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In his closing statement, Trump's lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, tried to paint Michael Cohen, a key witness, as a liar and perjurer and the prosecution's case as failing to meet the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Steinglass said the tape eclipsed coverage of a Category 4 hurricane, according to Hope Hicks; debate prep at Trump Tower was disrupted as campaign leadership discussed how to respond; and elected Republicans raced to disavow Trump's comments on the tape, with some withdrawing their endorsements. "This call makes it impossible for the defense to claim that Cohen was acting on his own here," Steinglass said.
Steinglass characterized a meeting at Trump Tower almost a decade ago as a “subversion of democracy.” The prosecutor told the jury that Judge Merchan will say Cohen is an accomplice because he participated in these crimes, but you cannot convict Trump on Cohen’s word alone — unless there is corroborating evidence.
Cohen's top quality was loyalty to his former boss, Steinglass said. Cohen was"drawn to the defendant like a moth to a flame, and he wasn't the only one. David Pecker saw Mr. Trump as a mentor; Mr. Trump saw David Pecker as a useful tool."Steinglass is explaining that Cohen had lied at Trump’s direction and that Trump was now using those lies to harm Cohen’s credibility in the trial.
It will be important to watch for Steinglass to argue at some point that no one is above the law, even the former president of the United States -- something we’ve seen other state and federal prosecutors say about Trump over the last year.Steinglass zeroed in on an example of what the prosecution considers an inconsistency in the defense team's case.
“If her testimony were so irrelevant, why did they work so hard to discredit her?” he added. “In the simplest terms, Stormy Daniels is the motive.”Steinglass displayed quotes from one of the state's exhibits: a phone call in which Cohen — well before he started cooperating with prosecutors — tells Davidson that Trump hates the fact that his team settled with Daniels.
The call summaries were made to help guide you, the prosecutor explained to the jury. The phone records are all in evidence and you can look through them at your leisure, he added. Eric went on to say that the district attorney's office is ignoring crimes across the city and using the trial to attack Trump."They're sitting there, they're laughing, they're giggling," Eric said."This was their moment. This is how they embarrass Donald Trump.""This is a case about politics, pure and simple," she said.
“If you focus just on the evidence you heard in this courtroom, this is a very very quick and easy not guilty verdict. Thank you,” he said.“The Twin Towers fell just over here, just over there. This part of the city was like a ghost town, but we vowed we would not allow terrorists to change our way of life. ... I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city, but the country, and eventually he can destroy the world,” De Niro said.
To support his “no unlawful means” argument, Blanche said there is no proof Trump ever knew, for example, about certain paperwork Michael Cohen submitted to his bank or paperwork prepared to transfer Karen McDougal’s life rights from AMI to Trump. Blanche said, however, that there are recordings that show that's not true. He said Michael Avenatti, Gina Rodriguez and Daniels were lying about these threats.Blanche questions why no one in the campaign did anything about Stormy Daniels in April 2016 when her manager reached out about it.
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the campaign, called the Biden campaign's decision to have Robert De Niro — whom he called a"washed-up actor" — speak today as a way to"try to change the subject" from Biden's"falling" poll numbers. However, Blanche and Trump's other lawyers never entered any evidence backing up that claim — and Pecker during his testimony did not dispute that the lunch happened.On one hand, he has characterized David Pecker as a “truth teller” and someone who, because of Pecker's immunity deal with the Manhattan DA, had no incentive to lie.
Dunn went on to say that Trump is"the greatest threat to our democracy and to the safety of communities across the country today." At the end of De Niro's remarks, a Trump supporter in the crowd called the two former police officers standing with De Niro — both present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 —"traitors."
The exact language of the charges against Trump in this case accuse the former president of breaking various laws with the"intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof."Biden campaign members have arrived outside the courthouse with actor Robert De Niro and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who was attacked in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“The burden is always on the government, they make decisions about who to call," Blanche said, adding, “They did not call Don or Eric.”Blanche tells the jury to be wary if the prosecution starts reading from an old Trump book to help prove how involved the former president was in his company’s accounting system.
The news conference is set to include the campaign team and"special guests," although the news release didn't say who they would be.Trump lawyer Todd Blanche argued that the invoices weren't false and there was no intent to defraud — and that if the jurors are so convinced, they don't have to go further.
“Were those bookings done with an intent to defraud? That’s why you’re here. And the answer to that — to those questions is absolutely positively not," Blanche said. "You are the finders of fact, and it is for you and for you alone to determine the facts from the evidence," the judge told the jury. The staff members are seated in the jury box in the overflow room -- an area we have not seen used before for seating.Shortly before heading into the courtroom for closing arguments, Trump repeated his claims that he was forced to attend courtroom proceedings in the hush money trial because of President Joe Biden, without providing evidence.
Regardless of the outcome, top Biden campaign officials plan to stress to voters that Trump will be on the ballot in the fall and that no potential court proceeding will change that fact. Also in attendance will be Trump's longtime friend Steve Witkoff, a real-estate investor who testified as a defense expert in Trump’s, Will Scharf, a lawyer for Trump who is running for attorney general in Missouri against Republican incumbent Andrew Bailey, and Deroy Murdock, a contributing editor for National Review Online.
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