Donald Trump’s hush money trial is heading into the final stretch, with prosecutors’ last and star witness expected back on the stand for more grilling before the former president’s lawyers get their chance to put on a case
— Donald Trump’s hush money trial is heading into the final stretch, with prosecutors’ last and star witness back on the stand Monday for more grilling before the former president’s lawyers get their chance to put on a case.
The landmark trial will kick back off in Manhattan with more defense cross-examination of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, whose pivotal testimony last week directly tied Trump to the alleged hush money scheme. He’s the last prosecution witness and it’s not yet clear whether Trump’s attorneys will call any witnesses, let alone the presumptive Republican presidential nominee himself.
Defense lawyers already have questioned Cohen for hours about his criminal history and past lies to paint him as a serial fabulist who is on a revenge campaign aimed at taking down Trump.
After more than four weeks of testimony about sex, money, tabloid machinations and the details of Trump’s company recordkeeping, jurors could begin deliberating as soon as this week to decide whether Trump is guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
The charges stem from internal Trump Organization records where payments to Cohen were marked as legal expenses, when prosecutors say they were really reimbursements for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Trump has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers say there was nothing criminal about the Daniels deal or the way Cohen was paid.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office is expected to rest its case once Cohen is off the stand, but prosecutors would have have an opportunity to call rebuttal witnesses if Trump’s lawyers put on witnesses of their own.
