22-05-24, 13:10
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#52
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re: Hush Money; TRUMP Flips Out -MORE LIES-Trying to Suck Up Sympathy & More $$$
TRUMP on Trial All But Done: TRUMPs' Defense Ended on a Horrible Note as Witness 'Insulted' The Jury
The Testimony Part of The Trial is Officially Over
--TRUMPs' defense team dropped the ball by calling Michael Cohens' former legal adviser Robert Costello to the witness stand, where he proceeded to cause courtroom chaos and get completely impeached by his own emails
The Guardian 22 MAY 2024
In doing so, Trumps' team wiped the jurys' doubts about Cohens' own credibility as a witness from their minds, and put that suspicion on Costello.
Merchan let the jury go for the week late Tuesday morning and told them to return next Tuesday, 28 May, after Memorial Day weekend, to hear closing arguments.
On Tuesday, more than a month after former president Donald Trumps criminal hush-money trial began, both sides wrapped up their questioning of the final witness.
All that’s left now is for both sides to make their closing arguments, for Judge Juan Merchan to give the jury their instructions, and for the 12 jurors to determine whether Trump should be convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trumps team rested their defense, as expected, without calling their client to testify.
Donald Trump Jr defended his dad’s decision in a press gaggle outside the courthouse. “Why would you justify this insanity? You don’t subject yourself to that. You’re going in a kangaroo court, nothing more nothing less,” he said.
“At that time, you will hear summations of the attorneys. And the next day, you will hear my jury charge and then I expect you will begin your deliberations at some point on Wednesday,” he told them.
Attorneys on both sides returned Tuesday afternoon to haggle over what Merchans’ jury instructions will look like.
Here’s What Happened on The Final Day of TRUMPs' Trial:
Lots of middle aged or older white men in suits.. Trumps’ entourage kept growing bigger – and weirder.
Republican lawmakers and other hangers-on have rushed to be by Trumps side in the final weeks of his trial. Past cameos came from House speaker Mike Johnson and veepstakes hopefuls like JD Vance and Vivek Ramaswamy. But Tuesday’s list was the longest and strangest yet.
The group included nine current and former Republican lawmakers, as well as former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka, who earlier this week said officials who’d prosecuted Trump, his former aides and January 6 insurrectionists “must be charged for abuse of power under the color of law”; former Hells Angels New York president Chuck Zito; and has-been former Saturday Night Live staffer turned conservative activist Joe Piscopo.
The trial wrapped up with cross-examination of Robert Costello.
Former Trump fixer and attorney Michael Cohen had described Costello as a close ally of the Trump adviser and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani who Trump’s team had sent to be Cohen’s attorney in order to keep him “in the fold” after Cohen was raided by the FBI.
Trumps team brought in Costello to dispute this, but after some rocky and raucous Monday testimony, Costello faced cross-examination from prosecutors on Tuesday, who confronted him with the plain language he emailed to Cohen at the time.
It included the line: “Sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places.” Costello also emailed his partner: “Our issue is to get Cohen on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from Giuliani or the President.”
Trumps’ lawyers and prosecutors argued over what instructions Merchan will give jurors next week.
Merchan, who will make the final call on his jury instructions, held an afternoon session to hear out requests and complaints from both sides. That included debates on exactly what verbiage he’d use in discussing the specific crimes Trump is charged with and how he’d describe the laws that Trump is accused of violating.
He rejected requests from Trumps lawyers that he offer instructions to the jury that hush-money payments aren’t inherently illegal and regarding political bias against Trump.
Courtroom Chaos - So Judge Clears Court
LIVE: Donald Trump on Trial Over Stormy Daniels Hush Money Payments
Michael Cohen went to jail for same crime Trumps' now on trial for
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