As the first criminal prosecution of a past leader reached its dramatic conclusion, prosecution counsel on Tuesday urged jurors to use their” common feel” to indict Donald Trump.
As both flanks concluded their closing claims, the stage is set for the 12- part screen to start deliberating on Wednesday.
The stakes are high for the 77-year-old and for the country as soon as six weeks until Trump’s bid for a second term in office is complete.
Trump is accused of fabricating business records to pay Michael Cohen, his ex-partner,$ 130, 000, to Stormy Daniels, a star of adult film, out of fear that her account of an alleged physical encounter with Trump may harm his campaign for president in 2016.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass made the final push for a criminal conviction, countering Trump’s security attorney, Todd Blanche, who called for conviction, asserting the case against Trump was based on lies.
Steinglass stated that Daniels’s tale about her 2006 encounter with the wedded Trump was the cause for the alleged murder, but emphasized,” The situation at its core is about a conspiracy and a cover- up” on the eve of an election. ” The prosecutor’s intent to defraud could not be any clearer”, he added.
Blanche urged the judge to find Trump innocent, arguing that a “very quick and easy not innocent verdict” should be the only goal. He argued that Cohen, the lawyer’s star hear, was motivated by “outright anger” for his previous boss, and had lied on the witness stand.
” He told you a number of things on that witness stand that were lies, pure and simple”, Blanche said.
Trump took to social media to denounce the proceedings as “boring” before the court reconvened for a rare evening session on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters earlier, Trump called it a “very dangerous day for America”.
” We have a rigged court case that should have never been brought”, he said, with three of his five children—Don Jr, Eric, and Tiffany—standing behind him.
Blanche claimed that Trump did n’t regularly examine all of the bills that came through his desk. However, Steinglass countered that there was a substantial amount of corroborating evidence beyond Cohen’s testimony.
” They want to make this case about Michael Cohen”, Steinglass said. ” This case is about Donald Trump and whether he should be held accountable for making false entries in his own business records and whether he used those entries to cover up his own election violations.”
The outcome will stoke new tension in the White House race, as polls show Trump and President Joe Biden are at odds with one another. Robert De Niro, an actor who spoke on behalf of the Biden campaign outside of court, blasted Trump as a” clown” intent on destroying the nation. De Niro’s unexpected press conference—amid a noisy backdrop of pro- Trump protesters and car alarms—appeared aimed at countering Trump’s dominance of TV news channels.
Trump also faces charges in separate cases, including allegations of mishandling classified documents and attempts to overthrow the 2020 election, as the first former or sitting president to be charged with criminal indictment. The hush money case, which features Daniels and Cohen’s riveting testimony and more than 20 witnesses, is likely the only one to go on trial before the election day.
If convicted, Trump faces up to four years in prison on each of 34 counts, but as a first- time offender, he is unlikely to receive jail time. He would n’t be able to cast a ballot in November or re-enter the White House if convicted.
Trump opted not to testify in his defense, instead launching daily rants against” corrupt” judge Juan Merchan, alleging that the trial was a plot by the Democratic Party to keep him off the campaign trail. The jury must reach a unanimous verdict, otherwise, a single holdout could lead to a mistrial.
