Trump trial live updates: Prosecutors and defense lawyers are poised to make final pitch to jury – WABC-TV
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The New York trial of Donald Trump marks the first time a former U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges
NEW YORK (WABC) — The testimony in Donald Trump's New York hush money trial is all wrapped up after more than four weeks and nearly two dozen witnesses, meaning the case heads into the pivotal final stretch of closing arguments, jury deliberations, and possibly a verdict.
It's impossible to say how long all of that will take, but in a landmark trial that's already featured its fair share of memorable moments, this week could easily be the most important.
Here's a brief look at what every witness said on the stand during Donald Trump's hush money trial
What are the potential outcomes of Trump's hush money trial?
Key players in the Trump trial
More coverage from ABC News
Information from Eyewitness News, ABC News and the Associated Press
Donald Trump's campaign staffers held their own news conference outside the courthouse Tuesday morning in the exact same spot where actor Robert De Niro and Jan. 6 officers had just spoken on behalf of Joe Biden's campaign.
Jason Miller, Trump's senior campaign advisor, called De Niro "a washed-up actor," and said the news conference showed that the hush money trial was political.
"After months of saying politics had nothing to do with this trial, they showed up and made a campaign event out of a lower Manhattan trial day for President Trump," Miller said.
Karoline Leavitt, the campaign press secretary, called the Biden campaign "desperate and failing" and "pathetic" and said their event outside the trial was "a full-blown concession that this trial is a witch hunt that comes from the top."
Biden campaign deploys actor Robert De Niro, Jan. 6 first responders near Trump's trial
Joe Biden's campaign sent actor Robert De Niro and two law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to an area in lower Manhattan not far from the criminal court where Donald Trump's hush money trial is happening.
Speaking while the former president was stuck in court, De Niro said Trump wants to "destroy not only the city but the country and eventually he could destroy the world."
As he spoke, Trump protesters screamed anti-Biden chants.
After arguing earlier Tuesday that Donald Trump may not have been fully aware of all his invoices, defense lawyer Todd Blanche stressed to jurors that the former president was a stickler about watching his finances.
Michael Cohen received $420,000 in all from Trump in 2017, a sum that the ex-lawyer and prosecutors in the former president's hush money case have said included the $130,000 reimbursement related to Stormy Daniels, a $50,000 repayment for an unrelated expense and a $60,000 bonus. On top of that, prosecutors have said, there was extra money to cover taxes that would be due on the $130,000 as income – taxes that wouldn't apply if it had simply been paid as a business expense reimbursement.
"That is absurd," Blanche told jurors, pointing to "all the other evidence you heard about how carefully President Trump watches his finances."
Joe Biden's campaign announced on Tuesday that it would hold an event with "special guests" as closing arguments in Donald Trump's hush money trial are underway.
Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the former president's allies will respond with their own event immediately following Biden's.
He posted on the social platform X that Biden's allies "aren't in PA, MI, WI, NV, AZ or GA – they're outside the Biden Trial against President Trump," adding: "It's always been about politics."
Insisting that prosecutors haven't proven their case, defense lawyer Todd Blanche told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday morning that they "should want and expect more" than key prosecution witness Michael Cohen's testimony, or that of a Trump Organization employee accounts payable staffer talking about how she processed invoices, or the testimony given by Stormy Daniels' former lawyer Keith Davidson.
Blanche argued that Davidson "was really just trying to extort money from President Trump" in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
"The consequences of the lack of proof that you all heard over the past five weeks is simple: is a not guilty verdict, period," Blanche said.
Blanche further laid into Cohen and his testimony, telling jurors he'll come up repeatedly throughout the defense's summation.
"You're going to hear me talk a lot about Michael Cohen, and for good reason. You can not convict President Trump, you can not convict President Trump of any crime beyond a reasonable doubt on the word of Michael Cohen," Blanche said. Cohen "told you a number of things that were lies, pure and simple," the lawyer added.
Closing arguments in Donald Trump's historic hush money trial began Tuesday morning in a Manhattan courtroom, giving prosecutors and defense attorneys one final opportunity to convince the jury of their respective cases before deliberations begin.
Jurors will undertake the unprecedented task of deciding whether to convict the former U.S. president of felony criminal charges stemming from hush money payments tied to an alleged scheme to buy and bury stories that might wreck Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
At the heart of the charges are reimbursements paid to Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment that was given to porn actor Stormy Daniels in exchange for not going public with her claim about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.
Prosecutors say the payments to Cohen, Trump's then-lawyer, were falsely logged as "legal expenses" to hide the true nature of the transactions.
After 22 witnesses, including a porn actor, tabloid publisher and White House insiders, testimony is over at Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York.
Prosecutors called 20 witnesses. The defense called just two. Trump decided not to testify on his own behalf.
The trial now shifts to closing arguments, scheduled for Tuesday.
After that, it will be up to 12 jurors to decide whether prosecutors have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified his company's business records as part of a broader effort to keep stories about marital infidelity from becoming public during his 2016 presidential campaign. He has pleaded not guilty and denies any wrongdoing.
A conviction could come down to how the jurors interpret the testimony and which witnesses they find credible. The jury must be unanimous. The records involved include 11 checks sent to Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, as well as invoices and company ledger entries related to those payments.
A critical moment will take place, perhaps Wednesday morning, before the jury begins its deliberations.
Judge Juan M. Merchan is expected to spend about an hour instructing the jury on the law governing the case, providing a roadmap for what it can and cannot take into account as it evaluates the Republican former president's guilt or innocence.
In an indication of just how important those instructions are, prosecutors and defense lawyers had a spirited debate last week outside the jury's presence as they sought to persuade Merchan about the instructions he should give.
The Trump team, for instance, sought an instruction informing jurors that the types of hush money payments at issue in Trump's case are not inherently illegal, a request a prosecutor called "totally inappropriate." Merchan said such an instruction would go too far and is unnecessary.
Trump's team also asked Merchan to consider the "extraordinarily important" nature of the case when issuing his instructions and to urge jurors to reach "very specific findings." Prosecutors objected to that as well, and Merchan agreed that it would be wrong to deviate from the standard instructions.
"When you say it's a very important case, you're asking me to change the law, and I'm not going to do that," Merchan said.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, requested an instruction that someone's status as a candidate doesn't need to be the sole motivation for making a payment that benefits the campaign. Defense lawyers asked for jurors to be told that if a payment would have been made even if the person wasn't running, it shouldn't be treated as a campaign contribution.
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