The Donald Trump felony trial in Manhattan: Steinglass argues that Cohen wasn’t lied about a conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 election
The closing argument in the Donald Trump felony trial in Manhattan was so lengthy that the prosecution team knew it was a risk to take; besides being exhausted, jurors could conclude the people were not guilty.
There were various conversations Cohen had with Trump, one of which was about the deal to silence Daniels. Cohen told the truth on the stand, but the defense believed he lied in a different way.
Steinglass tried to show that his case wasn’t dependent on Cohen. Steinglass returned again and again to the first-week testimony of David Pecker, a former publisher of The National Enquirer, who implicated Trump directly in a conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 election. Steinglass disassembled and reassembled the notes from Trump’s scheme to disguise his reimbursement of Cohen as legal expenses.
On the stand, Cohen described a repayment scheme that formed the basis of the 34 counts of falsified business records: 11 falsified invoices, 12 falsified ledger entries and 11 checks falsely recording the repayment as legal “retainers.” The checks were signed by Trump.
The defense didn’t present many witnesses, including a lawyer who tried to represent Cohen after the FBI searched his home and office. Costello had been put on the stand to refute Cohen’s claim that Costello was pressuring Cohen to stay on Trump’s “team.” But Costello’s emails showed that Trump was deciding which of Cohen’s lawyers he wanted to pay, and that Costello was concerned about not giving “the appearance that we are following instructions from [Rudy] Giuliani or the president,” referring to the former New York City mayor who was Trump’s lawyer at the time.
The defense has a better shot at creating doubt that Trump intended to commit a crime, but even here, Steinglass had a heap of evidence to shovel in the jury’s direction.
The judge allowed most of it until the prosecutor overreached by urging jurors not to let Trump get away with shooting someone.
Steinglass stood down, after the objections of the judge, and we all dragged ourselves off to bed. The case finally goes to the jury on Wednesday.
Tying this to the Daniels’ payment, Steinglass reminded jurors of the timing — how the deal to have Daniels sign a nondisclosure agreement came after the Access Hollywood tape became public.
According to Steinglass, this is buying a story that you do not intend to publish, so no one else can print it, and this is an example of Blanche’s argument.
A New York jury will decide the fate of former president Donald Trump in a federal election law enforcement trial, and the case of Cohen, Tarasoff
He doubled down that Trump’s concern was not his family, but the election, and the deal with the tabloid shows that was the motivation for a settlement 10 years after the alleged encounter.
The prosecutor said that it all started with the August 2015 meeting in Trump Tower. Steinglass said a federal election law violation happens when money starts changing hands.
They agreed that he’d be the Trump campaign’s eyes and ears. His job was to look out for negative stories from women he could “take off the marketplace,” by buying up the rights but never publishing them.
“They completely blow out of the water the defense claim that these were for legal work,” he said, adding, “I am almost speechless that they are still trying to make this argument that this was for legal retainer.”
McConney authenticated a key record: the bank statement showing Cohen’s wire transfer. That record included handwritten notes from Cohen and Trump’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, describing the $130,000 payment that would be “grossed up” to cover Cohen’s taxes. That sum, combined with another reimbursement and a bonus, for a total of $420,000, was paid out over 12 months at a rate of $35,000 per month.
“Despite his frugality, and attention to detail, the defendant didn’t ask any questions, cause he already knew the answers,” Steinglass argued, asking the jury to not believe the “bogus narrative that the defendant was too busy” while at the White House to notice the large sums of money was being spent.
Steinglass once again went through the specific checks and invoices in question and how Deborah Tarasoff, the accounts payable supervisor at the Trump Organization, packaged them together to send to Trump even after he went to the White House.
Steinglass referenced various witnesses who came to testify, including current and former employees of Trump’s business and administration. The witnesses who work for companies that published Donald Trump’s books about his business philosophy were mentioned by him.
NEW YORK — Twelve New York jurors have begun deliberations in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial. They will have to decide if Trump will be found guilty or not. This is the first criminal trial of a former president.
All 12 jurors — plus six alternates who were asked to stay in case they are needed — have listened to just over four weeks of testimony as the prosecution argued that Trump was involved in a scheme meant to conceal a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to further another crime.
When it comes to New York criminal law, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Trump has to attend the trial every day in order to campaign as much as he wants. He accused the judge of being biased.
On Tuesday, Trump was joined in court by more family members than usual. Children Donald Jr., Eric and Tiffany were present in the courtroom, as well as son-in-law Michael Boulos and daughter-in-law and RNC co-chair Lara Trump.
As Trump Lawyer Todd Blanche was beginning his closing arguments, the Biden-Harris campaign held an event outside the courthouse in Manhattan featuring actor Robert DeNiro and U.S. Capitol police officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone.
The prosecutors spent 6 hours refuting claims that were made by the defense. Steinglass said that Cohen knew about what happened in the hotel room and went on to say that it goes to the reasons for the encounter. Steinglass told the jury of Stormy Daniels testimony, “That is the display the defendant didn’t want the public to see.”
Blanche argues Trump’s sons signed two checks that constitute some of the felony counts. And he also told the jury that Cohen was the one who generated the 11 invoices that make up 11 of the felony counts on Trump.
He claimed that the allegedly false retainer was a legitimate retainer of services because Cohen billed himself as Trump’s personal lawyer.
