A defense attorney for Donald Trump told jurors that Trump “is innocent” of crimes related to a 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, and painted the former president as a target of extortion efforts, not a mastermind of an election conspiracy cover-up.
Trump “did not commit any crimes, and the district attorney has not met their burden of proof. Period,” defense attorney Todd Blanche said as he began closing arguments at Trump’s trial on felony charges of falsifying business records.
Those records described as legal expenses Trump’s reimbursements to then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payout to Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
Prosecutors said the payment, which kept Daniels quiet about an alleged sexual tryst with Trump a decade earlier, was designed to prevent her from damaging his chances to win the White House in 2016.
Blanche argued, “You should want and expect more than the testimony of Michael Cohen” to convict Trump.
“President Trump is not guilty,” Blanche said in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Blanche told jurors the records were not false, and there was no intent to defraud anyone by labeling the records as legal expenses.
“Cohen lied to you, Cohen lied to you,” Blanche said of Trump’s former lawyer, who testified at length about Trump directing him to pay off Daniels, and how he did little if any legal work for Trump on the heels of that payment.
“The story Mr. Cohen told you on that witness stand is not true,” Blanche said. “There is no proof that President Trump knew about the payment before it was made.”
But Blanche argued that Cohen had believed that Daniels’ shopping over her story about Trump to media outlets “was an extortion attempt” against Trump.
“And, by the way, it was another opportunity for Mr. Cohen to take advantage,” Blanche said. “He paid $130,000 to Ms. Daniels because he knew he could take credit whether they won the election or lost the election he would get credit.”
“He was very worried about his future,” the lawyer said about Cohen. “You saw and heard multiple, multiple examples of that. He was worried about if President Trump won, he was worried about if President Trump lost.”
Referring to Daniels, who also testified at the trial, Blanche said, “She wrote a book, and she has a podcast. And a documentary.”
“This started out as an extortion. There’s no doubt about that, and ended very well for Ms. Daniels – financially speaking,” Blanche said.
Blanche said that even if jurors determined there was a conspiracy to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, he expected them to conclude that Trump was innocent.
“As I said to you in the opening statement, it doesn’t matter if there was a conspiracy to win the election,” Blanche argued. “Every campaign is a conspiracy to promote a candidate.”
After Blanche finishes, Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office then will urge the 12-member jury to convict Trump of the 34 felony counts he faces related to the records.
On his way into the courtroom, Trump blasted the trial judge, Juan Merchan, calling him “highly conflicted” and “corrupt.”
“This is a dark day in America,” Trump told reporters. “This is a very dangerous day for America. It’s a very sad day.”
Trump is the first former U.S. president ever to be tried in a criminal case. If convicted, Trump faces a possible maximum sentence of four years in prison for each felony count.
He denies Daniels’ claim that the two had sex once in 2006, months after his wife Melania gave birth to their son, Barron.
In his opening statement in Manhattan Supreme Court, assistant D.A. Matthew Colangelo told jurors that the hush money payment to Daniels, and the reimbursements to Cohen, amounted to “election fraud. Pure and simple.”
Trump spent Memorial Day on social media complaining about the case, which is just one of four criminal cases he faces as he heads to a rematch in the November election against President Joe Biden.
“Why can’t the defense go last?” Trump asked in a Truth Social post. In New York state courts, unlike many other U.S. criminal courts, defense attorneys give their closing arguments before prosecutors.
Trump also rhetorically asked his Truth Social followers “can you imagine” him facing closing arguments “on a FAKE & MADE UP CASE.”
“THERE IS NO CRIME OR CASE against President Trump, and if there was it should have been brought seven years ago, not in the middle of his Campaign for President,” he wrote.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.
Read the full article here
