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Donald Trump’s secret plot to bury negative press ahead of the 2016 election deprived Americans of their right to elect a candidate at the polls, prosecutors said in their summary Tuesday of the former president’s New York money laundering trial.
Joshua Steinglass’ closing statement reminded jurors of a summer 2015 meeting at Trump Tower where the real estate mogul sat with then-consigliere Michael Cohen and tabloid David Packer.
At that meeting, Packer said, he agreed to let them know about negative stories that could derail the former president’s campaign so they could work to bury them; it will include adult film star Stormy Daniels’ allegation of an extramarital affair with Trump about 10 years ago.
“Three rich and powerful men high up in Trump Tower sought to become even more powerful by controlling the information that reached voters,” the prosecutor said.
“The value of this corrupt deal: It turned out to be one of the most valuable contributions to the Trump campaign. This scheme, concocted by these men, at the time, may be what got Donald Trump elected.
Steinglass discussed how the alleged scheme worked after embarrassing headlines. When a hot microphone recording emerged on October 7, 2016, of Donald Trump bragging about grabbing women “for cats,” his campaign went into abject panic. Campaign officials did damage control, calling Trump’s comments during the Access Hollywood taping “locker room banter.”
“This media strategy has shifted from denial, denial, denial to spin,” Steinglass said during his summation at Trump’s criminal money trial in New York.
Two women’s sex crime claims appeared days later. Trump’s camp knew their grip on the narrative was slipping and that one more accusation could sink him with women voters. When Daniels, who claimed she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006, appeared to be asking for money in exchange for silence, it was a compelling proposition.
“You really can’t understand this case without evaluating the climate,” Steinglass said. “He was negotiating to muzzle a porn star” who was threatening to go public.
“Stormi Daniels was a walking, talking reminder that the accused was not only worse — she was going to completely undermine his strategy to spin the Access Hollywood tape.”
“Simply put, Stormi Daniels is the motive,” Steinglass said earlier in his recap.
Steinglass’ closing — which he said could last four and a half hours — came after Trump’s defense team presented an hours-long summation that included eyebrow-raising elements, including his claim that conspiracies to win elections happen all the time .
“It doesn’t matter if there was a conspiracy to try to win an election,” Todd Blanch, a Trump defense attorney, said of the alleged payoff scheme involving Trump, who is accused elsewhere of meddling in elections and fomenting civil unrest to thwarted joe biden from the inauguration. “Every campaign in this country is a conspiracy to promote a candidate.”
Blanche’s comments came as he insisted to jurors that Trump did not falsify business records — nor did he try to — and that jurors should not even consider his alleged efforts to influence the 2016 race by burying potentially damaging news. Prosecutors allege Trump planned a capture-and-kill scheme during a meeting with Cohen and Packer in the summer of 2015.
“A lot of politicians work with the media to try to promote their image,” Blanche said, adding that Packer had been providing Trump with favorable coverage for decades — long before his candidacy — “because it was good for the business’. He called this symbiosis between media and politicians “standard operating procedure.”
Blanche did not admit that Trump had conspired with friends to influence the election results by paying hush money, and denied that there was any conspiracy or collusion, but presented it more as a hypothetical: even if collusion did occur between the media and the campaign, there was “nothing criminal, nothing criminal about it, it’s done all the time,” Blanche said.
“You must find that this effort was made by illegal means,” he said at one point.
At the end of her summation, Blanche listed 10 reasons why jurors should find reasonable doubt — and acquit Trump. Among those reasons: Cohen created the invoices for legal services, not Trump, and there is no proof that he ever saw the vouchers or checks that prosecutors say were illegal, Blanche said.
Blanche also said there was no evidence Trump tried to defraud anyone, noting Cohen was issued a tax document. He said there was no reason to do anything illegal to cover up Daniels’ account, noting that it was already public.
Number 10 on Blanche’s list was Cohen.
“Cohen is the human embodiment of reasonable doubt,” Blanche said. He referred to the “Goat” acronym, which refers to athletes and performers at the top of their game.
“Have you heard of the Goat, the Goat, the greatest of all time?” he said, noting that Tom Brady has been called the Goat of Football. “Michael Cohen is the Biggest Liar of All Time.”
Trump, who is all but certain to secure the Republican presidential nomination, is accused of falsifying business records related to paying Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged sexual relationship.
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Prosecutors argued that recording those payments in business records constituted election interference because Trump was in the 2016 race for the White House at the time of the payment and was trying to cover up a potentially damaging scandal.
Weeks of testimony have gripped the US and the world amid the prospect of the former US president being found guilty of a crime. But as details of the case and Trump’s relationship with Daniels were brought before a Manhattan grand jury, they appeared to have little bearing on the 2024 race — where Trump still often leads Joe Biden by a narrow margin in polls and is performing strongly in the swing states that are critical to victory.
Trump denies all the allegations.
Trump, wearing a dark red tie and white shirt, was accompanied in court by his daughter Tiffany and two of his sons, Eric and Donald Jr.
At the heart of the case is the testimony of Trump’s former lawyer and once-dangerous go-between, Cohen. Cohen provided vital evidence about Trump’s role in the alleged hush money scheme, but was also brutally criticized by Trump’s lawyers for his past history of lying and his apparent dislike of his former boss and desire to see him behind bars.
What weight the jury places on the reliability of Cohen’s testimony will likely decide the case one way or the other. If convicted, Trump could face the prospect of prison, though most people think that’s unlikely. Any conviction would almost certainly trigger a long series of appeals.
In her closing section, Blanche repeatedly challenges Cohen’s credibility. “The words that Michael Cohen spoke to you on this podium matter. They matter,” Blanche said. “He told you a number of things on the witness stand that were lies.”
He emphasized that the invoices in the case were presented by Cohen, adding: “You cannot condemn President Trump. You cannot convict President Trump of any crime beyond a reasonable doubt based on the words of Michael Cohen.
Blanche urged jurors to want more from Cohen’s testimony and, referring to Daniels, “something beyond the words of a woman who claims something happened in 2006.”
He also insisted that prosecutors’ key allegation — that business records were falsified because they falsely claimed the payments were for legal services — fell flat, insisting that Cohen was Trump’s personal attorney and “provided services to President Trump in 2017 as his personal attorney.”
During his closing, Steinglass tried to address concerns about Cohen’s credibility, as the defense has repeatedly said Cohen is dishonest and hell-bent on revenge. Steinglass acknowledged that Cohen had an interest in the case beyond simply testifying — and told jurors they were free to take that into account during deliberations.
“Michael Cohen is understandably angry,” Steinglass said. “To date, he is the only one who has paid the price. Peker received a plea deal. Cohen did the defendant’s bidding for years – his right-hand man, his consigliere … and when things went wrong, the defendant cut him off, like a hot potato, and tweeted to the world that Cohen was a scumbag, a scumbag, and election law violations all the while , to which Cohen pleaded guilty, were committed at the direction of the defendant!”
Steinglass went on to say that Cohen “made his bed” but “you can hardly blame him for making money off the only thing he has left, which is his knowledge of the inner workings of the Trump phenomenon.”
“Obviously they want to make this case for Michael Cohen. It’s not – it’s an aberration,” he said. “This case is not about Michael Cohen. This case is about Donald Trump – and whether he should be held liable for false entries in his own business records.
“Michael Cohen’s importance in this case is that he provides color and context to the documents. He’s like a tour guide.”
Trump also faces three other criminal trials: one for trying to influence the 2020 election in Georgia, another for his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and a third related to his handling of sensitive documents after leaving the White House home. All three, however, have been seriously delayed, and none are considered likely to be completed – or even started – before the presidential election in November.
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