The trial for Trump's hush money case will feature closing arguments on Tuesday. Key points to note are as follows:
The upcoming closing statements in Donald Trump's groundbreaking hush money criminal trial will provide the prosecution from District Attorney Alvin Bragg's team a chance to clarify for the 12 jurors how each witness invoked and each piece of evidence presented underpins their claim for a guilty verdict on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
This task was bound to be complex in a trial that has been unfolding since mid-April and continually revolved around the intricate details of business recordkeeping and commonplace testimonials. The prosecutors would, however, face an extra layer of difficulty due to a lengthy hiatus preceding the closing arguments, as the jurors would have been away from the trial since Tuesday.
CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor, observed, "There are instances throughout the trial where you're listening to a piece of testimony or presenting a document or other exhibit, and the jury is thinking, 'How does this fit in?'. That's unavoidable. It's your job during closing to weave it all together and help it make sense."
Honig emphasized, "This will be particularly demanding in this case because it's a long trial."
Former New York prosecutor Bernarda Villalona expressed her belief that the prosecutors will employ their closing arguments to recount the story from its very beginning. She opined that unlike their opening statement, which lasted approximately 40 minutes, the prosecutors' final comments in the case could span several hours and may incorporate a visual aid like a PowerPoint presentation to assist the jury in retracing some key evidence.
"The monotonous part is over," Villalona remarked, referring to the 12 jurors. "Interestingly enough, the monotonous part is also the most significant aspect of the case, since it furnishes you with the documents. The star witnesses in this case are the documents, and the documents speak for themselves."
Slated to start on Tuesday, Trump's legal team will present their closing arguments first, followed by arguments from the prosecution. Upon completion of both sides' arguments, the judge will instruct the jury concerning the charges they must consider against the former president; the jurors will then initiate their deliberations. The judge has predicted this to occur on Wednesday.
The closing arguments will commence week-long after the defense rested its case on Tuesday and nearly six weeks after opening statements were delivered and the initial witness, former tabloid chief David Pecker, testified.
The prosecution summoned 20 witnesses across 19 days and their testimonies accumulated over 50 hours. While some of their witnesses were not widely known, others, including former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and adult film star Stormy Daniels (whose supposed affair with Trump is the focus of the case), were well-known individuals whose testimonies are undoubtedly etched in the jurors' memories (Trump has refuted the alleged affair).
In contrast, Trump's team brought forward just two witnesses: a paralegal who logged phone records into evidence and Robert Costello, an attorney involved in discussions with Cohen to represent him in 2018.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree to conceal the reimbursement of hush money payouts made before the 2016 election to Daniels. If convicted, the judge might impose a probation sentence or a prison term ranging from 1 1/3 to 4 years for each count, with a maximum of 20 years.
What the prosecution may contend
Prosecutors are likely to maintain during their closing arguments that each of their witnesses plays a pivotal role in the case, irrespective of their position or proximity to the alleged offenses. They will likely need to counter accusations from the defense claiming that Cohen, a key witness for the prosecution, weakens their case because of his reputation for deceit, Honig hypothesized.
"The argument from the prosecution will be that all the evidence coalesces and is corroborated, and you don't need to rely on a single witness's words by themselves. They will assert that this is a documents case," he outlined, detailing the various accounting documents introduced during the trial.
"And they'll say, 'Michael Cohen is here to guide you through it, but you don't need to depend on his word alone — everything he says is substantiated'," Honig explicated.
During the trial, the prosecution led the jurors through the 11 invoices, 12 vouchers, and 11 checks — the 34 documents representing the falsified business records charges — that were utilized to disburse $420,000 to Cohen in 2017, encompassing the reimbursement for the $130,000 hush money payment adjusted for taxes.
The prosecution exhibited jurors how Cohen dispatched the Trump Organization monthly invoices for $35,000, which were processed by the Trump company's controller to trigger the issuing of checks. Trump signed nine of the 11 checks. (The other two checks were paid from Trump's revocable trust and signed by former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg and one of Trump's sons.)
"The other theme could be 'Observe the kind of people Trump favors,' with prosecutors claiming that Trump chose to be around individuals like Cohen and Pecker, who followed Trump prior to the 2016 election.
'These are his people, he chose them,' the prosecution might contend. 'He shouldn't be awarded the advantage of, 'Because they're imperfect, you can't rely on them,'' Agnifilo added.
"In addition, even if you don't rely on them," she continued, quoting Honig, "'The third theme is that you won't need to, because everything is confirmed by other witnesses, documents, or records or by Trump's own words.''
The length of the trial may not create an issue for the jurors during their decision-making period, Villalona believed, due to their permission to pen down notes during the sessions and the ability to request certain sections of the trial to be reread.
"A favorable aspect of New York is that they can ask for the whole trial to be read again," she stated. "So if they overlooked something David Pecker said on Day 1 or 2 of the trial, they can have that replayed." She commented that any of the exhibits used as evidence could also be handed over to the jurors for a thorough perusal while they ponder the verdict.
Though the length of the trial might pose a slight challenge, the closing statements from each side will be meticulously crafted to garner not just a decision in their favor, but also to cement their position in the historical trial, Villalona hypothesized.
"The prosecution and defense will deliver the closing argument of their term," she opined."
CNN's Jeremy Herb, Kara Scannell, and Lauren del Valle had a hand in creating this report.
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In the closing arguments of Donald Trump's hush money trial, District Attorney Alvin Bragg's team will underscore how each witness and piece of presented evidence supports their claim for a guilty verdict. Due to the lengthy hiatus before the closing arguments, the jurors might find it challenging to recall the intricate details of the trial.
Source: edition.cnn.com
