1 of 7 | Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Tuesday. Defense lawyers and prosecutors are scheduled to begin their closing arguments in the felony trial of the former president, who is charged with making hush-money trial“>hush-money payments to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016. Pool Photo by Andrew Kelly/UPI | License Photo
May 28 (UPI) — Donald Trump is in court in Manhattan Tuesday as closing arguments in the hush-money trial against him begin.
Attorney Joshua Steinglass delivered the prosecution’s closing argument. He focused on solidifying the testimony of star witnesses Michael Cohen and adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He also emphasized the role the alleged “catch and kill” scheme may have had in the 2016 election.
The stories purchased by Trump for the purpose of stopping them from being published were “unlawful campaign contributions,” according to the attorney.
“It turned out to be one of the most valuable contributions anyone ever made to the Trump campaign,” Steinglass said. “This scheme cooked up by these men at this time could very well be what got President Trump elected.”
Defense attorney Todd Blanche rebuked allegations that the hush-money payments and catch-and-kill scheme were part of an attempt to influence the election. He said payments to Cohen to be given to Daniels were disclosed on a 1099 form. He pushed back on the notion that Trump felt National Enquirer stories would influence the results of the 2016 election.
“The idea that even sophisticated people like President Trump and David Pecker believed that positive stories in the National Enquirer could influence the 2016 election is preposterous,” Blanche said.
Blanche went piece by piece through the testimony of Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, telling the jury that his testimony contained no evidence. His argument, which lasted through most of the morning, sought to attack the credibility of Cohen.
Trump’s defense circled back to its cross examination of Cohen about a phone call he made to Trump on bodyguard Keith Schiller’s phone. Cohen said the call was about authorizing the payment to Daniels. Blanche said the call was about Cohen receiving harassing calls.
“His words cannot be trusted and I’m going to end this summation the same way I told you a few minutes ago that you know you cannot rely on him,” Blanche said of Cohen. “Cohen lies to family, when it matters, when it doesn’t.”
The prosecution redirected the focus from Cohen’s credibility to Trump’s alleged actions. He acknowledged Cohen’s testimony about being angry at Trump by saying Cohen was angry because he was the only party held accountable for the scheme. His role in this trial was to give context to the alleged scheme to falsify documents.
Steinglass recounted the phone calls between people alleged to be involved with the scheme, including Cohen, publisher David Pecker and former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.