NY v. Trump: Defense rests Tuesday, triggering final stages of historic trial
Prosecutors rested their case Monday in the historic criminal trial of former President Trump, who faces charges of falsifying business records to cover up 2016 payments to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. The defense could rest Tuesday, which would trigger the final stages of the trial.
Coverage for this event has ended.
(Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump launched an attack on the Manhattan District Attorney's lead prosecutor in the NY v. Trump case, despite not calling him out by name, as a "representative" of the Biden administration looking to "hurt" Trump's 2024 run for the White House.
"Let me just tell you that the White House … they're the one trying this case. You heard who was doing all the talking: a representative from the White House, just recently. This is all about Biden, he can't campaign.
So he's trying to injure his opponent. They're trying to hurt the opponent because they can't win it fair and square. It's lawfare. There are a lot of terms for it. It's a third-world country way of campaigning. Such a disgrace. So sad to see what's happened to our country," Trump said Tuesday afternoon.
"Our country is going to hell under Biden." "Look at the person. Why don't you look at the person that argued their case for almost the entire case? Look at the person. Where did he come from? Unbelievable. He came from Biden," he added.
Trump did not name the person he was speaking about. However, the lead prosecutor for the case, Mathew Colangelo, is a former Department of Justice official who took a job with the DA's office just months before the indictment of the former president.
Read the entire story by Emma Colton here.
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy speaking outside the Manhattan courtroom Tuesday said that Judge Juan Merchan has "put his thumb on the scale" in favor of the DA Alvin Bragg's prosecutors during the unprecedented trial.
But McCarthy argued that prosecutors have not shown any evidence that former President Donald Trump committed or intended to commit a campaign finance violation in connection to the NDA payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
"If I'm the defense lawyers i'm arguing very hard that they don't have evidence of Trump either committing or intending to commit a campaign finance violation," McCarthy said. "I don't think they've shown that Trump even had the campaign finance laws on his mind, much less that he willfully violated them."
"And I'd be very strong that 'willfulness' is the highest...mental state element in the criminal law. You have to prove that someone knew he had a legal obligation and intentionally flouted it."
"And to my mind...I don't think theres any evidence in this case that the campaign finance laws even occurred to Trump," he said.
(Getty Images)
Judge Juan Merchan, prosecutors and defense attorneys are hashing out the language for the instructions for how the jury should consider the criminal charges.
Merchan seemed open to the defense team's suggestion to include a line about whether the payment made to Stormy Daniels for $130,000, facilitated by Michael Cohen and reimbursed later by Trump as legal expenses, would have been made whether Trump was running for president.
“If the payment would have been made even in absence of candidacy, payment should not be treated as contribution," the potential sentence in the jury instruction reads.If Trump would have paid for Daniels to sign the NDA, even in absence of campaign, due to concern about business brand or family, then the jury would be instructed not to consider it a campaign contribution.
If the jury finds that the payment to Daniels was not a campaign contribution, that could hamstring the prosecution's case. DA Alvin Bragg indicted Trump for falsifying business records as part of a conspiracy to influence an election.
Fox News' Lydia Hu contributed to this update.
(Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump spoke outside the courtroom in Manhattan Tuesday after breaking for lunch and after the defense rested their case Tuesday morning.
"I think we have a crazy case that is put on. There is no crime," Trump told reporters Tuesday. "It should be dismissed before you even have a verdict. But we have a judge that's extremely let's say complicated but let's also say conflicted. He's complicated and conflicted," he said. "Nobody's ever seen anything quite like it."
Trump said the next few hours in court where Judge Juan Merchan and the defense and prosecutor teams of lawyers will discuss the charges and instructions to give to the jury next week.
"It's a very serious situation when a Republican nominee for president, the Republican nominee... gets, number one, gagged. And. number two, is before a Democrat-appointed judge. And you're playing with fire like this, it's very sad," he said.
He reiterate expert analysis who have said there is no crime and that the case should not have been brought.
(Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump's defense team rested their case Tuesday morning without calling Trump to testify.
Court will resume at 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday where the judge and the defense and prosecution teams will discuss the charges and the instructions that will be given to the jury.
The jury was dismissed until next Tuesday, after Memorial Day. Judge Merchan anticipates giving jury instructions will take at least one hour. He expects summations to take at least a day. Merchan said he likes a jury to hear both at the same time. He then likes to give the jury charge, and then Jury begins deliberations.
Merchan said he likes a jury to hear both sides' closing arguments at the same time. He then likes to give the jury charge, and then jury can begin deliberations.
Jury deliberations should begin next Wednesday, May 29.
Fox News' Grace Taggart contributed to this update.
MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell went to bat for disgraced ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen after the star witness in the ongoing New York trial admitted to stealing money from former President Trump's business.
During another brutal day of cross-examination, Cohen was pressed by Trump defense lawyer Todd Blanche on an alleged $50,000 that was supposed to be paid to tech company Red Finch but ended up paying just $20,000 of that money in a brown paper bag, pocketing the remaining $30,000 for himself.
"You stole from the Trump Org, right?" Blanche asked Cohen on Monday.
"Yes, sir," Cohen responded.
During MSNBC's coverage of the trial, O'Donnell shrugged off the stunning revelation, calling the payment to Red Finch "irrelevant" and admonishing Blanche for not pressing Cohen on the $130,000 that was paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels that is at the center of the trial despite the "effective" exchange.
