Closing summary
Robert Costello, a lawyer called by the defense team, will resume his testimony when court resumes tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, prosecutors rested their case after Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer and the prosecution’s key witness, completed his testimony today.
Here’s a recap of the day’s developments:
Michael Cohen testified that he knew the $130,000 hush-money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels violated election law – even though he claimed otherwise in a 2018 letter. Cohen’s testimony implicated that Donald Trump, by extension, must also have believed that the money violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (which caps individual contributions to campaigns at $2,000 a year) since it was to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Cohen’s testimony marked an important moment as it was the closest the prosecution has come to tying Trump to the alleged falsification of business records with an intent to commit a second crime – in this case, violating federal campaign contributions law.
The prosecution also attempted to undercut the Trump defense team’s contention that Cohen had a track record of lying whenever it suited his needs, such as when he lied to a federal judge in 2018 that he was not pressured into pleading guilty to tax evasion – which he later disavowed.
The pushback from prosecutors came after Trump’s lead defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, suggested that Cohen and the former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg between themselves devised a complicated scheme to repay Cohen of the Daniels hush money and other expenses that came from his own pocket – but not the former president himself.
The defense also suggested that Cohen concocted the idea to “gross up” the repayment, which prosecutors have said Trump approved and violated state tax law, in order to increase the amount of money he got from the Trump Organization in 2016, after his bonus was lower than in 2015. “So you stole from the Trump Organization?” Blanche asked, his voice reaching a crescendo. “Yes, sir,” Cohen conceded.
After Cohen left the witness stand, prosecutors rested their case and Trump’s lawyers began calling witnesses of their own: paralegal Daniel Sitko, and Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor who has publicly blasted Cohen. Costello had offered to represent Cohen soon after his hotel room, office and home were raided.
Costello testified that Cohen told him “numerous times” that Trump “knew nothing” about the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels.
Judge Juan Merchan briefly closed the courtroom and forcer reporters out after he admonished Costello for his behavior on the witness stand. Addressing Costello, the judge said: “If you don’t like my ruling, you don’t say ‘jeez’ ... You don’t give me side eye, and you don’t roll your eyes.”
Trump’s lawyers are separately considering whether to call a federal elections law witness, Bradley Smith, as they seek to make the case that campaign contribution rules are complex and that Trump did not have the necessary intent to violate the contribution limits when he allegedly falsified business records.
Trump will have to decide whether to testify in his own defense. Legal experts have widely suggested Trump testifying would almost certainly be a mistake, given his track record of making self-incriminating comments.
Merchan still needs to decide whether he will issue jury instructions, and what form they might take. As a result, even if Trump does not testify, closing arguments are not expected to come until Tuesday 28 May.
Judge Juan Merchan said he is reserving decision on the defense’s dismissal request.
