NEW YORK — Jurors in Donald Trump’s secret trial are expected to begin deliberations on Wednesday after receiving instructions from the judge on the law and factors they can consider as they strive to reach a verdict in the first criminal case against a former US president. .
The deliberations follow a marathon closing argument in which a Manhattan prosecutor accused Trump of trying to “mislead” voters in the 2016 presidential election by participating in a secret money scheme designed to stifle embarrassing stories that he feared would torpedo the your campaign.
“The name of the game was concealment, and all paths inevitably lead to the man who benefited most: the defendant, former President Donald Trump,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told jurors.
Trump’s lawyer, on the contrary, classified the prosecution’s main witness as the “biggest liar of all time”, as he proclaimed his client innocent of all charges and pressured the panel to obtain a widespread acquittal.
The lawyers’ conflicting accounts, wildly divergent in their assessments of the witnesses’ credibility, Trump’s culpability and the strength of the evidence, offered both sides a final opportunity to score points with the jury as it prepares to embark on the historically important unprecedented task of deciding whether to convict the presumptive Republican presidential nominee before the November elections.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, charges punishable by up to four years in prison. He pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. It is unclear whether prosecutors would seek prison if convicted or whether the judge would impose such punishment.
Jurors will have the option to convict Trump on all charges, acquit him of all charges or issue a mixed verdict in which he will be found guilty of some charges and not others. If they reach an impasse after several days of deliberations and are unable to reach a unanimous verdict, Judge Juan M. Merchan may declare a mistrial.
The trial featured allegations that Trump and his allies conspired to hush up potentially embarrassing stories during the 2016 presidential campaign through secret payments, including to a porn star who claimed she and Trump had sex a decade earlier. Her lawyer, Todd Blanche, told jurors that neither actor Stormy Daniels nor the Trump lawyer who paid her, Michael Cohen, can be trusted.
“President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crime and the public prosecutor did not meet the burden of proof, period,” said Blanche.
With just hours until deliberations begin, Trump posted on his social media network Wednesday morning before leaving Trump Tower for the courthouse, giving another all-caps speech about the trial, the judge and Cohen .
He called it the “Kangaroo Court!” and falsely claimed that the judge prohibited him from defending himself, claiming that his alleged actions were taken on the advice of his then-attorney, Cohen. Trump’s lawyers notified the court in March that they would not rely on that defense.
“There was no crime except the bum who got caught stealing from me!” Trump said, apparently referring to Cohen. He added, again in capital letters: “In God we trust!”
Steinglass sought to address jurors’ potential concerns about the credibility of witnesses. Trump, for example, has repeatedly attacked Cohen as a liar.
The prosecutor acknowledged that Daniels’ account of the alleged 2006 meeting in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite, which Trump denied, was at times “newsworthy.” But he said the details she offered — including about the decor and what she said she saw when she snooped around Trump’s hygiene kit — were full of touchstones “that ring true.”
And, he said, the story is important because it “reinforces (Trump’s) incentive to buy her silence.”
“Her story is complicated. This makes people uncomfortable to listen to. Some of you probably feel uncomfortable listening. But that’s the point,” Steinglass said. He told jurors: “In the simplest terms, Stormy Daniels is the reason.”
The payoff unfolded against the backdrop of the release of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording in which Trump could be heard bragging about sexually grabbing women without their permission. If Daniels’ story had emerged after the recording, it would have undermined his strategy. of distorting his words, said Steinglass.
“It’s critical to evaluate this,” Steinglass said. While dismissing his words on the tape as “locker room talk,” Trump “was negotiating to gag a porn star,” the prosecutor said.
Blanche, who spoke first, sought to minimize the consequences by saying that the “Access Hollywood” tape was not an “apocalyptic event.”
Steinglass also tried to reassure jurors that the prosecution’s case did not rest solely on Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal mediator who paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet. Cohen later pleaded guilty to federal charges for his role in the hush money payments as well as lying to Congress. He went to prison and was expelled, but his direct involvement in the transactions made him a key witness at the trial.
“It’s not about you liking Michael Cohen. It’s not about wanting to go into business with Michael Cohen. The question is whether he has useful and reliable information to provide about what happened in this case, and the truth is he was in the best position to know,” Steinglass said.
While the case featured sometimes sordid discussions about sexual practices and the tabloid industry, the real allegations concern something decidedly less flashy: reimbursements that Trump signed off on to Cohen for the payments.
The refunds were recorded as being for legal expenses, which prosecutors say is a fraudulent label designed to conceal the purpose of the secret money transaction and to unlawfully interfere in the 2016 election. Defense lawyers say Cohen actually did legal work substantial for Trump and his family.
In her hour-long speech to the jury, with widespread denials that echoed Trump’s “deny everything” approach, Blanche criticized every foundation of the case.
He said it was Cohen, not Trump, who created the invoices that were submitted to the Trump Organization for reimbursement and rejected the prosecution’s caricature of a detail-oriented manager. Instead, he suggested that Trump was worried about the presidency and not the checks he wrote. And he rejected the idea that the alleged hush money scheme amounted to election interference.
“Every campaign in this country is a conspiracy to promote a candidate, a group of people working together to help someone win,” Blanche said.
As expected, he reserved his most spirited attack for Cohen, with whom he engaged during a lengthy interrogation.
Mimicking the term “GOAT,” used primarily in sports as an acronym for “greatest of all time,” Blanche labeled Cohen a “GLOAT” — the greatest liar of all time — and called Cohen “the human embodiment of self-doubt.” reasonable”. This language was intentional because, to convict Trump, jurors must believe that prosecutors proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“He lied to you repeatedly. He lied many, many times before you even met him. Your financial and personal well-being depends on this case. He is biased and motivated to tell a story that is not true,” Blanche said, a reference to Cohen’s relentless and often vitriolic social media attacks on Trump and the lucrative income he has made from books and podcasts about Trump.
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Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.
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