Justice #Merchan is back on the bench. He asks the attys, “Where do we stand?”
Prosecutor #Steinglass says that while they have “made a lot of progress,” they need his help to sort out which portions of the #transcript should be read back to the #jury.
Jurors asked for 4 portions — 3 from #Pecker’s testimony & 1 from #MichaelCohen.
Defense & prosecution aren’t agreeing on Pecker's #TrumpTowerMeeting testimony.
Steinglass: "We disagree about where it ends."
#Steinglass says that soon it will be time to deliberate and that the jurors should return & find #Trump guilty on all 34 counts against him. He asks that, in the interest of #justice & the state of #NewYork, the jurors find Trump guilty. He thanks the jurors for their time & he’s done.
#ClosingArguments have ended in the first #criminal trial of an American president.
Tomorrow, the jury will receive instructions on the #law from the judge, & then begin their deliberations.
#Steinglass says that the evidence is overwhelming & that while #Trump is a former president, the #law applies to him the same as it does to everyone else.
Specifically, Steinglass invokes Trump’s infamous line about being able to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue & get away with it, saying that he in fact can’t. Blanche objects, & Merchan sustains it.
Trump shakes his head as Steinglass says this line.
#Steinglass says that #Trump’s #intent to #defraud could not be any clearer, arguing that Trump could have simply paid #StormyDaniels himself, but instead devised an elaborate scheme to pay Daniels secretly that required the involvement of at least 10 other people. “Everything Mr. Trump & his cohorts did in this case was cloaked in lies,” Steinglass says, adding, “The name of the game was concealment, & all roads lead to the man who benefited the most, Donald Trump.”
#Steinglass again shows the jury People’s Exhibit 350, a chart created by the prosecutors that summarizes the 34 counts. Earlier, Steinglass specifically called out this exhibit & told the jury that they could request to see this document during their deliberations. It will be interesting to see if they take him up on that when they start to deliberate tomorrow.
Steinglass says the prosecution presented a “mountain of evidence” related to its theory of the #Trump Tower #conspiracy.
#Steinglass tells the jurors that thejudge will explain reasonable doubt to them and & them to listen carefully. He reminds them of the concept of #AccessorialLiability: That a person who directs someone to commit a #crime is equally guilty of that crime. Steinglass brings up his preferred analogy for this, the husband who hires a hitman to kill his wife. The defense objects & the judge sustains it: It is his role to explain the #law, not Steinglass’s.
#Steinglass says that #MichaelCohen just wanted to be reimbursed & had no reason to push for creating false business records. “The defendant was the beneficiary of this entire scheme,” Steinglass says. “He was the one trying to get elected.”
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Steinglass offers 3 rebuttals of the defense’s argument that #MichaelCohen acted on
his own, without Trump’s knowledge.
1. #Trump was a micromanager who was directly involved w/the details both of his business and his political campaign.
2. Cohen was & is a self-promoter & it “defies all common sense” that he’d undertake these extensive efforts on behalf of Trump & keep it to himself.
3. Trump was the only one who would have benefitted from the scheme.
#Steinglass makes a specific argument — that #MichaelCohen wasn’t just freelancing, as the #Trump lawyers have suggested repeatedly trying to distance Trump from the events in the case. It’s a microcosm of scenarios we’ve seen over & over w/Trump for decades.
#SEC investigators are told that staffers made mistakes, or reporters are told Trump was never really involved in specific controversies & aides actually had.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Steinglass reviews the case for what may be the final time, starting w/the #Trump Tower meeting. So this is an abridged version of his already abridged timeline, reducing the case down to its key elements.
Steinglass presents the very many moments at which Trump spoke to key players in this series of events around the #StormyDaniels payment.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Steinglass began prosecution’s closing arguments at around 2:07 PM ET.
Steinglass takes jurors through Trump’s own words in 2018, when he described the payments to #MichaelCohen as “reimbursements.”
Steinglass displays a tweet from #Trump, but he also said it in a #FoxNews interview that summer.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Steinglass highlights other key testimony, including #HopeHicks's remarks that it would have been “out of character” for #MichaelCohen to have made that payment out of the kindness of his heart — meaning, without approval from #Trump.
Steinglass is linking Trump to each & every action that prosecutors say led to the #crime, the falsification of 34 business records related to the #HushMoney payment to #StormyDaniels.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Steinglass says there’s no reason to believe that #MichaelCohen didn’t alert #Trump to #StormyDaniels’s story in early Oct 2016.
He reviews the evidence from that month that corroborates Cohen’s testimony, including his calls w/Trump.
Steinglass rhetorically asks, “Is this timing just all a coincidence, every single one of these things?” Then says, “Mr. Trump is being kept abreast of every development.”
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
#Steinglass, who had stuck to a chronological timeline, goes back to 2016 to connect #Trump to each element that prosecutors say is a #crime. He argues that David #Pecker corroborated the idea that #MichaelCohen had kept Trump up to date on the #HushMoney payments at every step. Cohen, Steinglass says, “is not some rogue actor here.”
Steinglass talks about the infamous tape of Trump & Micahel Cohen discussing the payment to #KarenMcDougal.
Break over. Justice #Merchan thanks the jurors for their flexibility & calls #Steinglass back to the lectern. Before they returned, the judge told Steinglass that he needed to wrap up — at least for the day — by 8PM (wuh?). If he does not conclude by then, it sounded as if it was possible that Steinglass would have to conclude tomorrow.
Wonder how the #NodFarter aka #Trump will hold up…
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
With the jury out of the room, the prosecution & defense argue about whether #Steinglass can talk about #StormyDaniels’s state of mind.
Justice #Merchan hears the lawyers out & sides w/the defense, telling Steinglass that he’s gone as far as he needs to go in talking about Daniels being #intimidated by Trump, & that no further argument to that effect need be made.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Steinglass: “Ask yourselves, why did the defendant lie about this & why did he do it while the grand jury was considering charges in this case?”
Steinglass asks why, if #Trump simply had a business relationship w/ #StormyDaniels, he attacked her in March 2023 when she made public that she had appeared before the grand jury.
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#Steinglass continues the argument on #WitnessIntimidation, noting that #Trump attacked #StormyDaniels on social media the same day she had an interview w/the Manhattan DA’s office. Steinglass argues that the post contains a lie — in it, Trump said that he hadn’t seen or spoken to Daniels since meeting her on a golf course in 2006.
Steinglass says that the jury knows it to be a lie because #RhonaGraff, Trump’s loyal asst, testified that Daniels had met w/Trump at Trump Tower.
#Steinglass again reads passages of obe of Trump’s books, in which he wrote that he can’t stomach disloyalty. Steinglass argues that #Trump disparages #witnesses who speak out against him in order to discourage other witnesses from coming forward.
Steinglass reads a Truth Social post of Trump’s from Aug 2023, in which he wrote in all capital letters: “if you go after me, I”m coming after you.”
#criminal #law #TrumpTrial #WitnessIntimidation #StochasticTerrorism #MobTactics
#Steinglass moves to #MichaelCohen’s guilty plea to federal crimes. When #Hoffinger questioned Cohen about the pleas, she asked if he’d committed #crimes at Trump’s behest. Cohen said that he had.
Steinglass reads portions of that testimony aloud, before pivoting to #Trump’s tweets blasting Cohen right after he pleaded guilty.
Steinglass argues the tweets were a message to other witnesses. “Cooperate, & you will face the wrath of Donald Trump.”
