The jury heard his voice, noticed his tweets and watched footage of him campaigning for the presidency. However in the long run, the 12 New Yorkers weighing the destiny of Donald J. Trump didn’t see him testify.
On Tuesday, the protection rested its case after Mr. Trump declined to take the stand at his personal legal trial, forfeiting his solely alternative to defend himself but in addition avoiding what may have been a calamitous error. His resolution made, his attorneys concluded the testimony part of the trial, and subsequent week, the jury is predicted to start the momentous job of figuring out whether or not the previous — and maybe future — president is a felon.
Defendants not often testify, however Mr. Trump stands aside as the one American president to ever face a legal trial, a serial litigant who thinks of himself as his personal greatest advocate. Mr. Trump, who’s as soon as once more the presumptive Republican nominee, had mentioned repeatedly that he needed to testify.
However on Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump mentioned in entrance of tv cameras within the courthouse hallway that his attorneys would relaxation with out his taking the stand. The protection would supply just one vital witness, Robert J. Costello, a pugnacious lawyer whose sole job was to assault the credibility of the prosecution’s star witness, Michael D. Cohen.
“We’ll be resting fairly shortly, resting which means ‘resting the case,’” mentioned Mr. Trump. “I received’t be resting. I don’t relaxation.” The previous president, who spent a lot of the trial along with his eyes closed, added: “I’d prefer to relaxation generally, however I don’t get to relaxation.”
Prosecutors accused Mr. Trump of overlaying up intercourse scandals to pave his approach to the presidency. He faces 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise information stemming from an effort to suppress a kind of scandals by means of a hush-money cost to a porn star, Stormy Daniels.
Mr. Cohen, who was Mr. Trump’s longtime private lawyer and fixer, made the $130,000 cost to Ms. Daniels within the remaining days of the 2016 marketing campaign, silencing her story of a sexual encounter with Mr. Trump. As soon as the deal got here to gentle in 2018, Mr. Cohen grew to become ensnared in a federal investigation. That strained his relationship with Mr. Trump, who finally turned his again on his fixer.
Mr. Cohen flipped, turning into the star witness in opposition to his former mentor, providing the one direct proof linking Mr. Trump to the conduct on the middle of the prosecution’s case: the falsifying of the enterprise information.
Mr. Trump, Mr. Cohen testified, reimbursed him for the hush cash and authorised a plan to disguise the true goal of the repayments. The information — Mr. Cohen’s invoices, Mr. Trump’s checks to Mr. Cohen and entries in Mr. Trump’s ledger — all referred to a authorized retainer, implying that Mr. Cohen had obtained the cash for extraordinary bills.
When a prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, requested Mr. Cohen whether or not these information have been true or false, he replied, “false.”
Mr. Cohen was the prosecution’s twentieth and remaining witness of the previous 5 weeks. When he left the stand after 4 gripping days, the prosecution rested.
Though jurors didn’t hear the previous president’s testimony — his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., mentioned Tuesday that his father wouldn’t testify “in a kangaroo courtroom” — they noticed video of him talking and have been introduced along with his phrases. The prosecution launched clips of Mr. Trump campaigning in 2016, tweets he despatched throughout his presidency and even a collection of quotes from books he was credited with writing.
In one in all his on-camera remarks performed for the jury, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Cohen as “ lawyer at my agency.”
As soon as the case was within the protection’s arms, they referred to as two witnesses: their very own paralegal and one in all Mr. Cohen’s antagonists, Mr. Costello.
A prosecutor-turned-defense-lawyer, Mr. Costello was as soon as an off-the-cuff adviser to Mr. Cohen. When not drowned out by a refrain of prosecution objections, Mr. Costello sought to solid doubt on Mr. Cohen’s credibility. Mr. Cohen, he mentioned, had as soon as claimed he had nothing incriminating to supply prosecutors.
“I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have something on Donald Trump,” he recalled Mr. Cohen’s saying.
However on cross-examination, it was Mr. Costello’s credibility that got here beneath assault, as he sparred with the prosecution for a second straight day.
