Trump trial: Prosecutor focuses on 'cover-up' while defence attacks key witness

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : The lawyer's voice became even more impassioned as he revisited one of the more memorable moments of the trial: when Mr Blanche sought to unravel Mr Cohen's claim that he had spoken to Trump by phone about the Daniels arrangement on October 24 2016.
41% : Defence lawyers say Mr Cohen actually did substantive legal work for Trump and his family.
40% : "President Trump is innocent.
40% : The political implications of the proceedings were unmistakable as President Joe Biden's campaign staged an event outside the courthouse with actor Robert De Niro while Mr Blanche reminded jurors that the case was not a referendum on their views about Trump.
35% : Though the case featured seamy details about sex and tabloid industry practices, the actual charges turn on something more mundane: reimbursements Trump signed for Mr Cohen for the hush money payments.
35% : Mr Steinglass showed, with his hypothetical, that Mr Cohen could have spoken to Mr Schiller about the prank calls, asked him to pass the phone to Trump and then discussed the Daniels deal with Mr Trump, all in 49 seconds.
32% : That language was intentional because, to convict Trump, jurors must believe that prosecutors proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
28% : Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, charges punishable by up to four years in prison.
25% : Trump has denied having sex with the actress, Stormy Daniels.
24% : Mr Cohen said he had contacted Trump's bodyguard as a way of getting hold of Trump, but Mr Blanche asserted that at the time Mr Cohen was actually dealing with a spate of harassing phone calls and was preoccupied with that problem.
23% : He said Mr Cohen, not Trump, created the invoices that were submitted to the Trump Organisation for reimbursement and that there was no proof that Trump knew what staff were doing with the payments.
23% : The New York prosecution is one of four criminal cases pending against Trump as he seeks to reclaim the White House from Mr Biden.
22% : He disputed the contention that Trump and Ms Daniels had sex, and he rejected the idea that the alleged hush money scheme amounted to election interference.
19% : In his evidence, Mr Cohen acknowledged a litany of past lies, many of which he said were intended to protect Trump.
18% : In his own hours-long address to the jury, with sweeping denials echoing Trump's "deny everything" approach, Mr Blanche attacked the entire foundation of the case.
16% : Donald Trump engaged in "a conspiracy and a cover-up", a prosecutor has told jurors during closing arguments in the former US president's hush money trial, while a defence lawyer branded the star witness as the "greatest liar of all time" and pressed the panel for an across-the-board acquittal.
4% : The trial featured allegations that Trump and his allies conspired to stifle potentially embarrassing stories during the 2016 presidential campaign through hush money payments, including to an adult film actress who alleged that she and Trump had sex a decade earlier.

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