The framework a Manhattan jury will use to consider the charges against former President Trump and reach a verdict will be revealed by Judge Juan Merchan on Wednesday. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The instructions will be issued nearly a week after they were initially set for release. It comes after weeks of speculation about the specific violations the jury will need to determine when weighing the charges of falsifying business records in the first degree against the former president.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The jury instructions are expected to come after a full day of closing arguments were delivered by New York prosecutors and Trump defense attorneys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prosecutors needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified records 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. The former president has maintained his innocence.<\/p>\n
Court will resume on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. for jury instructions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defense attorneys for former President Trump told the jury Tuesday he is innocent, did not commit any crimes and that Bragg \u2018did not meet the burden of proof. Period.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes. The district attorney did not meet the burden of proof. Period,\u2019 Blanche said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blanche added that the case is \u2018simple\u2019 and it is \u2018not a guilty verdict.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018This case is about documents; it is a paper case,\u2019 Blanche said. \u2018This case is not about an encounter with Stormy Daniels 18 years ago. It is not even about a nondisclosure agreement signed eight years ago.\u2019<\/p>\n
Blanche said the charges are about whether Trump \u2018had anything\u2019 to do with payments to his ex-attorney, Michael Cohen, on his personal accounting ledger.<\/p>\n
\u2018The answer? The bookings were accurate and there was no intent to defraud and there was no conspiracy to influence the 2016 election,\u2019 Blanche said. \u2018The proof doesn\u2019t add up.\u2019<\/p>\n
Blanche told the jury they cannot convict Trump based on Cohen\u2019s testimony, recalling how Trump\u2019s ex-attorney \u2018took the stand and then lied.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018The records are not false and there was no intent to defraud,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Blanche said not one single invoice was sent to Trump directly and that Cohen billed Trump \u2018for services rendered.\u2019\u00a0He also told the jury Cohen rendered services as Trump\u2019s personal attorney in 2017.<\/p>\n
The defense lawyer said that even if the amount of work was minimal, there was a retainer agreement, which he explained is \u2018how retainer agreements work.\u2019\u00a0Blanche said Cohen was \u2018on call for President Trump.\u2019<\/p>\n
Blanche also explained that checks to Cohen were not signed by Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018You can\u2019t convict President Trump,\u2019 he said. \u2018Because sometimes President Trump looked at the invoices \u2026 that is a stretch and that is reasonable doubt.\u2019<\/p>\n
Blanche also blasted the prosecution\u2019s \u2018star witness\u2019 Michael Cohen, saying \u2018he is the human embodiment of reasonable doubt.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018He lied to you repeatedly \u2026 he is biased and motivated,\u2019 Blanche said, adding that the jury should want a witness to tell the truth.<\/p>\n
\u2018Michael Cohen is the GLOAT,\u2019 Blanche said. \u2018He is the greatest liar of all time \u2026 his words cannot be trusted \u2026 all those lies, put them to the side for just a moment, that is enough to walk away.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blanche noted Cohen had lied to both Houses of Congress, federal judges, state judges and family.<\/p>\n
\u2018You cannot send someone to prison based upon the words of Michael Cohen,\u2019 Blanche said, adding that a verdict needs to be reached based on evidence from documents and witnesses. \u2018If you do that, this is a very quick and easy not-guilty verdict.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass delivered his closing argument for more than five hours Tuesday, saying the prosecution has presented \u2018powerful\u2019 evidence in their case against Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Steinglass said Trump\u2019s intent to defraud \u2018could not be any clearer,\u2019 arguing that it would have been far easier for him to pay Stormy Daniels directly. Instead, the prosecutor said, he concocted an elaborate scheme and everything he and his cohorts did was \u2018cloaked in lies.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018The name of the game was concealment and all roads lead inescapably to the man who benefited the most: the defendant, former President Donald Trump,\u2019 Steinglass said.<\/p>\n
Steinglass defended the prosecution\u2019s use of Michael Cohen as a witness, telling the jury: \u2018I\u2019m not asking you to feel bad for Michael Cohen. He made his bed.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018But you can hardly blame him for making money from the one thing he has left, which is his knowledge of the inner workings of the Trump Organization,\u2019 he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018We didn\u2019t choose Michael Cohen to be our witness. We didn\u2019t pick him up at the witness store,\u2019 Steinglass said. \u2018The defendant chose Michael Cohen to be his fixer because he was willing to lie and cheat on the defendant\u2019s behalf.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wrapping up his five-hour presentation, Steinglass, echoing an infamous Trump line, said: \u2018Donald Trump can\u2019t shoot someone on Fifth Avenue at rush hour and get away with it.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The comment prompted an objection from Trump\u2019s lawyer, which was sustained.<\/p>\n
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
The framework a Manhattan jury will use to consider the charges against former President Trump and reach a verdict will be revealed by Judge Juan Merchan on Wednesday. \u00a0 The instructions will be issued nearly a week after they were initially set for release. It comes after weeks of speculation about the specific violations the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}