After eight hours of closing arguments, six weeks and more than twenty witnesses, former President Trump's trial in New York wraps up with closing arguments.
In a marathon court session, a Manhattan jury on Tuesday heard a prosecutor sum up the reasons why former President Donald Trump should be convicted of falsifying business records to disguise a hush money payment during his 2016 election campaign to an adult film star Stormy Daniels to preclude her from telling her story about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump – and a Trump defense attorney debunk the whole case.
Earlier, in a three-hour turn at the podium, lead defense attorney Todd Blanche told the jury, “President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes, and the District Attorney has not met the burden of proof. Period.” Steinglass told the jury, “Stormy Daniels is the motive, and you can bet that Donald Trump would not pay someone $130,000 -- $260,000 after it was grossed up for taxes – just because he took a photo with someone on a golf course” in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Blanche quarreled with the criminal portrayal of the Trump Organization business records, most of all, rejecting the idea that Cohen was not performing valid, billable legal work for Trump in 2017 that justified his dozen $35,000 monthly checks totaling $420,000.Stormy Daniels' husband: 'good chance' they'll leave US if Trump is acquitted
Steinglass rejected that argument. “There is no retainer. No oral retainer. No written retainer,” the prosecutor told the jury. “These payments had nothing to do with a retainer agreement and nothing to with services rendered in 2017.” “The invoices were not generated by anybody in the Trump Organization. They were generated by Michael Cohen,” Blanche said. “All of that ends the case. Not guilty.”
“There’s no evidence that President Trump knew anything about this voucher system,” Blanche said. “You can’t convict President Trump because sometimes without being specific at all, President Trump looked at invoices that somehow he had full knowledge of what was happening. That is a stretch, and that is reasonable doubt, ladies and gentleman."
Steinglass noted Trump signed the checks without ever calling Cohen or Weisselberg to explain the $35,000. “Despite his frugality and his attention to details, the defendant doesn’t ask any questions, because he already knows the answers,” the prosecutor told the jury. “This scheme cooked up by these men at this time could very well be what got President Trump elected,” Steinglass told the jury. "Once AMI purchased stories on the candidate's behalf, those purchases became unlawful campaign contributions."
As for publishing positive stories about Trump and negative stories about his rivals, Blanche said, “This is a campaign. This is an election. This is not a crime.” The defense attorney disputed a minute-and-half call on October 24, 2016, two days before the Daniels deal was signed, to the cell phone of Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller, who was traveling with Trump in Tampa, Florida.Cohen says Trump saw Stormy Daniels story as 'total disaster' for 2016 campaign
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