Trump trial latest: Prosecution 'turns defence lawyer's argument on its head'; Trump's children attack 'sham' case … – Sky News
Prosecutors and defense lawyers in Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial are delivering their closing arguments. The jury could begin deliberating as soon as today to decide whether Trump is guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Wednesday 29 May 2024 12:58, UK
Let’s briefly look at the core arguments of both the defence and prosecution, now that both teams have concluded their closing arguments.
As we saw earlier, the judge stressed the words of the lawyers do not count as evidence in the trial, and told the jury only they could make their minds up based on the evidence.
But below are the summaries from both sides:
Defence
Todd Blanche spent much of his time attempting to discredit the witnesses put forward by the prosecution.
In around two and a half hours, Mr Blanche laid out 10 instances he said should constitute reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors.
In summary, Mr Blanche’s arguments were:
Mr Blanche said the jurors should “expect more” from the witnesses put forward by the people, highlighting several “red flags” – particularly targeting Michael Cohen.
“Michael Cohen is the GLOAT,” he says. “He’s literally the ‘greatest liar of all time’. He has lied to every single branch of Congress. He has lied to the Department of Justice.”
He adds: “You cannot rely on him, all those lies under oath, all those lies, that is reason enough to walk away.
“You cannot send someone to prison based on the words of Michael Cohen.”
That final sentence landed him in a bit of trouble – with Judge Merchan issuing the jury with a curative instruction – a direction to correct an erroneous statement.
Overall, Mr Blanche’s closing statement mirrored much of his work during the trial – emotive and sometimes erratic in direction – but at least partly tied together by the end. It focused on casting reasonable doubt – rather than outright refuting key pieces of evidence.
Prosecution
Joshua Steinglass could not have posed a more contrasting figure with his counterpart.
He took his time – much to the frustration of many inside the courtroom – going through documents in painstaking detail with the jury once again.
He attempted to prove the following:
In his mind, if the people were successful in proving all three, the jury must then find Trump guilty.
For the first, he went through a number of documents, receipts, invoices, cheques and more with the jury – really honing in on the paper trail of the case.
Mr Steinglass turned to several witness testimonies to build a picture of the second – that false records were intended to cover up an election conspiracy.
He spent several minutes explaining why Michael Cohen was a credible witness – before knocking that argument down by pointing out that it doesn’t matter anyway – because other witnesses say the same thing.
“You don’t need Michael Cohen to connect these dots, but as the ultimate insider, he can help you do just that,” he said, before adding he found it “difficult to conceive of a case with more corroboration”.
“This case is not about Michael Cohen. This case is about Donald Trump.”
In order to try and prove that Trump himself was involved, Mr Steinglass carefully navigated his way through various documents and snippets of witness testimony – doing his utmost to discredit the defence’s own lines along the way.
Trump did not make any comments as he left the building after a long day in court.
Over the course of the trial, he has often addressed reporters outside the courtroom, but tonight he simply raised his left fist as he made his way out.
After asking the jury to find Trump guilty “in the interest of justice and in the name of the people of the state of New York”, Joshua Steinglass finishes his closing arguments and the jury is excused.
They’ll be back tomorrow at 3pm UK time (10am local time), when Judge Merchan will give instructions for about an hour – then the jury will begin deliberations.
The plan is to go until 9.30pm tomorrow (4.30pm local time).
Laura Jarrett, senior legal correspondent at our US partner network NBC News, says at least one juror appears to be visibly engaged in Joshua Steinglass’s presentation – offering an “affirming smile”.
“Others, however, appear considerably less focused and can be seen twisting their hair and rubbing their faces,” she says.
As we have reported, the jury is approaching an 11-hour day in court.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass tells the jury the defence wants them to “believe Cohen went rogue”.
He lists three reasons why this is not the case:
NBC’s Lisa Rubin from court:
“Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is recapping now all of the evidence intended to show Trump’s direct involvement in the settlements with Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, beginning with an August 2015 Trump Tower meeting.
“A screen displayed by the prosecution during closing arguments read ‘Mr Trump involved every step of the way’ as Steinglass went through a timeline of events.”
Joshua Steinglass has passed the four-hour mark since he started giving the prosecution’s closing argument.
Mr Steinglass began speaking at about 6.07pm UK time, with several breaks since then.
This should wrap up in little more than half an hour, which would make it an 11-hour day for the jury.
We’re taking a break “for a few minutes”, the judge says.
It’s unclear how much Joshua Steinglass still has to get through.
Judge Merchan earlier said that the plan was to go until at least 7pm New York time (midnight in the UK) and “finish this out if we can”.
Back to Michael Cohen – and Joshua Steinglass is discussing the former lawyer’s guilty pleas, where he came clean about the hush money payments.
“His fixer had done the unthinkable and Trump immediately went on the attack. An attack that continues to this day,” he says.
He shows the jury several tweets made by Trump “strongly recommending” that nobody uses Cohen’s services and other lines from his book on how to get back at someone who “screws you”.
These were not efforts designed only to scare Cohen, but to intimidate other witnesses so they wouldn’t come forward, Steinglass argues.
We turn to Robert Costello, who testified in this trial that he acted exclusively in Michael Cohen’s best interests when discussing representing him after his house was raided by the FBI.
“That was a bold-faced lie,” Joshua Steinglass says, adding “Cohen wasn’t playing Costello, Costello was playing Cohen”.
He’s referencing Costello’s relationship with Donald Trump – which was facilitated by close ties with mutual friend Rudy Giuliani.
NBC’s Lisa Rubin from court:
“Especially given the hour, it’s unclear to me why Steinglass is revisiting the Costello aspect of this story.
“But the slide up now gives a hint of what the DA hopes to accomplish – Trump’s attitude toward Cohen changed only after Cohen’s compliance was in doubt, not because of anything else Cohen did.”
We’re now two hours over when the jury was supposed to be dismissed.
The judge calls a bench meeting to discuss scheduling – before Joshua Steinglass asks jurors: “You guys good to go a little bit longer?”
After receiving some nods, he says: “Alright,” before diving back into his closing argument.
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