Former United States President Donald Trump will not testify at his trial for hidden payments to an adult film actress, where the examination of the case concluded on Tuesday, paving the way for the jury’s deliberations next week, before a historic verdict.
Unanimity or nothing
The judge will then entrust the twelve New York citizens who have religiously followed the trial since April 22 with the heavy task of deciding whether Donald Trump is guilty, beyond all reasonable doubt, of 34 accounting falsifications linked to the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, to avoid a possible sex scandal at the very end of the 2016 presidential campaign.
This payment was intended to buy her silence about a sexual relationship that the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims to have had with Donald Trump in 2006, when he was already married to his wife Melania. Donald Trump denies this relationship.
To find him guilty, the unanimity of the jurors will be required.
For more than four weeks, the jury saw the main players in the case parade. Stormy Daniels told them in detail about the memory she has of her sexual relationship with the Republican billionaire, an act according to her that was consensual but where the “balance of power” was “unbalanced”, and explained the reasons which led to it. had pushed to “sell” his story. Then, Donald Trump’s former confidant, now his sworn enemy, Michael Cohen, incriminated his former boss, ensuring that he had approved the payment to the actress.
Disguised expenses
Michael Cohen took care of it personally, before, according to him, Donald Trump validated his reimbursement once in the White House. It is this reimbursement which is at the heart of the accusation, because the expenses were disguised as “legal costs” in the accounts of the Trump family business group, the Trump Organization, to hide, according to the accusation, that they had made it possible to avoid a sex scandal in the middle of the presidential campaign.
Donald Trump is being prosecuted for accounting falsifications, but prosecutors have sought to demonstrate that this cover-up was intended to “corrupt” the 2016 presidential election, won by the Republican narrowly against Hillary Clinton.
“Everyone says that there is no crime (…) All the experts say that there is no crime and that I did nothing wrong,” reiterated for his part The former president of the United States, the first in history to appear in a criminal trial, arrives in court Tuesday.
Donald Trump had assured, before the trial, that he would testify in the courtroom. But his lawyers called only two other witnesses, meaning he was giving up. That’s what many observers predicted, noting that he faced the risk of merciless cross-examination by prosecutors.
A conviction would have the effect of a political earthquake for the Republican candidate, 77, even if he could still run on November 5.
Trump lawyer severely reprimanded
The defense did everything to discredit the main witnesses, starting with Michael Cohen, accuser number one whose impression left on the jurors will be crucial.
During a cross-examination which stretched over three days, Donald Trump’s lawyers spared nothing from the man who described himself as the man of the former president’s bad tricks, capable of ” lie” and “intimidate” on his behalf, but whose versions have varied and who has already been convicted of lying under oath before the American Congress.
This work continued Tuesday with the second and final defense witness, lawyer Robert Costello, who questioned Michael Cohen’s version. But this witness especially marked the hearing by making Judge Juan Merchan, usually imperturbable, come off his hinges. Speaking in a familiar and theatrical manner, not masking his exasperation at the magistrate’s interventions, Robert Costello was severely reprimanded and called to order, the judge even evacuating the room to explain himself to him.
