The political implications of the proceedings were unmistakable as President Joe Biden’s campaign staged an event outside the courthouse with actor Robert De Niro.
After the closing arguments are given, the judge will instruct the jury, likely Wednesday, on the law governing the case and the factors it can take into account during deliberations.
‘What I was doing, I was doing at the direction of and benefit of Mr. Trump,’ Cohen testified.
Cohen gave jurors an insider account of his negotiations with David Pecker, the then-publisher of the National Enquirer, and the newspaper’s top editor about suppressing stories harmful to Trump.
Prosecutors are building toward their star witness, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer who pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money payments.
‘I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days.’
The prosecution’s star witness has yet to take the stand in Donald Trump’s hush money trial. But jurors are already hearing Michael Cohen’s words as prosecutors work to directly tie Trump to payments to silence women with damaging claims about him before the 2016 election. The second week of testimony in the case will wrap up…
Before the start of testimony, prosecutors requested $1,000 fines for each of four comments by Trump that they say violated a judge’s gag order barring him from attacking witnesses, jurors and others closely connected to the case.
The judge warned that the court would not tolerate ‘willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.’
Also this week, Judge Juan M. Merchan may decide on prosecutors’ request to fine Trump for what they say were violations of a gag order that bars him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to the case.
