(ECN24)-Donald Trump’s first criminal trial has arrived at its dramatic final act with lawyers for both sides primed on Tuesday to hammer home their cases before jurors consider a verdict that could make history.
The summations mark the climax of a trial that started more than a month ago. They are expected to last all day Tuesday and could stretch into the following day. After Judge Juan Merchan instructs jurors on the law, Trump and the rest of the country will be held in suspense to see whether he will become the first ex-president and presumptive GOP nominee to be convicted of a crime after allegedly falsifying financial records to hide a hush money payment to an adult film star in 2016.
The verdict will reverberate far beyond the courtroom and Trump’s personal life since the case has become intertwined with his bid to reclaim the White House. The stakes are especially high since this is likely to be the only one of four pending criminal trials expected to go to a jury before November’s election. The former president appeared to be in a bitter mood on the eve of his return to the courtroom, lashing out at opponents he called “Human Scum” in a message on social media marking Memorial Day.
Trump’s defense team is trying to spare their client the ignominy of a conviction that would stain his reputation. The ex-president’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, is expected to zero in on the credibility of Trump’s former fixer-turned-nemesis, Michael Cohen, who endured a bruising cross-examination, and to ask why other key figures in the ex-president’s business and personal orbit were not called by prosecutors, ECN24 Kara Scannell reported.
Joshua Steinglass, who is conducting closing arguments for the prosecution, will follow Blanche and is expected to spend several hours taking the jury through text messages, phone logs, other witnesses’ testimony and the 34 allegedly falsified documents to corroborate Cohen’s testimony. Ultimately, the team working for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, will try to convince seven men and five women jurors that Trump orchestrated a scheme to keep unflattering information from voters in what was an early example of election interference.
Trump has denied having an affair with Stormy Daniels and has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers do not have to convince all of the jury that he is innocent — they need only one juror to stand firm against the unanimous guilty verdict required to convict. Their conduct of the trial, in which they produced only two witnesses in a brief defense, signals they will argue that the state of New York has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the ex-president ordered and carried out a scheme, which, in any case, they say doesn’t amount to breaking the law. They argued during the trial that there was no evidence of criminal intent. And they will seek to leave jurors with a devastating final picture of Cohen, who admitted on the stand that he was a liar and was benefiting financially from a growing media empire targeting his ex-boss.
While there is a big difference with a hung jury that could force the judge to declare a mistrial, leaving an opening for prosecutors to try Trump again, any outcome that doesn’t end in a conviction could serve Trump’s political purposes, at least for now.
“I don’t know if the voting public sees much of a difference between the two. For many, including the defendant, the only relevant question is whether he is a convicted felon or not,” said ECN24 legal analyst Elliot Williams. “So, I’d assume the defense is really just hoping to plant a seed in the head of that one juror who has enough doubts about the case and might be stubborn enough not to back down.”