He also spent time casting doubt on the secret recording Cohen made of a conversation with Trump that allegedly confirms knowledge of the payment and settlement to former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Correspondence with Blanche about Trump-Cohen and Cohen-Chern-Steinglass Payments in the Campaign for the 2016 Election
It doesn’t matter if there was a conspiracy to affect the election, says Blanche. According to Blanche, each campaign is a conspiracy to promote a candidacy.
It is common for celebrities and candidates to work with media organizations to promote themselves and their campaigns.
The idea that Trump, Cohen and the former publisher of the National Enquirer believed they could influence the 2016 election through use of the tabloid makes no sense.
Starting with, “Hey, Keith, how’s it going?” Steinglass went through a simulated phone call where he discussed the issue of a teenage prankster who had been harassing Cohen, and then said, “Can I talk to the boss?” Steinglass talked about a little bit of a small talk about taking care of that thing.
There is no dispute about the fact of the payments. What prosecutors needed to prove is that Trump made them in order to cover up other crimes, such as violating campaign finance law and mischaracterizing the payments for tax purposes.
The verdict of the trial of Donald Trump in the case of Michaels-McKayes-Danbury-Lewandowski
The verdict needs to be unanimous. If the jury cannot agree, the judge will declare a mistrial and the jury will behung. The district attorney prosecuting the case will have to decide whether to try the case again.
The jury was told to be impartial and to leave their biases at the door by the judge. For an hour, he delivered the jury instructions, reminding jurors that some evidence — such as former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s guilty plea to violating federal campaign finance laws, or certain headlines that ran in newspapers — is used only to establish the credibility of other witnesses, and give context to the timing of events, and not to determine Trump’s guilt.
The jury should define the law at hand by how the intent to fraud and lie is defined, explained Merchan. He said that in this case, prosecutors argued Trump wanted to hide the fact that he had broken the New York election law.
In order to determine if this is true, the jury may look at three of the prosecution’s theories: violation of the Federal Election Act, falsification of other business records and violating tax laws.
The publisher of the National Enquirer met with Donald Trump and Cohen at Trump Tower in August of 2015, two months after he announced his candidacy.
The plan was for Trump to suppress these stories, and the negative stories about his opponents to be published. Some of these stories were approved by Trump and Cohen before they were published.
He said he carried out this role over the course of a year. His testimony was corroborated by Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented both Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. In about June 2016, McDougal considered going public with her story of a year-long affair with Trump. But Pecker bought the rights to that story, with the expectation that he would be reimbursed by Trump. That never happened.
In early October 2016, according to the testimony of former Trump communications aide Hope Hicks, the campaign was rocked by the release of the Access Hollywood tape, where Trump could be heard boasting “When you’re a star they let you do it. You are able to do anything. You can grab them by the pussy.
According to the report, Daniels threatened to ruin Trump’s reputation by going public with her allegations that he had sex with her in a hotel room during a celebrity golf tournament.
She claimed that Trump had offered him a position on his show. This detail — that the sex wasn’t entirely wanted — caused the defense to request a mistrial, which was denied. It gave Trump a reason to suppress the story. Prosecutors said, “Trump knew what happened in that hotel room” and didn’t want it to come out. The adult film actor’s testimony included details of her alleged sexual encounter, but some of these were not needed by the defense.
Cohen told the court that as October drew to a close he frantically opened bank accounts and tried to pay Daniels to keep her quiet. Cohen said that Trump wanted to delay the payment until after the election, with the idea that it wouldn’t matter if Daniels was paid.
According to a number of witnesses, it was clear that Trump paid to influence the election so that women would vote for him. Hicks, who said Trump, by then in the White House, told her that it was better the story came out in 2018, rather than 2016.
Still, the heart of the case rests on the testimony of what happened after the election, when the records were allegedly falsified, in particular the handwritten notes and documents from the Trump Organization’s former comptroller, Jeff McConney.
The payments would be described as pursuant to a “legal retainer.” Weisselberg is serving time for perjury in Trump’s civil fraud trial.
Cohen said he and Weisselberg met and discussed the agreement with Trump shortly before he left for Washington, on or about Jan. 17, 2020. Cohen said Trump approved the deal, saying at the end of the meeting that “it was going to be one heck of a ride,” in Washington. Cohen said he and Trump talked about it again in the Oval Office. Photos and White House records corroborate that the two met in the Oval Office at the time.
Source: Jury begins deliberations in Trump’s hush money case
The Merchan Trial Team: A New York City based Republican Candidate convicted of a Crime against a Major League Baseball Player
If Trump is convicted, Merchan would later issue the sentence, which may or may not include prison time; some legal experts believe imprisonment for a former president is unlikely. A conviction of Trump doesn’t stop him from being the GOP nominee. In the past, his legal team has fought the decisions in civil trials in New York.
The jurors range from all over Manhattan, including Harlem, Hell’s Kitchen, Murray Hill and the Upper West Side. They’re investment bankers, physical therapists and teachers. They have hobbies that range from hiking, fly fishing and exploring the New York City area. There are nine men and five women.
Merchan has tried to ensure that the jury remains anonymous, citing safety concerns. Only lawyers have access to jurors’ names and they are not allowed to be photographed or recorded.
