Before he sits down, he spins Donald Trump look around again. For a few seconds his gaze seems to wander around the courtroom with its wood paneling and high ceilings. Is he discussing the last five weeks in this room? Or does he want to make sure he is not alone?
In fact, the 15th floor room of the New York Criminal Court is filled to the last row. Also Trumping Sons Donald Jr. and Eric and his daughter Tiffany came. The preliminary highlight of the first criminal trial against a former American president will take place here on Tuesday: Reading the closing arguments. The defense and the prosecution may summarize their arguments again and present them to the jury. They must prepare for the longest day of negotiations yet. It will last about four and a half hours, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said in advance. Trump’s defender Todd Blanche expects at least two and a half hours of speaking time.
“Welcome back” says Juan Merchan, as the twelve jurors enter the room. The judge halted the trial for almost a week, which not only gave the lawyers time to prepare, but also allowed the jury to reflect on the evidence and witness statements that she has seen and heard in recent weeks. At the end of this day, Merchan will release her so that she can calmly deliberate on Trump’s guilt or innocence. Ultimately, the twelve in this case should be able to reach a unanimous verdict.
The defense is based on psychology
Then Todd Blanche has the floor. It quickly becomes clear that Trump’s defenders rely on psychology. He begins by thanking the jurors who made the trip to court every day. And he emphasizes again who they are sitting across from: “President Trump,” says Blanche, “is innocent.” As “leader of the free world,” the lawyer says, Trump was concerned with higher matters than his company’s accounting.
This is what the process is about. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, paid porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money so she wouldn’t talk about an alleged one-night stand with Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. Because Trump later had this money paid back to Cohen as “legal fees” while he was already president, while in reality it was used to influence the election, the Manhattan district attorney charged him with criminal falsification of business documents.
The trial is a manufactured farce, Trump and his allies say. The defense’s argument serves this perspective. Cohen, the prosecution’s key witness, calls Blanche the “greatest liar of all time” and portrays him as the real criminal in this story. Trump did not participate in the conspiracy to misreport the reimbursement of this $130,000, nor was he aware of it. Instead, the jury would be misled by this claim. “You can’t do that,” says the lawyer, starting again, “you can’t convict Donald Trump beyond a reasonable doubt based on the words of Michael Cohen.” He was personally frustrated that Trump could no longer use him after his election.
Almost the entire plea is devoted to this topic: Cohen, the liar and crook, cannot be trusted. And neither did the public prosecutor, who had called him as a main witness. ‘That doesn’t make any sense’, ‘you don’t really believe that’, ‘absurd’, such statements pop up again and again. Near the end, Blanche sometimes screams, emphasizing each word individually, “That! Was! A! Lie!”
Before he sits down, he spins Donald Trump look around again. For a few seconds his gaze seems to wander around the courtroom with its wood paneling and high ceilings. Is he discussing the last five weeks in this room? Or does he want to make sure he is not alone?
In fact, the 15th floor room of the New York Criminal Court is filled to the last row. Also Trumping Sons Donald Jr. and Eric and his daughter Tiffany came. The preliminary highlight of the first criminal trial against a former American president will take place here on Tuesday: Reading the closing arguments. The defense and the prosecution may summarize their arguments again and present them to the jury. They must prepare for the longest day of negotiations yet. It will last about four and a half hours, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said in advance. Trump’s defender Todd Blanche expects at least two and a half hours of speaking time.