"Later when Cohen was asked about that on redirect by the prosecution, it didn’t really sound like stealing $30,000," O'Donnell said. "It sounded a lot like Michael Cohen doing the little that could within that calculation to rebalance the bonus he thought he deserved."
"And it still came out as less than the bonus he thought he deserved and the bonus he had gotten the year before," O'Donnell added.
Former President Trump blasted Judge Juan Merchan yet again in comments to the press before entering the courtroom for his New York criminal trial on Tuesday.
Trump argued that his defense team has essentially "won" the case already, and that Merchan should side "decisively" against Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.
"Any other judge would have thrown this case out," Trump said.
Tuesday's proceedings will begin with the defense team's first opportunity to call witnesses in the case, with the prosecution resting at the end of Monday's proceedings.
The defense team has already canceled plans to call at least one witness after Merchan drastically limited what the witness would be allowed to discuss. The witness, former FEC commissioner Brad Smith, would have testified regarding election laws.
Donald Trump (Getty Images)
Former President Trump summed up his thoughts on his New York criminal trial in just two words on social media before he appeared at the Manhattan courthouse on Monday.
"KANGAROO COURT!" he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump has railed against the case for weeks, in addition to criticizing Judge Juan Merchan and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for bringing it forward.
"'There weren’t any campaign violations committed by Trump,' Jonathan Turley," Trump also posted Tuesday morning.
The prosecution rested its case on Monday after Trump's defense team finished its cross examination of ex-lawyer Michael Cohen.
The defense now has the opportunity to call its own witnesses. It remains unclear whether they will call Trump to the stand.
Former President Donald Trump stepped away from his ongoing hush money trial to hold a high-priced campaign fundraiser in Lexington, Ky.
Tickets for the exclusive event, held in May, reportedly started at $25,000, as Trump continues raising money for his 2024 presidential bid. The fundraiser was held on a Wednesday, the mid-week break Trump gets from his ongoing hush money trial in New York City.
The event was highly exclusive, but a Republican strategist told FOX 56 that it was "a natural fit" to hold an event in the city.
“Obviously, he has the fund-raising chairs of his campaign committee, the Crafts, here in Lexington. So, I think it’s a natural fit to come in. And there are a certain number of high-level donors that you can get, and this is certainly a high-level donor event,” Tres Watson, a GOP strategist, told FOX 56.
Fox News' Aubrie Spady contributed to this report
Through courtroom testimony in NY v. Trump, it was discovered that former Trump ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen, who is now the prosecution’s ‘star witness,’ made millions off of his life story.
On May 14, Trump attorney Todd Blanche played for Cohen a clip of his “Mea Culpa” podcast, and later asked if the disbarred attorney ever said Trump needs to wear handcuffs and be perp walked.
After Cohen said he couldn’t recall, he confirmed however that he makes money from “Mea Culpa,” while clarifying it is unfair to say he is motivated by fame or publicity in doing so.
When Cohen’s memoir “Disloyal” was released, Cohen made $2 million.
Cohen also published another book, “Revenge: How Donald Trump weaponized the U.S. Department of Justice Against His Critics,” which also likely made him a hefty sum.
Fox News’ Maria Paronich contributed to this report.
Todd Blanche is former President Trump’s defense attorney. Blanche joined Trump’s legal team last year on the eve of his arraignment in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case.
Blanche previously represented Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman. Manafort was charged as part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation in 2019, and pleaded guilty to foreign lobbying and witness tampering, as well as tax fraud and conspiracy.
Blanche successfully got a criminal case against Manafort dismissed in the same courthouse that is holding the Trump criminal trial.
Blanche is leading the cross-examination of the prosecution’s “star witness” Michael Cohen.
NY v. Trump ‘star witness’ Michael Cohen reportedly forged an unlikely friendship with a famously long-term nemesis of his former confidant Donald Trump.
Reports surfaced last week that comedian Rosie O’Donnell texted with Cohen while he testified last week, urging him to “breathe,” “relax” and “tell the truth.”
“[u] got this” “i (sic) love you,” some of the messages read according to Breitbart News.
When O’Donnell offered more words of encouragement, Cohen wrote back, “Thank you and truly love you.”
O’Donnell’s bad blood toward Trump began in 2006, when she took issue on “The View” with his decision not to fire a Miss USA contestant for drug use.
She lit into Trump, at one point calling him a “snake oil salesman on ‘Little House on the Prairie,” to which he replied by calling her a “real loser.”
Ever since, Trump occasionally tosses insults her way, including during a 2016 Fox News debate when he was asked about calling women various disparaging names.
“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” Trump replied to raucous audience laughter.
Judge Juan Merchan could rule Tuesday morning on Trump defense attorneys’ motion to dismiss the case against the former president altogether after the prosecution rested its case following days of testimony from its star witness, Michael Cohen.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified business records 34 times to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic performer, in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains his innocence.
After Michael Cohen’s fourth day of testimony was complete, the prosecution rested its case, and Trump defense attorneys called two of their own witnesses.
At the end of court for the day, Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche asked for an immediate order of dismissal, saying there is "no evidence" that the filings or business records at the center of the case were false, that there are "absolutely no false business filings."
Blanche said there is no dispute that Cohen acted as a personal attorney for Trump in 2017 and that there is no evidence or intent by Trump to mislead, hide or falsify business records.
Blanche said there would be records of intent to defraud, if they existed, and that there were no other crimes being covered up. He said there was no evidence of anyone thinking of a campaign finance charge when the payment was made to Stormy Daniels or when Cohen and then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg developed the repayment plan.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Brooke Singman
Live Coverage begins here