May 28, 2024 - 16:27
By npr.org

Closing arguments to begin in Trump's hush money trial

Attorneys will deliver their closing arguments Tuesday in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York.

The summations come after a series of witnesses and documents have supported the case made by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. But Trump's defense says too much depends on the testimony of Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, a convicted liar.

What to look out for today

The defense comes first. When the trial testimony began five weeks ago, the defense highlighted how long ago this was: “pre-COVID."

They said the sexual encounter with adult film actress Stormy Daniels never happened. They said that Trump himself never issued the false documents, he just signed nine of the 11 checks when they were presented to him. But most of all, they said Cohen is a liar, and there’s no way to prove that Trump was fully cognizant of the crimes unless you accept Cohen’s testimony about conversations with Trump.

Did the defense make headway with that position at trial?

Cohen was an unflappably calm witness. When he was asked: Did you commit crimes, did you lie to Congress, did you lie to banks, he said that he had. But for the most part, these were old lies. There was just one place where the defense may have raised a new inconsistency: when they pointed out that text messages suggest one of the key conversations with Trump may not have happened, because Cohen at that time was being harassed by a 14-year old prankster.

But, the prosecution may have cleaned that up when they pointed up something that the defense didn’t deal with: There were many many conversations with Trump, including on the day the payments were wired to Daniels.