NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s hush money lawsuit The Supreme Court is due to begin deliberations on Wednesday after receiving instructions from the justices on the law and factors it will consider in ruling on the first criminal case against a former US president.
“It’s not my responsibility to judge the evidence here. That’s your responsibility,” Judge Juan M. Marchan told the jury.
The deliberation Marathon day of closing arguments Manhattan prosecutors say Trump used Hush money scheme This was to stifle embarrassing stories that he feared would undermine his campaign.
“The game was about coverup, and all roads inescapably led to the person who benefited most: the defendant, former President Donald Trump,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told jurors.
Associated Press reporter Julie Walker reports that jurors in President Trump’s hush money case will begin deliberations today after hearing the judge’s instructions.
In contrast, Trump’s lawyers have declared their client innocent of all charges, urged the jury for a blanket acquittal and denounced the prosecution’s key witness as “the biggest liar in history.”
The defense arguments, which have differing sharply on assessments of witness credibility, Trump’s responsibility and the strength of the evidence, have given both sides a final chance to score points with a jury preparing to begin the monumental and historically unprecedented task of deciding whether to convict the presumptive Republican presidential nominee ahead of the November election.
Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. It is unclear whether prosecutors will seek prison time or whether a judge will impose a prison sentence if he is convicted.
The jury can choose to find Trump guilty of all charges, acquit him of all charges, or reach a mixed verdict that finds him guilty of some charges and not guilty of others. If they cannot reach a unanimous verdict after several days of deliberations, Judge Marchan can declare a mistrial.
To convict Trump, jurors must find beyond a reasonable doubt that he falsified business records or caused false statements to be made and did so with the intent to deceive. Intent to commit or conceal another crime.
Former President Donald Trump returns from a recess in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Nickinson, Pool)
By law, if prosecutors fail to prove one or both of those elements, they must acquit Trump. Prosecutors allege that Trump falsified business records to conceal violations of campaign finance laws and state election laws alleging a conspiracy to promote or impede the election.
The trial focused on allegations that Trump and his associates conspired to cover up embarrassing news through hush payments during the 2016 presidential election. Porn actor She claimed she had sex with Trump 10 years ago. His lawyer, Todd Blanche, told the jury that neither actor Stormy Daniels nor Trump’s lawyers who paid her were involved in the allegations. Michael Cohenyou can trust it.
“President Trump is innocent. He committed no crime and the district attorney has not met his burden of proof,” Blanche said.
On Wednesday morning, just hours before the start of proceedings, Trump posted a capital-caps rant on his social media networks about the trial, the judge and Cohen before leaving Trump Tower for the courthouse.
He called it a “camouflage court” and falsely claimed the judge barred him from defending himself by alleging that he acted on the advice of his then-attorney, Cohen. Trump’s legal team notified the court in March that they would not rely on that defense.
“There was no crime except for some vagrant that got caught stealing from me!” Trump said, apparently referring to Cohen, before adding, again in capital letters, “In God We Trust!”
In his closing argument, Steinglass sought to allay any potential concerns jurors might have about the witnesses’ credibility.
The prosecutor acknowledged that Ms. Daniels’ account of the 2006 incident in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite, which Mr. Trump has denied, was “horrifying” at times, but he said the details she described — such as the room’s décor and what she saw when she peered into Mr. Trump’s bathroom equipment — were filled with touchstones that “ringed some truth to it.”
And this story is important because it “strengthens[Trump’s]incentive to buy her silence,” he said.
“Her story is complicated and it’s uncomfortable to hear, and maybe it’s uncomfortable for some of you, but that’s what it’s about,” Steinglass said. He told jurors, “Simply put, Stormy Daniels is the motive.”
This retribution came in 2005. Recording of “Access Hollywood” On the recording, Trump is heard bragging about grabbing women sexually without their consent. If the Daniels story had come to light after the recording, Steinglass said, it would have undermined Trump’s strategy to spin his remarks.
“This is crucial to understand,” Steinglass said. While Trump has denied his words on the tape, calling them “locker room talk,” the prosecutor said he was “negotiating to silence a porn star.”
Blanche, who spoke first, tried to downplay the impact, saying the “Access Hollywood” tape was not a “doomsday event.”
Steinglass also tried to convince jurors that the prosecution’s case was not based solely on Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal intermediary, who paid Daniels $130,000 in hush money. Cohen later pleaded guilty to federal charges for his involvement in the hush money payments.He also served time in prison and was disbarred, but was a key witness at the trial due to his direct involvement in the transactions.
Former US President Donald Trump stands trial on charges of concealing hush money payments in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on May 28, 2024. (Photo by Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
“This is not a question of whether you like Michael Cohen or not. It’s not a question of whether you want to do business with Michael Cohen or not. It’s a question of whether he can provide useful and credible information about what happened in this case, and the truth is that he was in the best position to know it,” Steinglass said.
While the case has featured some sometimes sordid discussions of sex and tabloid-industry practices, the actual charges concern something decidedly less flashy: Trump’s reimbursement of payments to Cohen.
The reimbursements were recorded as legal expenses, but prosecutors say they were a cover to disguise the purpose of the hush-money deals and to illegally interfere in the 2016 election. The defense argues that Cohen was actually performing substantial legal work for Trump and his family.
In her hours-long address to the jury, Blanche harshly denounced the entire foundation of the case.
He said Cohen, not Trump, prepared the invoices submitted to the Trump Organization for repayment, rejecting prosecutors’ caricature of a meticulous executive. He suggested Trump was preoccupied with the presidency, not the checks he signed. He also rejected the idea that the alleged hush-money scheme amounted to election interference.
“Every political campaign in this country is a conspiracy to promote a candidate, a group of people working together to help someone win,” Blanche said.
Predictably, he aimed his most vigorous attacks at Cohen.
Branche called Cohen a “GLOAT,” meaning “the greatest liar of all time,” in a nod to the acronym “GOAT,” which is used primarily in sports, and called him “the embodiment of reasonable doubt.” The term was deliberate, because to convict Trump, jurors must believe the prosecution proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“He has lied to you repeatedly. He has lied to you repeatedly, over and over, since before you even met him. His financial and personal well-being depends on this case. He is biased and is trying to tell you a story that is not true,” Blanche said, referring to Cohen’s relentless and often scathing personal attacks on Trump on social media, as well as the significant income he has made from his books and podcasts about Trump.
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Former President Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press: https://apnews.com/hub/DonaldTrump.
