#Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection w/a #HushMoney payment made to a porn star to influence the 2016 election. The case could be in the jury’s hands as early as Wed.
#Blanche talks about the first batch of docs: 11 invoices that were sent by #MichaelCohen. The invoices said that Cohen required payment for #legal services, but Cohen testified at trial that he was directed to say that by the #TrumpOrganization. Prosecutors say #Trump himself initiated the false documents.
#Blanche emphasizes the image of #Trump in the WH, conjuring up his long days in the Oval as the “leader of the free world.” 🥱It seems to be an effort to flatter Trump & put distance between him & the docs, while also reminding the jury that the defendant was —unlike every other #criminal defendant ever—an American president.
As busy as he may have been, jurors have heard from numerous witnesses that #Trump is a lifelong micromanager. For instance, he frequently sought to reduce the size of bills he owed. For decades he insisted on signing pretty much every check leaving the Trump Organization.
Todd #Blanche argues that the documents weren’t false because #MichaelCohen really was doing #legal work for #Trump in 2017. He’s casting aspersions on the government’s theory of Cohen being repaid for his payment to #StormyDaniels, saying that if that were so, Cohen would have been doing unremunerated legal work.
Blanche’s voice rises as he again insists Cohen lied in his description of the work he was doing for Trump.
#Blanche said during the trial that #MichaelCohen had an “oral” retainer agreement with #Trump, meaning that he had agreed to do legal work on Trump’s behalf. So in his closing, just now, when he said there was a retainer agreement, he may have been out on a limb. We’ll see if & how the prosecutors respond in their own closing.
In NY, written retainer agreements are generally required between lawyers & their clients, though there are exceptions that might apply in the case of #Trump & #MichaelCohen. Specifically, lawyers don’t always need to establish a written retainer when they are performing the same type of legal work they’ve done previously.
#Blanche is now mocking prosecutors’ inclusion of #Trump’s own words in one of his partially ghostwritten books from years ago, which was entered into evidence as proof of him being a micromanager. “If the government reads to you quotes from a book a decade, more than a decade earlier, you should be suspicious,” Blanche says. “That’s a red flag”
In his follow-up to this argument about a #tax scheme, #Blanche asks why #MichaelCohen didn’t remember the amount he was meant to be owed each month & why the checks didn’t always come from #Trump. Again, even as he seeks to cast doubt on the prosecution’s argument, he reminds jurors of what the other side wants them to believe.
The prosecution alleges that #Trump was present when his employees hatched a plan to falsify the records, & did not stop them from doing so. The prosecution could even argue that Trump, as the boss, effectively approved the plan & thus caused it.
#Blanche tries persuading the #jurors that in order to #convict, they must find that #Trump sought to promote his own candidacy for president “by unlawful means.” Blanche is trying to cast doubt on some of the “unlawful means” the prosecutors will argue later.
Blanche says that it didn’t matter if there was “a conspriacy to win an election … Every campaign in this country is a conspiracy.”
#Blanche is trying to suggest that the meeting that Trump & #MichaelCohen had in 2015 w/ #Pecker, of The #NationalEnquirer, when prosecutors say they hatched a plan to suppress damaging stories about #Trump & promote negative ones about his rivals, was SOP between a presidential #candidate & the #press. It was not.
Blanche suggests that bc Pecker’s relationship w/Trump, & their #CatchAndKill agreement, was not an #election#conspiracy bc it predated the campaign.
While it’s true that circulation for The #NationalEnquirer wasn’t huge, #Trump had a hugely popular Twitter feed & giant rallies, & during the 2016 campaign, he & his allies would post & he would talk about this stuff to amplify them.
The Enquirer has broken several stories over the yrs involving politicians & celebrities having affairs, incl’g fmr Senator John Edwards, who was a presidential candidate, & Tiger Woods.
#Blanche says that despite the prosecution arguing that David #Pecker agreed to suppress negative stories on #Trump’s behalf in 2015 — a practice known as #CatchAndKill — the phrase "catch & kill" was not used at that meeting. “Make no mistake about it,” Blanche says.
Blanche argues there was “nothing unusual” about catching & killing, & that Pecker testified that The #NationalEnquirer only published ~½ of the stories it purchased.
Meanwhile, President #Biden's campaign is holding a news conference outside the courthouse in Manhattan, a guarantee of attention since the media has been stationed here for week.
The speakers have focused not on the #TrumpTrial, but largely on the insurrection by #Trump supporters on #Jan6, 2021, & the threats the Biden campaign argues Trump poses to #democracy & the nation's future.
#Blanche addresses the 3 specific #CatchAndKill deals prosecutors allege #Pecker was involved in, all of which they say were designed to protect #Trump. Defense argues all 3 stories are false.
He characterizes the 1st, involving a doorman at a #TrumpOrganization bldg, as “literally a made up story designed to harm President Trump.”
Blanche talks about Playboy model #KarenMcDougal who sold the rights to her story of an affair w/Trump to The #NationalEnquirer's parent co, #AMI.
#Blanche claims that #MichaelCohen fully fabricated an encounter that he had w/Pecker in which #Pecker expressed anger that he had not been repaid for 1 of the #HushMoney deals. “Ladies & gentlemen, that lunch did not happen,” Blanche said. “Cohen made it up.”
Blanche doesn’t provide any #evidence Cohen made it up. Instead, Blanche reminds jurors that they should pay close attention to documentary evidence in assessing Cohen’s testimony.
#Blanche is skipping around in his summation, which is making it a little hard to follow.
He now turns back to the recording that #MichaelCohen secretly made of a conversation he had w/ #Trump about the #KarenMcDougal payment.
Blanche suggests there is some kind of dispute over the authenticity of this recording. There isn’t. The recording sounds exactly the same as the one CNN played in 2018.
#Blanche attacks the recording. “This conversation is Mr. Cohen & President Trump literally talking past each other about what is going on,” he says, arguing that his client “has no idea what #MichaelCohen is talking about.”
Blanche comes up with an alternate version of why #Trump asked about “financing” in their taped conversation: that Trump was simply caught off guard & had no idea what was being discussed.
Blanche lays the groundwork for his most important attack on Cohen, saying he is the only witness who testified that Trump knew everything about the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.
#Blanche argues that if #StormyDaniels's allegations were so scary to the #Trump campaign, why didn’t it swing into action in April 2016, when a woman working w/ Daniels got in touch w/The #NationalEnquirer's parent company?
After the break, #Blanche says that he has ~½ hr left of his closing argument. Judge Merchan says the jurors have agreed to stay late if needed, meaning closing arguments may end today.
Blanche discusses statements by #StormyDaniels that she testified she was coerced into making. This doesn’t seem to have much to do w/the case but is the kind of client-pleasing shit we’ve seen from #Trump attys.
#Blanche 2X notes that #StormyDaniels denied having sex w/Trump.
While this is technically true —she did put out a statement denying they had an AFFAIR in early 2018— she subsequently provided her account of the sexual encounter to “60 Minutes,” in a book, in a documentary & in this trial, on the stand, where she testified under oath.
#Trump has repeatedly denied the sex occurred, but has never done so under oath.
Neither Rodriguez nor Howard testified, & their absence may give #Blanche room to spin his theory. He notes that, in a text, Howard said that he was not working on #Trump’s behalf. Blanche suggests Howard was acting against the interests of David #Pecker, his publisher.
Blanche again tells the jury, that NDAs are not inherently problematic, adding that there is nothing “illegal,” “sinister” or “criminal” about them.