Last day of the criminal trial | Two visions of Trump for a jury

(New York) Innocent victim of extortion committed by a pornographic actress and her lawyer or presidential candidate involved in a criminal conspiracy that may have played a role in the outcome of the 2016 presidential election?

The two parties to the trial of Donald Trump in New York presented to the jurors on Tuesday these opposing visions of the defendant, again a candidate for president in 2024, during their final arguments, which lasted eight long hours.

They also devoted long moments to attacking or rehabilitating the credibility of Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness, who incriminated Donald Trump for his alleged role in the falsification of commercial documents at the heart of the trial. According to the lawsuit, this falsification was intended to pass off as legal fees the reimbursement of a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence before the 2016 election about the sexual relationship she claims to have had with Donald Trump in 2006.

“The defendant didn’t actually pay a lawyer, he paid a porn star by funneling money through a lawyer,” New York prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said during a five-hour closing argument. which ended in the evening.

“Of course, we will never know if this effort to deceive the American voter had any impact on the election, but that is not something we need to prove,” he added.

Made up of seven men and five women, including two lawyers, the jury will begin its deliberations on Wednesday after receiving instructions from Judge Juan Merchan. If found guilty of all 34 charges against him, the defendant will face a maximum prison term of four years.

Three of Donald Trump’s children – Donald Jr., Eric and Tiffany – as well as Lara, his daughter-in-law, married to Eric, attended these pleadings which could have a major impact on his personal life and his political career.

Cohen “lied to you”

To avoid a guilty verdict, Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s lead lawyer, increased efforts to sow reasonable doubt among the jurors during a closing argument lasting nearly three hours. In particular, he asked them not to give any credence to the testimony of Michael Cohen.

“He lied to you repeatedly. He lied many, many times before you even met him. He is biased and motivated to tell you a story that is not true. He is literally the biggest liar ever,” he said.

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“You can’t send someone to prison, you can’t convict someone based on what Michael Cohen said,” he said, calling on jurors to deliver a “very quick” acquittal. and easy.”

In the absence of jurors, Judge Merchan called Todd Blanche’s suggestion of a prison sentence scandalous and highly inappropriate. When the jurors returned, he explained that the responsibility for imposing a sentence on a convicted person rested with the judge and not the jurors.

Todd Blanche attacked several aspects of the evidence presented by the prosecution. He repeated that Donald Trump denied having a sexual relationship with Stormy Daniels. According to her, the latter simply took advantage of the circumstances to engage in extortion at the expense of her client.

“What really happened here was there was a group of people who wanted to take advantage of a situation and ultimately extort money from President Trump,” he said. People like M^me Daniels and [son avocat] Mr. Davidson. »

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He called the idea that Donald Trump knew about a plan by his company’s former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, to repay the $130,000 paid by Michel Cohen to Stormy Daniels 11 “absurd.” days before the 2016 election. According to Michael Cohen, Donald Trump approved this plan in January 2017.

After denying the existence of “the slightest evidence” of Donald Trump’s responsibility in the falsification of commercial documents, Todd Blanche asked the jurors to ignore the alleged role of his client in the conspiracy involving Michael Cohen and the boss of the National Enquirer, David Pecker. According to the lawsuit, this conspiracy aimed, among other things, to buy and bury stories that could harm the Republican candidate before the 2016 presidential election.

Todd Blanche ended his closing argument by giving jurors a list of 10 reasons to acquit Donald Trump. Reason number 10: “Cohen is the embodiment of reasonable doubt. »

Checks signed by Trump

During the first hour of his argument, Joshua Steinglass defended his star witness by explaining to jurors that Todd Blanche had condemned him “for the same qualities” that pushed Donald Trump to use his services.

“We did not choose Michael Cohen as a witness. We didn’t go and pick it up at the witness store. The defendant chose Michael Cohen as his matchmaker because he was willing to lie and cheat on his behalf,” he said.

The New York prosecutor also refuted the idea that Stormy Daniels tried to extort money from Donald Trump. He argued that negotiations for the sale of the porn star’s story took place with a representative of American Media Group, Inc. (AMI), parent company of the National Enquirerand not with Michael Cohen or Donald Trump.

“Make no mistake, AMI is involved in this. AMI acts as the eyes and ears of the campaign, as does [David] Pecker told Mr. Trump he would do it,” Joshua Steinglass said.

The prosecutor was referring to this August 2015 meeting between David Pecker, Michael Cohen and Donald Trump at Trump Tower, where the three hatched this plot that led to payments to three people before the 2016 presidential election – Dino Sajudin , former Trump Tower doorman, Karen McDougal, magazine playmate Playboyand Stormy Daniels.

The prosecutor devoted a good part of his argument to the falsification of commercial documents at the heart of the trial. These include 11 checks, 11 false invoices and 12 false accounting entries.

Joshua Steinglass rejected the argument made by Donald Trump’s lawyer that the latter was too busy to be aware of the precise reasons why he signed nine of those checks.

To support his own argument, he cited this passage from one of Donald Trump’s books: “When you sign a check yourself, you see what’s really happening in your business, and if people see your signature at the bottom of the check, they know you’re watching them, and they rip you off less because they have proof that you care about the details. »

Joshua Steinglass also described as “devastating” the testimony of Hope Hicks, former press secretary to Donald Trump, who shed tears on the stand after recounting what the former president had said to her after the publication of a article from Wall Street Journal on January 12, 2018 on the payment of Stormy Daniels.

“I think Mr. Trump’s view was that it was better to handle this now, and it would have been bad for this story to come out before the election,” Hope Hicks said.

Falsifying business records is a minor offense that can become a felony if it is used to conceal another crime, in this case violating a New York election law, a federal campaign finance law or a tax law.

“The name of the game was cover-up, and all roads lead inevitably to the man who benefited the most, the accused, former President Donald J. Trump,” Joshua Steinglass said at the end of his closing argument. .