Trump trial live updates: Closing arguments begin in hush money case

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

67% : There were a lot of adjustments being made as Trump's assets were put under the trust's control and it was the first time in decades that Trump wasn't in charge, Blanche said.
59% : "The government wants you to believe that President Trump did these things with his records to conceal efforts to promote his successful candidacy in 2016, the year before," Blanche said.
59% : Todd Blanche stressed that Trump was busy during the time when he signed the checks at the heart of the case.
58% : Trump said, according to Cohen and prosecutors, as in $150,000."Listen to the recording.
58% : Cohen said he wanted to "obtain credit" so that Trump "understood that I was accomplishing what he wanted.
54% : In an effort to show Donald Trump was distant from the transactions at the heart of the charges.
51% : "Nor is it about the confidential settlement and non-disclosure agreement that Daniels entered into eight years ago.
49% : "After playing parts of the recording, Blanche urged jurors to trust their ears when deciphering a key part -- whether Trump mentioned a dollar figure that he might have to spend, as Cohen and prosecutors contend, or whether he said something else.
49% : "Michael Cohen got $420,000 in all from Trump in 2017, a sum that the ex-lawyer and prosecutors have said included the $130,000 reimbursement related to Daniels, a $50,000 repayment for an unrelated expense and a $60,000 bonus.
49% : Todd Blanche pointed to emails and testimony showing that Cohen did indeed work on some legal matters for Trump that year, the Associated Press.
49% : The arguments don't count as evidence in the case charging Trump with falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments during the 2016 presidential election.
45% : "Michael Cohen asked you to ignore the documents, ignore what the email says about sending a retainer agreement sought by Mr. Weisselberg, asked you to believe that he worked for free."As Trump was getting ready to move to the White House, Cohen testified he was upset that his annual Trump Organization holiday bonus had been slashed from $150,000 to $50,000.
43% : "After months of saying politics had nothing to do with this trial, they showed up and made a campaign event out of a lower Manhattan trial day for President Trump," Miller said.Karoline Leavitt, the campaign press secretary, called the Biden campaign "desperate and failing" and "pathetic" and said their event outside the trial was "a full-blown concession that this trial is a witch hunt that comes from the top.
43% : "That is absurd," Blanche told jurors, pointing to "all the other evidence you heard about how carefully President Trump watches his finances.
41% : Blanche argued it was unreasonable to suggest Trump was aware of the details of every invoice just because he knew of some.
40% : At the heart of the charges are reimbursements paid to Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment that was paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels in exchange for not going public with her claim about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.
39% : And his fourth case involves classified documents that Trump illegally retained at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House.
38% : Their task ahead will be to decide whether prosecutors who have charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records have proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
36% : "He said if Trump gets reelected, "he will never leave" and that Americans can "kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted.
36% : "It matters where President Trump was," at this time Blanche said.
36% : When asked by Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche if he was aware Trump is charged in other cases and jurisdictions, and how that affects him, the man said, "I don't have an opinion.
35% : On the witness stand as the last prosecution witness, Cohen stressed that he'd routinely update Trump on tasks he'd performed on his behalf so that he'd get credit for doing them.
35% : To convict Trump of felony falsifying business records, prosecutors must convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that he not only falsified or caused business records to be entered falsely but also did so with intent to commit or conceal another crime.
31% : Blanche questioned why, if prosecutors allege Trump was involved in a conspiracy to conceal the nature of the payments, the sons he put in charge of his company weren't called to the witness stand.
30% : Follow along for live updates:As Todd Blanche resumed the defense's summation, he pointed out that Daniels issued two statements in 2018 denying that she'd ever had a sexual encounter with Trump.
30% : Speaking while the former president is stuck in court, De Niro said Trump wants to "destroy not only the city, but the country and eventually he could destroy the world.
29% : Blanche said the September 2016 recording, which cuts off before the conversation finishes, is unreliable and isn't about McDougal at all -- but rather a plan to buy a collection of material that the tabloid had been hoarding on Trump.
28% : Todd Blanche implored the jury to reject the prosecution's contention that Trump engaged in a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election by involving himself in efforts to bury negative stories about him -- and to reject the allegation that, after the fact, he falsified records of Cohen's payments to hide that conspiracy.
28% : "As he spoke, Trump protesters screamed anti-Biden chants.
28% : As of this report, Trump is currently involved in four criminal cases, which includes the hush money case.
27% : McConney testified that he never talked to Trump about how to characterize the payments and was "just taking information from the invoice" Cohen had submitted.
27% : This case is not about an encounter with Stormy Daniels 18 years ago, an encounter that President Trump has unequivocally and repeatedly denied ever occurred," Blanche said.
27% : The indictment, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, made Trump the first ex-president ever to face criminal charges.
25% : He noted Trump assistant Madeleine Westerhout had testified that Trump would sometimes sign checks while meeting with people or while on the phone, not knowing what they were.
25% : Over several months, Cohen said the company paid him $420,000.Payments were also allegedly made to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged Trump had out of wedlock.
24% : "The defense had previously argued Tuesday that Trump may not have been fully aware of all his invoices.
23% : Todd Blanche argued that the key prosecution witness was lying when he said he was working for free as Trump's personal lawyer once Trump became president.
23% : A second case out of Fulton County, Georgia, has charged Trump, as well as 18 others, with participating in a scheme to illegally attempt to overturn the former president's loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
22% : Trump has denied having sex with Daniels.
21% : Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
21% : Defense lawyer Todd Blanche began his closing argument Tuesday morning by telling jurors that Donald Trump "is innocent" of the charges against him.
21% : Trump is also involved in a third criminal case in Washington, D.C., which charged him with allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
20% : Todd Blanche took aim at a key piece of prosecution evidence: the secret recording Cohen says he made of himself briefing Trump on a plan to buy the rights to McDougal's story from the National Enquirer, according to the Associated Press.
18% : Trump has denied the accusations.
14% : He wrote on X, formerly Twitter that Biden's allies "aren't in PA, MI, WI, NV, AZ or GA - they're outside the Biden Trial against President Trump," adding: "It's always been about politics.
10% : Turning to Stormy Daniels' story, Blanche noted that her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump were aired on a gossip site in 2011, four years before Trump announced his presidential candidacy.

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