- In closing arguments Tuesday, defense attorney Todd Blanche used the classic “But if he did “Do it” is the defense.
- If Trump did Even if he forged documents, he did not do so with the necessary criminal intent, Blanch argued.
- He then showed the jury three prosecution documents in which Trump acknowledged paying back the hush money.
This is a typical defense closing argument. My client didn't do that, folks. But if he did Come on, it wasn't intentional.
That's the argument Donald Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, made to a hush-money jury in Manhattan on Tuesday.
That's right, Blanche spent much of the argument denying that Trump committed the crimes he is on trial for.
Prosecutors allege that Trump falsified 34 business records to conceal a year's payment to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, for prepaying a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
During a three-hour-long closing statement Tuesday, Branche detailed to jurors that Trump was not involved in any conspiracy to affect the 2016 election, presenting a slideshow of more than 180 photos before deliberations began Wednesday.
But if he was Mr. Blanch argued that there was no intent to defraud if he was involved, and he questioned how there could be such an intent given that Mr. Trump has freely and repeatedly admitted to paying back Mr. Cohen.
Blanche then showed the jury three exhibits from the prosecution's case.
Each exhibit – tax returns, tweets, government ethics forms – was shown on a display screen in the courtroom.
Both charges bolster the prosecution's case that Trump was fully aware that the $130,000 he paid to Cohen in installments throughout 2017 were compensation, not attorney's fees that were falsely stated in his business records.
“The government must prove that President Trump wrote these posts with the intent to defraud, even if they are false,” Blanch told jurors.
“Where did President Trump have the intent to defraud?” the lawyer asked the jury.
Prosecutors will need to prove that Trump had intent to defraud to prove a first-degree falsification of business records charge, a state charge that Trump allegedly violated 34 times throughout 2017, including by signing nine checks to repay Cohen.
In his closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass said President Trump must have approved the rebate program.
Steinglass argued that Cohen would never have advanced $130,000 in hush money to Daniels without his micromanaging boss's prior approval and a guarantee of repayment.
“Michael Cohen had 130,000 reasons to act with President Trump's approval,” prosecutors told jurors.
In his closing argument, Blanche angered the judge by telling the jury, “You cannot send someone to prison based on what Michael Cohen says.”
In reaching a verdict, jurors are expected to consider only facts, not potential penalties.
“Blanche, that's terrible,” state Supreme Court Judge Juan Marchan told her after the jury dismissed for lunch.
“Someone who has been a prosecutor and a lawyer for as long as you have should know that is grossly inappropriate,” the judge said.
“That is completely unacceptable. Period,” the judge added. The judge gave remedial instructions to the jury, explaining that Blanche's comments were “inappropriate” and that “no prison time” would be necessary if Trump were convicted. Falsifying business records carries a sentence ranging from zero to four years in prison.
Below are three exhibits that Blanche presented to the jury in court as “evidence” that Trump had nothing to hide and therefore had no intention of deceiving anyone.
But prosecutors argue that both documents provide evidence of Trump's guilt.
1. 2017 1099 tax return
The Trump Organization and Trump personally reported paying Michael Cohen a total of $420,000 in income in 2017.
According to prosecutors, this is the amount that Trump's then-chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, calculated as the amount that Trump owed Cohen in taxes and other money, in addition to Cohen's hush money payments.
“If there was a deep intent on President Trump's part to commit fraud, why did he file returns with the IRS?” Ms Blanche asked the jury.
But the 1099s were “false,” prosecutor Steinglass told jurors during five hours of closing arguments that ended at 8 p.m.
Steinglass said the 1099s show Trump “filled out false forms” to report non-existent income for Cohen, “because it wasn't income, it was a reimbursement.”
2. Tweets from 2018
On May 3, 2018, Trump sent a somewhat cryptic tweet acknowledging that the payments he made to Cohen throughout 2017 were, in Trump's words, “reimbursement.”
The tweet came just five months after Cohen signed the last of nine $35,000 checks, each labeled “RETAINER.”
3. Government Ethics Form
Finally, in closing arguments, Blanche showed jurors what he called a 2017 “Executive Department Employee Financial Disclosure Report,” which was a mandatory disclosure of the president's assets and liabilities at the time.
In the “Debts” section, where Trump must list money he borrowed, he certified that he “repaid in full” between $100,000 and $250,000, interest-free, to Cohen in 2017.
“President Trump tweeted what happened once it became known,” Branche told jurors on Tuesday, after he signed a government ethics code that also allowed for the reimbursements.
“This is not evidence of intent to defraud,” Blanche said.
But prosecutors argue the documents show that Trump knew the payment to Cohen was a loan – repayment for Daniels' hush money.
Cohen's Pride
Mr. Blanche spent much of his closing statement questioning the credibility of Mr. Cohen, a key witness for the prosecution.
“Cohen is literally the MVP of lying,” the defense told jurors. A female juror in the front row and two male jurors in the back row smiled when Blanche called Cohen “the 'GLOAT,'” meaning “the greatest liar of all time.”
Branche said the district attorney's reliance on Cohen's testimony showed the weakness of the prosecution's case. He said Cohen was someone who adhered to “the jury's word” on the stand, stressing every syllable, and was “the embodiment of reasonable doubt.”
“We should hope and expect more than Michael Cohen's testimony,” he said.
Mr. Blanche avoided the most important document in the case, a handwritten memo by Mr. Weisselberg and the company's auditor, Jeffrey McConey, that appears to explain how the $35,000 in hush money was paid to Mr. Cohen, including a “gross-up” to cover taxes.
Branche argued that if the documents were truly evidence of an illegal conspiracy, the Trump Organization would have destroyed them rather than storing them in a filing cabinet, where they were eventually turned over to prosecutors.
Steinglass countered that it must have been difficult for Blanche to make that allegation “with a straight face” and said the illegal conspiracy was specified “in the document itself.”
“These documents are so reprehensible that it's hard not to laugh,” he said.
At the start of the prosecution's closing arguments Tuesday afternoon, Steinglass said that while Cohen may have a history of misconduct, he is innocent and has “consistently presented the facts of this case for six years.”
“We did not pick Michael Cohen. We did not pick him up in a witness shop,” Steinglass said. “The defendants picked Michael Cohen because he was willing to lie.”
Branche also criticized the time the prosecution spent extracting testimony from Daniels, who he said was not material to the criminal forgery charge, and that the prosecution only wanted to “embarrass” Trump.
Steinglass said Daniels' graphic and “disturbing” details were “true” and “uncomfortable” and that's why they were so important: Trump tried to cover up her story in order to influence the election, he said.
“That's the problem,” Steinglass said. “That's exactly what the defendants did not want the American people to see.”
Steinglass said Trump paid the $130,000 to cover up the scandal, not to cover up photos of him and Daniels on the golf course.
“Stormy Daniels is the motive,” he said.
