The jury is now deliberating on Trump’s alleged fraud scandal. The prosecution is making an urgent appeal to the jury to focus on evidence.
In the historic hush money trial against Donald Trump, the prosecution and defense have made their closing arguments. On Tuesday (local time) in New York, the prosecution accused the former US president of clearly intent to commit fraud and called for a guilty verdict. The defense had previously called for an acquittal. After the closing arguments, the twelve-member jury can now begin deliberating on a verdict on Wednesday.
Deputy Attorney General Joshua Steinglass said Trump’s intent to defraud could not be more obvious. He accused the former president of participating in a “conspiracy and cover-up” to hide from voters that he had paid hush money to a porn star.
The prosecutor asked the 12 jurors to “tune out the noise and ignore the sideshows.” “When you do that, you will see that the people have presented compelling evidence of the defendant’s guilt,” Steinglass said.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche had previously called for an acquittal. “President Trump is innocent,” the defense attorney said at the beginning of his argument. “The consequences of the lack of evidence that you have heard over the past five weeks are simple – it is an acquittal.”
In the first criminal trial in history against a former US president, deliberations of the twelve jurors are scheduled to begin on Wednesday morning (local time, Wednesday afternoon CEST). They must decide unanimously whether Trump is guilty or not. The deliberations could last several days.
If the jury finds the 77-year-old former president guilty, the judge would determine the sentence at a later date. A prison sentence is possible, but experts expect a suspended sentence or a fine.
The likely Republican presidential candidate is accused in the case of falsifying business documents to cover up a hush money payment to former porn actress Stormy Daniels. The payment was made before the 2016 election to persuade Stormy Daniels to conceal an alleged sex affair that she claims to have had with Trump, and which Trump denies.
The hush money of $130,000 (about €120,000 today) was transferred by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen. As a key witness for the prosecution in the trial, Cohen testified that he had paid the hush money with Trump’s consent. Cohen was later reimbursed the money by the Trump corporation; according to the prosecution, the repayments were falsely declared as legal fees.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors also view the hush money payment as an illegal interference in the 2016 presidential election. Trump describes the trial as a political maneuver designed to undermine his election campaign against President Joe Biden.
Leads to confrontation – Macron wants to allow attacks on Russia – Putin threatens Europe with consequences
Frustration at Selenskyj – NATO slows down accession plans – Ukraine is fobbed off with “bridge” or “path”