What To Expect As Trump's Criminal Trial Nears Its End

Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial, which could potentially make the presumptive Republican nominee for president a convicted felon, is winding down.

Here’s what to expect in the coming days.

Prosecutors and the former president’s defense team will each present their closing arguments on Tuesday. This is each side’s opportunity to summarize what they’ve presented at trial over the last several weeks and their last chance to convince jurors that they’ve proved their case.

Expect prosecutors to remind jurors of the testimony from the 18 witnesses they called, all of whom filled in the picture of how, in a scheme arranged by the now-disbarred attorney Michael Cohen just days before the 2016 election, Trump allegedly covered up a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, who said she’d had an extramarital affair with Trump in 2006.

At the heart of the case is a series of monthly checks, invoices and other financial statements from 2017 that, according to prosecutors and Cohen’s testimony, indicate Trump was repaying Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment he handled. Those documents, which were labeled as payment for Cohen’s legal services, represent the business documents Trump is accused of falsifying.

Other highlights from the prosecution included testimony from David Pecker, former CEO of the National Enquirer’s publisher, who said he had an agreement with Trump to publish flattering stories about the then-candidate, to run unflattering articles about his political opponents and to help block the publication of stories that could damage Trump’s reputation.

And despite the defense team’s suggestion that Trump was unaware of the repayments, prosecutors argued, the former president emphasized in his various