NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s secret trial is heading into the final stretch, with prosecutors’ final and star witness back on the stand Monday for more questioning before the former president’s lawyers have a chance to testify. present a case.
The historic trial will begin in Manhattan with more defense cross-examination of Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, whose pivotal testimony last week directly linked Trump to the alleged hush-money scheme. He is the prosecution’s final witness, and it remains unclear whether Trump’s lawyers will call any witnesses, much less the presumptive Republican presidential nominee himself.
Defense lawyers have already questioned Cohen for hours about his criminal history and past lies to portray him as a serial fabulist who is on a revenge campaign aimed at bringing down Trump.
After more than four weeks of testimony about sex, money, tabloid machinations and the details of Trump’s company record-keeping, jurors could begin deliberating as soon as this week to decide whether Trump is guilty of 34 felony counts of forgery. business records in the first criminal trial. of a former US president.
The charges stem from internal Trump Organization records, where payments to Cohen were marked as legal expenses when prosecutors say they were actually reimbursements for a secret $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Trump has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers say there was nothing criminal about the deal with Daniels or the way Cohen was paid.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is expected to rest the case once Cohen leaves the stand, but prosecutors would have the opportunity to call rebuttal witnesses if Trump’s lawyers named their own witnesses.
The judge told the lawyers to be prepared for closing arguments on Tuesday, although the timing depends on the defense calling a witness, which it is not obliged to do. Defense lawyers said they have not yet decided whether Trump will testify.
Defense lawyers are generally reluctant to put their clients on the witness stand and subject them to intense cross-examination by prosecutors, as this often does more harm than good.
Cohen is prosecutors’ most important witness, but he is also vulnerable to attack.
The now-disbarred lawyer admitted on the witness stand that he previously lied under oath and other falsehoods, many of which he claims were intended to protect Trump. Cohen served prison time after pleading guilty to several federal charges, including lying to Congress and a bank and engaging in campaign finance violations related to the hush money scheme.
And he earned millions of dollars from critical books about the former president, whom he regularly criticizes on social media in often profane terms.
Cohen told jurors that Trump was intimately involved in the scheme to bribe Daniels to prevent her from going public at the end of his 2016 presidential campaign with allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Trump says nothing sexual happened between them .
Cohen told jurors about meetings and conversations with Trump, including one in 2017 in which Cohen says he, Trump and then-Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg discussed how Cohen would recoup his outlay on Daniels’ payment and how the reimbursement would be billed as “legal services.”
Known for his explosive temper, Cohen remained largely calm on the witness stand despite sometimes heated cross-examination from the defense about his own crimes and the allegations in the case.
A key moment came Thursday, when defense attorney Todd Blanche accused Cohen of lying about the purpose of a phone call to Trump’s bodyguard days before Cohen wired $130,000 to Daniels’ lawyer.
Cohen told jurors he spoke with Trump on that call about the hush payment. Blanche confronted Cohen with text messages to argue that Cohen was actually talking to Trump’s bodyguard about harassing calls from a teenage prankster.
“That was a lie. You didn’t talk to President Trump that night… Can you admit it?” Blanche asked.
“No, sir, I can’t,” Cohen responded, saying he believes he also spoke to Trump about the Daniels deal.
Trump’s lawyers said they may call Bradley A. Smith, a Republican law professor who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton to the Federal Election Commission, to refute the prosecution’s claim that the hush money payments amounted to violations. of campaign financing.
Judge Juan M. Merchan limited what Smith can address, however, and the defense may decide not to call him after all.
Barriers often exist around expert testimony in legal matters, on the basis that it is up to the judge—and not an expert hired by one side or the other—to instruct jurors about the laws applicable in a case.
Merchan ruled that Smith can provide general information about the FEC, the laws it enforces and the definitions of terms like “campaign contribution.” But he cannot interpret how federal campaign finance laws apply to the facts of Trump’s case or opine on whether the former president’s alleged actions violate those laws.
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Richer reported from Washington.