Ms. Hoffinger, the prosecutor, recommended that Mr. Costello had been attempting to make sure that Mr. Cohen wouldn’t cooperate with prosecutors, casting him as an agent of Mr. Trump and the then-president’s lawyer on the time, Rudolph W. Giuliani.
She produced a litany of emails underscoring her level, together with one through which Mr. Costello wrote to his regulation associate, saying, “Our situation is to get Cohen on the suitable web page with out giving him the looks that we’re following directions from Giuliani or the president.”
Ms. Hoffinger advised Mr. Costello that “you misplaced management of Michael Cohen for the president” as soon as Mr. Cohen turned on Mr. Trump and pleaded responsible to federal crimes for his position within the hush-money deal.
Mr. Costello, defiant, declared: “Completely not.”
She additionally cited Mr. Costello’s first assembly with Mr. Cohen in April 2018, and requested him to substantiate that he performed up his connection to Mr. Trump’s then lawyer, Mr. Giuliani.
“Not true,” Mr. Costello replied, prompting Ms. Hoffinger to point out a pair of emails that appeared to contradict his denial.
“I advised you my relationship with Rudy which might be very very helpful for you,” Mr. Costello wrote Mr. Cohen two days after their assembly in one of many emails.
Mr. Costello’s session on Tuesday was extra placid than his flamable efficiency the day earlier than.
Shortly after he took the stand Monday, prosecutors objected to a sequence of questions. When the choose sided with them, Mr. Costello muttered “jeez,” registering his dismay and irking the choose, Juan M. Merchan. Mr. Costello tried to retract his comment, mumbling beneath his breath that he needed to “strike” it from the report.
The testimony continued, however after extra objections, Justice Merchan once more grew pissed off. He dismissed the jury and excoriated the witness: “In case you don’t like my ruling, you don’t say, ‘jeez,’ and also you don’t say, ‘strike it,’ as a result of I’m the one one who can strike testimony in courtroom,” he mentioned, including: “Are you staring me down?”
He then cleared the courtroom, dismissing reporters whereas permitting a gaggle of Mr. Trump’s supporters to stay.
Then, in keeping with a transcript, the choose advised Mr. Costello that his conduct was “contemptuous” and mentioned, “In case you attempt to stare me down another time, I’ll take away you from the stand,” including, to the protection attorneys, “I’ll strike his testimony, do you hear me?”
Mr. Costello requested, “Can I say one thing, please?” And Justice Merchan replied: “No. No. This isn’t a dialog.”
After testimony concluded Tuesday, either side laid out dueling visions for the way the choose ought to instruct the jury because it prepares to weigh the costs. Whereas dry in contrast with the weeks of testimony about intercourse and scandal, the so-called cost convention is arguably one of many trial’s most vital proceedings.
The directions are usually meant to translate authorized statutes into one thing intelligible to the 12 jurors who will resolve the case. The directions present jurors with a street map to assist them apply the regulation to the info they’ve gleaned from the witnesses, paperwork and different proof introduced to them.
Prosecutors proposed directions that may give the jury what authorized consultants referred to as uncommon flexibility in figuring out whether or not Mr. Trump had a job in creating the false information. The prosecutors argued that even when Mr. Trump didn’t manufacture the information himself, the jury may discover him accountable if their creation was “a fairly foreseeable consequence of his conduct.”
Justice Merchan appeared disinclined to do as prosecutors had requested. He mentioned he would weigh arguments from either side earlier than reaching a call.
Protection attorneys appeared to lose arguments in addition to they argued over necessities for a responsible verdict. They needed to mandate that jurors attain unanimous settlement that Mr. Trump had falsified information to hide a conspiracy to win an election unlawfully. Additionally they needed jurors to be unanimous about simply what these illegal means have been.
Prosecutors fired again that the regulation didn’t require that extra hurdle, arguing that Mr. Trump needs to be handled like every other defendant. Justice Merchan appeared to agree, saying, “There’s no purpose to rewrite the regulation for this case.”
Reporting was contributed by Wesley Parnell, Kate Christobek Nate Schweber and Jesse McKinley.
