Credit: NYT
New York: For nearly three hours on Tuesday, Donald Trump’s lawyer did his level best to persuade the jury to acquit his client. Then it was a prosecutor’s turn.
Throughout a marathon closing argument, the prosecutor delivered a sweeping rebuke of the former president, seeking to persuade the jury of 12 New Yorkers that Trump had falsified records to cover up a sex scandal. The prosecutor, Joshua Steinglass, wove together witness testimony and documents to drive home the key points of the weekslong case, the first criminal trial of an American president.
“Everything Mr. Trump and his cohorts did in this case was cloaked in lies,” Steinglass said.
By the time the prosecutor finished, the courthouse had closed to other business. More than 10 hours after Trump’s lawyer began the day by calling the case “absurd” and “preposterous,” Steinglass finally had the final word.
The disparate strategies — Steinglass’ closing was more than twice as long as the defense’s — reflected their separate tasks. The defense needed only to establish reasonable doubt, while the prosecution needed to persuade the jury to accept a narrative that, Steinglass argued, could lead to only one ending: guilty on all counts.
The closing arguments were each side’s last chance to pitch their case to the jury — and they drew on testimony from 22 witnesses, reams of emails and a surreptitious recording of Trump coordinating a secret payoff to a porn actor, Stormy Daniels.
Starting Wednesday, the power will shift from the lawyers at the lectern to the jurors in the deliberation room. The jury could take anywhere from a few hours to weeks to reach a verdict while Trump campaigns to reclaim the White House.
To persuade jurors, the prosecution and defense outlined dueling versions of the same underlying story: Trump’s fixer, Michael Cohen, struck a hush-money deal with Daniels in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign, to silence her story of a sexual encounter with Trump. Steinglass argued that Trump had directed the hush-money deal, reimbursed Cohen and then falsified records to cover up the whole thing.
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, countered that Cohen struck the deal on his own and was repaid for unrelated legitimate legal expenses. Blanche assailed Cohen’s credibility, portraying him as a greedy liar bent on revenge. He argued that the records in question were accurate, contending that “there was no intent to defraud” — and that Trump did not have sex with Daniels, whom he cast as an extortionist.
Trump, who faces probation or as long as four years in prison, is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.