Former United States President Donald Trump will not testify at his historic trial for hidden payments to an adult film actress, where the examination of the case ended on Tuesday without him giving his version of the facts to the jurors.
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After more than four weeks of debate, the second and final defense witness has completed his hearing, paving the way for the very final phases of this high-stakes trial for the Republican candidate for the November 5 presidential election.
The next hearing, purely procedural, will take place on Thursday.
“On Tuesday (next), you will hear the pleadings” of the defense and the prosecution, “and I hope that you will begin to deliberate” the following day, Judge Juan Merchan told the jurors.
The judge will then entrust the jurors with the difficult task of deciding whether Donald Trump is guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, of 34 accounting falsifications linked to the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels to avoid a possible sex scandal at the very end of the 2016 presidential campaign.
Photo AFP
This payment was intended to buy her silence about a sexual relationship that the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims to have had with Donald Trump in 2006, when he was already married to his wife, Melania. Donald Trump denies this relationship.
For more than four weeks, the jury saw the main players in the case parade.
Unanimously
To find him guilty, the unanimity of the jurors will be required.
“Everyone says that there is no crime (…) All the experts say that there is no crime and that I have done nothing wrong,” he said. his arrival in court Tuesday, the former president of the United States, the first in history to appear in a criminal trial.
Donald Trump had assured, before the trial, that he would testify in the courtroom. But his lawyers called only two other witnesses, meaning he was giving up. This was what many observers predicted, noting that he was exposed to the risk of merciless cross-examination from prosecutors.
A conviction would have the effect of a political earthquake for the Republican candidate, 77, although he could still run on November 5.
The defense did everything to discredit the main witnesses, starting with Michael Cohen, accuser number one whose impression left on the jurors will be crucial.
During a cross-examination which stretched over three days, Donald Trump’s lawyers spared nothing from the man who described himself as the man of the former president’s bad tricks, capable of ” lie” and “intimidate” on his behalf, but whose versions have varied and who has already been convicted of lying under oath before the American Congress.
This work continued Tuesday with the second and final defense witness, lawyer Robert Costello, who questioned Michael Cohen’s version.
If the septuagenarian were convicted, he could still run for president.
Photo AFP
But this witness especially marked the hearing on Monday by making Judge Juan Merchan, usually imperturbable, come off his hinges. Speaking in a familiar and theatrical manner, not masking his exasperation at the magistrate’s interventions, Robert Costello was severely reprimanded and called to order.
Seeing that he continued to stare straight into his eyes, the judge even had the room evacuated for a few minutes to explain himself to the witness.
Risk
The prosecution called 19 witnesses and submitted hundreds of documents to the proceedings, including text message exchanges, emails between the protagonists as well as the invoices and checks at the center of the accusations.
The defense called two witnesses. Donald Trump had assured before the trial that he would testify. He finally gave up, as many observers predicted, for whom he would have exposed himself to merciless cross-examination from prosecutors.
The trial alternated between dry, technical phases and intense testimonies, such as those of Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.
The actress shared her experience of her meeting with Donald Trump and her sexual relationship with him in 2006, an act consensual according to her, but where the “balance of power” with the businessman was “unbalanced”.
As for Michael Cohen, he directly incriminated his former boss, claiming that he had approved the payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels.
The former lawyer himself took charge of the payment a few days before the vote in 2016 and he assured that Donald Trump had validated his reimbursement in 2017.
Expenses disguised, according to the accusation, as “legal fees” in the accounts of his Trump Organization group of companies, hence the prosecution for accounting falsifications.
