Trump trial closing arguments to begin in New York hush money case

• Closing arguments in the criminal hush money case of former President Donald Trump are set to begin in New York.
• Trump, who is headed to a rematch against President Joe Biden in November's election, is the first former American president to face a criminal trial.
• The Republican is charged with falsifying business records related to reimbursements to his former lawyer Michael Cohen for a 2016 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Closing arguments in the criminal hush money trial of Donald Trump are set to begin in New York on Tuesday, with jurors on track to begin deliberations in the historic case the following day.

Trump's defense team will go first in arguing to jurors that they should find the former president not guilty of falsifying business records related to reimbursements paid to his then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payout Cohen gave porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.

A prosecutor from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office then will urge the 12-member jury to convict Trump of the 34 felony counts he faces related to the records, which labeled the Cohen reimbursements as legal expenses for work that prosecutors say never existed..

Trump is the first former U.S. president ever to be tried in a criminal case. If convicted, Trump faces a possible maximum sentence of four years in prison for each felony count.

He denies Daniels' claim that the two had sex once in 2006, months after his wife Melania gave birth to their son, Barron. Cohen's payment to Daniels kept her from telling that story to the media at a time when she could have damaged his chances of winning the 2016 White House contest.

In his opening statement in Manhattan Supreme Court, assistant D.A. Matthew