"Sentencing is set for July 11 at 10 a.m.
That will put sentencing four days before the beginning of the Republican National Convention, at which Trump is expected to receive the party’s presidential nomination." - Michael Gold, Jesse McKinley, NYT
Holy Moses!
"Donald J. Trump has been convicted of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened his ascent to the White House in 2016, part of a scheme that prosecutors described as a fraud on the American people. He is the first American president to be declared a felon, a stain he will carry as he seeks to regain the presidency." - Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess, NYT #trumptrial#hushmoney
Here’s a fun idea for the media covering the #hushmoney trial. Next time Trump leaves the courtroom prepared to serve up his bowl of lies don’t show up. No reporters, no cameras… just an empty hallway.
#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.
In closing arguments Tues, Trump’s lawyers are expected to cast #AllenWeisselberg as the prosecution’s missing piece, an elusive central player…. They will likely try to argue to the #jury that the case depends on #MichaelCohen, whose testimony provided the only evidence that #Trump had direct knowledge of the plot to disguise the #HushMoney reimbursement as #legal fees
Heading into what may be the final week of the #TrumpTrial, here are links to my threads for each day of coverage starting w/opening statements & then testimony (excludes jury selection)
Though the Prosecution previously made the point many times, the Defense cross examination confirmed to the jury that Michael Cohen is almost as bad a lier as Trump.
Cross-examination of #MichaelCohen resumes, an opportunity for the defense to poke holes in his testimony & perhaps trip up or provoke the state’s key witness. The questioning of Cohen, #Trump’s fmr fixer, is the beginning of the end of Trump’s #criminal trial, which began April 15 & might conclude before Memorial Day weekend at this pace.
"Pay with cash" — those words were said by Trump, recorded by Michael Cohen, and played back in front of the jury in the #hushmoney trial. And from the recorded conversation it was clear, this was Trump directing Cohen to pay Karen McDougal with cash, so it would be untraceable.
"Star witness Michael Cohen directly implicates Trump in testimony at hush money trial.
Donald Trump's fixer-turned-foe, Michael Cohen, directly implicated the former president in a hush money scheme Monday, telling jurors that his celebrity client tasked him on several occasions to stifle stories about sex that he feared could torpedo his 2016 presidential campaign."
The prosecution asks that the defense be precluded from asking #StormyDaniels whether she was arrested. Justice #Merchan agrees w/the prosecutors, saying that “anybody can be arrested” & that it “doesn’t prove anything.”
The people call Stormy Daniels back to the stand
#Trump atty #Necheles begins questioning by saying that in 2011, Daniels denied having had sex w/Trump.
"Yesterday, witnesses established that the paper trail of payments to Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who forwarded the money to Daniels, had been falsified. … A number of observers have suggested that the evidence presented through documents yesterday was not riveting, but historians would disagree."