers told jurors they should not send Trump to “jail” based on Cohen’s words.
The jury only decides whether to convict or acquit. If you are found guilty, it is up to the judge to decide.
After the jury was out, Merchan told Blanche that her statements were “grossly inappropriate.” When the jury returned for its afternoon session, the judge told them to ignore Blanche’s comments.
Prosecutors are trying to stem suspicions against Cohen
Prosecutors know the risks of Cohen’s testimony, so Steinglass sought to bolster jurors’ faith in the former Trump lieutenant even as he acknowledged his shortcomings.
He defended Cohen’s wish to see Trump convicted, saying it was natural to want to see Trump pay, given his legal troubles.
Steinglass defended the basic truthfulness of Cohen’s testimony while also asserting that the case was not up to him.
He told jurors it didn’t matter whether they liked Cohen or not.
“It’s a question of whether he has useful, reliable information to give you. And the truth is he was in the best position to know,” the prosecutor said.
“This case is not about Michael Cohen. It’s about Donald Trump.”
Pentagon tells jurors not to view case as Trump ‘referendum’
It is questionable how jurors will separate the facts from their feelings about Trump before putting off the case from the beginning.
Jury selection was aimed, in part, at weeding out potential jurors who had particularly strong feelings about the former president.
In summing up, Blanche urged jurors not to evaluate the case as “a referendum at the ballot box to vote for who voted in 2016 or 2020 or who will vote in 2024.”
He added: “The decision you must make will be related to the evidence you heard in this court.”
More flashbacks to the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape
The trial has at times served as a replay of the chaotic final stages of the 2016 campaign.
As a result, the lawyers’ brief gave an entirely different characterization of the threat posed to the Trump campaign by the release of the ‘Access Hollywood’ tapes.
The tape, which was released about a month before Election Day but dates back several years, shows Trump boasting that his fame had enabled him to engage in rough behavior toward women, including grabbing them by their genitals.
Steinglass, for the prosecution, said the release of the tapes caused “chaos” within the Trump campaign.
Blanche told Trump this was not “Doomsday.”
This issue is important because the more severe the tape’s impact, the greater Trump’s political motivation to silence Daniels’ new damning claims.
Robert De Niro’s cameo appearance
President Biden’s campaign has made its most determined effort yet to gain political advantage from the trial.
Actor Robert De Niro, a longtime Trump critic who narrates a new Biden campaign ad, stands near the courthouse with Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone, two former Capitol Police officers who were present during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Appeared.
Much of the star power rested with the 80-year-old De Niro, who warned that Trump would “never leave” if re-elected in November, casting the former president as a danger to America and the world.
Trump’s top adviser Jason Miller fired back, calling De Niro a “laundry actor.”
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