The Latest | Defense lawyers in Trump's hush money trial ask the judge to dismiss the case

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

65% : Trump appeared alert and engaged, his attention focused on the witness box, during Costello's testimony.
59% : Chuck Zito, the former president of the Hells Angels' New York chapter, was among those in court Monday to support Donald Trump during his hush money trial.
56% : There's no disputing that Mr. Cohen provided legal services for President Trump in 2017.
56% : Others sat back and took in the testimony, occasionally peering at the gallery of reporters and public observers.
51% : After the jury was excused for lunch on Monday, prosecutors said they're seeking to show them a screenshot from a C-SPAN video of Donald Trump and his bodyguard Keith Schiller together at a campaign event on Oct. 24, 2016, just minutes before Cohen called Schiller's cell phone.
50% : Before the jury returned from the lunch break, Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled that prosecutors can't show the jury screenshots of a C-SPAN video of Donald Trump and his bodyguard Keith Schiller together at a campaign event the evening of Oct. 24, 2016 -- about five minutes before Michael Cohen called Schiller's cell phone.
49% : That money came largely from corporate consulting deals, plus the $420,000 he got from Trump to reimburse the Stormy Daniels payout and a technology expense, cover taxes and provide a bonus.
47% : Trump signed the checks in the White House, but he was doing so because Cohen was performing legitimate legal services for him as his personal attorney, Blanche argued.
45% : As he spoke, Trump looked directly at the witness box, his arm draped over his chair.
44% : Cohen also testified he'd be better off financially if Trump isn't convicted because it would give him more fodder for the podcasts that provide a sizeable chunk of his livelihood.
43% : In total, he said he spoke with Trump more than 20 times about the matter in October 2016.
43% : Trump pardoned him in 2020.
42% : The case is the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president and the first of four prosecutions of Trump to reach a jury.
42% : He said he considered Cohen a client and had only his interests, not Trump's, in mind during their interactions.
42% : Cohen said he'd paid the company's owner $20,000 in cash "to placate him for the time being" after Trump had gone months without paying the bill.
39% : After initially objecting, Donald Trump's lawyers have agreed to let prosecutors show the jury in his hush money trial a still image taken from a C-SPAN video of Trump and his bodyguard Keith Schiller together at a campaign event at 7:57 p.m. on Oct. 24, 2016.
38% : Asked to describe the difference between testifying in court against Trump and the 2018 federal case in which he pleaded guilty to various crimes, Cohen said: "My life was on the line.
37% : Cohen testified that he never billed for the work he did for Trump and his family in 2017.
36% : "Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about those payments, that he did this on his own, and he repeated that numerous times," Costello testified.
36% : Trump, Cohen testified, didn't feel he'd gotten his money's worth.
35% : Among other things, Cohen told jurors that Trump promised to reimburse him for the money he fronted and was constantly updated about efforts to silence women who alleged sexual encounters with him.
35% : "Costello said he told Cohen the matter could be resolved quickly "if he had truthful information about Donald Trump and he cooperated.
34% : "Back on the witness stand Monday afternoon, Michael Cohen testified that he has "no doubt" that Donald Trump gave him a final sign-off to make the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
33% : Costello in the years since has repeatedly maligned Cohen's credibility and was even a witness before last year's grand jury that indicted Trump, offering testimony designed to undermine his account.
33% : Costello, whose well-publicized split from Michael Cohen was chronicled in testimony last week, was invited last year to appear before the grand jury that indicted Trump after asserting that he had information that undermined Cohen's credibility.
32% : They further dug into Cohen's sources of income in the years since Trump originally took office.
32% : But Cohen ultimately did exactly that, pleading guilty to federal crimes and implicating Trump.
32% : Blanche conferred with prosecutor Joshua Steinglass and reached the deal during a short break in the trial after conferring with Trump and other members of his defense team about how to proceed.
32% : In a news conference after his grand jury appearance, he told reporters that he came forward to provide exculpatory information about Trump and to make clear that he did not believe Cohen -- who pleaded guilty to federal crimes and served time in prison -- could be trusted.
32% : Cohen said that Donald Trump owed technology firm Red Finch $50,000 for its work artificially boosting his standing in a CNBC online poll about famous businessmen.
31% : At first, Trump was polling near the bottom "and it upset him," Cohen said during redirect.
30% : But, Costello said, Cohen told him Trump "knew nothing" about the hush money paid to the porn actor.
30% : He said Trump initially wanted to finish first, but the two decided that would be suspicious.
30% : But Trump refused to pay the firm after CNBC decided to nix a second round of the poll featuring the top 10 names.
27% : It remains unclear whether Trump will testify.
27% : Blanche underscored that Trump was in the White House while Michael Cohen was being repaid, far removed from the Trump Organization offices where his invoices and checks were being processed.
26% : ""I swear to God, Bob, I don't have anything on Donald Trump," Cohen replied, according to Costello.
26% : In presenting those messages to the jury, prosecutors hoped to prove that Costello's outreach was designed to keep Cohen in the Trump fold and to discourage him from flipping on Trump.
25% : Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said he never suggested, nor would he suggest, they were apart.Cohen previously testified that he needed to speak with Trump "to discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it" and he knew that Schiller would be with him.
24% : Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told Judge Juan M. Merchan they wanted to show the image to blunt any suggestion by the defense that Trump and Schiller might not have been together at the time in question.
23% : Trump denies the women's claims.
22% : Steinglass had said they wanted to show the image to blunt any suggestion by the defense that Trump and Schiller might not have been together at the time in question.
20% : After the fireworks over Robert Costello's testimony, Trump lawyer Emil Bove tried to get at one of the main reasons he said he called the attorney to the stand: to rebut any suggestion from prosecutors that Costello was part of an effort to arm-twist Michael Cohen to stay loyal to Donald Trump.
17% : "Well, the journey that you've been on," Blanche noted, "has included near-daily attacks on President Trump.
16% : ""My journey is to tell my story, yes, sir," Cohen said, eventually acknowledging his frequent criticisms of Trump.
11% : As prosecutor Susan Hoffinger began questioning Michael Cohen during redirect on Monday, she took aim at a point that Donald Trump's defense made during their questioning: that Cohen helped Trump and his family with some legal matters in 2017, when Cohen received $420,000 from the then-president.

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