Trump lawyer Todd Blanche used his closing arguments to continue to attack former Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s credibility – a strategy that a legal expert called both expected and central to the defense’s push to distance the former president from the alleged scheme to disguise hush-money reimbursements as legal fees.
Blanche said the idea that the former president had time for the alleged “scheme” while serving as “the leader of the free world” was “absurd.”
Cohen previously testified about a key 2017 meeting at Trump Tower where he said Trump approved the reimbursement plan. But Blanche urged jurors to not believe a word of Cohen’s testimony.
“Cohen had an ax to grind because he did not appreciate what President Trump did or did not do for him after he became president of the U.S.,” Blanche said, according to Newsweek reporter Katherine Fung.
Blanche called Cohen: “the human embodiment of reasonable doubt, literally.”
“Blanche’s big finish was exactly what we expected – hammer home on reasonable doubt and give that reasonable doubt a name, “Michael Cohen,” Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School with a focus on criminal law, told Salon.
Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, with prosecutors saying that audio recordings, internal business records and witness testimony prove he was scheming to kill damaging stories about alleged extramarital sex ahead of his 2016 campaign and disguising reimbursements for the hush money to Cohen as legal fees — all in violation of state and federal election law and state tax law. Each count carries up to four years in prison, which Trump would likely serve concurrently if convicted. Trump denies the charges, as well as the alleged sexual encounters.
Prosecutors say that the October 2016 release of the Access Hollywood tapes – in which Trump is heard talking about being able to grope female genitalia because he’s famous – prompted the campaign to go into overdrive to work with the National Enquirer to quash other damaging stories, including adult film star and director Stormy Daniels’ account of a sexual encounter with Trump in Lake Tahoe in 2006.
On Tuesday, Blanche said Trump faced extortion and that his campaign used strategies common in the world of politics and entertainment – namely, that of NDAs and settlements – to protect his reputation and family.
“Trump is being portrayed as someone too busy and too important to really know what was going on, and this whole case has been about embarrassing Trump,” Levenson said. “They have also emphasized that there is nothing inherently sinister about NDAs.”
As Blanche ended his opening statements, he urged jurors not to send Trump to prison.
The New York Times reported that Judge Juan Merchan grew “clearly furious.”
“Making a comment like that is highly inappropriate,” the judge said. “It is simply not allowed, period. It’s hard for me to imagine how that was accidental.”
And a prosecutor called the move a “blatant and wholly inappropriate effort to call sympathy for their client.”
Levenson said the judge was “right to be mad.”
“First, it is not at all clear that Trump will go to jail, even if convicted,” she said. “Second, jurors are not supposed to consider the possible punishment in their deliberations.”
Blanche also argued that Daniels, her manager, and a former National Enquirer editor conspired to get the money from Trump. Neither the manager nor editor testified in the trial.
Levenson said that Blanche’s claim was a “bit of a surprise.”
“Defense counsel is using a common tactic of blaming people who are not in the courtroom and asking the jurors to speculate about what others might have testified to if they had been called,” Levenson told Salon in an email.
One central issue is whether the $420,000 that Trump paid to Cohen through 2017 was to pay Cohen back for paying off Daniels to the tune of $130,000.
Key pieces include Exhibits 35 and 36: handwritten notes that prosecutors say lay out the plan to reimburse Cohen.
McConney testified that Exhibit 36 contains his handwritten notes calculating 2017 payments to Cohen.
The notes read: “Bonus: $50,000” and include a calculation of “$180,000 x 2 for taxes” for a total of $420,000 divided by 12 for $35,000 a month.
“Wire monthly from DJT,” the note reads. “Start $35,000/month Jan 2017. Mike to invoice us.”
Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.
Former Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney testified that nine of 11 checks to Cohen came from Trump’s personal account, that Trump signed the checks from the Oval Office, and that the accounting department labeled the payments as “legal expenses.”
Cohen said he did “very minimal” work for Trump in 2017, including reviewing an agreement involving a wax figure of Melania Trump.
On Tuesday, Blanche stressed that Trump paid Cohen – his personal attorney – for legal services.
Blanche said Cohen’s invoices detailed how he was being reimbursed for legal services. He said Trump didn’t always look at the invoices, and that he never saw the 2017 checks.
And Blanche asked jurors: why would Cohen do any legal work for free for Trump?
Cohen had testified that he felt underpaid by Trump in past years.
Prosecutors say the $420,000 in payments include money for taxes, reimbursement for Cohen’s payment to a tech company and a $60,000 bonus.
The defense team asked Cohen whether he “stole” money from Trump by only paying the tech company $20,000.
Cohen told prosecutors he was “angry” because his annual bonus was slashed.
Blanche called Cohen a “thief.”
“Literally, stole, on his way out the door, stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization,” Blanche said.
Levenson said prosecutors should use their closing arguments to focus on the witnesses who testified, and the documents and communications that back their testimony.
Prosecutors and defense are at odds over whether there’s evidence that Trump intended to defraud or unlawfully influence the 2016 election – an issue central to the felony charges.
“As he wraps up, it appears that Blanche is making this case into what it always has been ‘Cohen v. Trump,’ with the hope that Cohen is such a damaged witness that jurors won’t believe him – especially on the key point of whether Trump knew about the scheme,” Levenson said.
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
