Former President Donald Trump observes before the start of his trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 20, 2024 in New York City.
Mark Peterson | Reuters
Closing arguments in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial are set to begin in New York on Tuesday, with jurors expected to begin deliberating the historic case the next day.
Trump’s defense team will first ask jurors that they should find the former president not guilty of business records related to reimbursements to then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who was charged shortly before the trial. Later paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels.
A prosecutor from Manhattan District Attorney’s Office A 12-member jury will then be urged to convict Trump on 34 felony counts related to the records, which label expenses reimbursed by Cohen as legal expenses for work that prosecutors say never existed.
Trump is the first former U.S. president to stand trial in a criminal case. If convicted, Trump could face up to four years in prison for each felony.
He denied Daniels’ claim that the two had sex once in 2006, months after his wife Melania gave birth to son Barron. Cohen paid Daniels to keep her from telling the story to the press at a time when she might have hurt his chances of winning the 2016 White House bid.
During opening statements in Manhattan Supreme Court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Colangelo told jurors that the hush-money payments to Daniels and the reimbursements to Cohen amounted to “election fraud. Pure and simple.”
The case, which Trump complained about on social media on Memorial Day, is just one of four criminal cases he faces in his rematch with President Joe Biden in the November election.
“Why can’t the defense last until the end?” Trump asked in a “Truth Society” post. In New York state court, unlike many other U.S. criminal courts, defense attorneys make closing arguments before prosecutors.
Trump also asked his “Truth Society” followers, “Can you imagine” him facing closing arguments “in a false and fabricated case”?
“There are no crimes or cases against President Trump, and if there were, they should have been brought seven years ago, not during his campaign for president,” he wrote.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
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