NEW YORK — Defense lawyers rested Tuesday in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial after taking just two days to present their case and declining to put Mr. Trump on the witness stand, signaling they don’t think Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg made a compelling case.
Mr. Trump’s side only called two witnesses, a young paralegal and a colorful prosecutor-turned-lawyer. The former president declined to testify because the burden of proof was on the prosecution.
“There’d be absolutely no reason — no justification to do that [testify] whatsoever,” the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said outside the courthouse. “Everyone sees it for the sham that it is.”
New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan said closing arguments will take all day next Tuesday and jury instructions would take at least an hour, meaning the panel should get the case by Wednesday after the holiday. The judge said he didn’t want to break up the process, so he dismissed the jury for a full week.
The verdict, which must be unanimous, will determine whether Mr. Trump campaigns against President Biden this summer as a felon or a MAGA champion who took on Democratic prosecutors and won.
New York prosecutors presented a thorough case but their central witness, Trump lawyer-turned-accuser Michael Cohen, is a known liar who once told people he didn’t have dirt on Mr. Trump. Prosecutors also needed to prove that Mr. Trump intended to violate election laws.
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Judge Merchan rejected defense attorney Emil Bove’s request to instruct jurors to consider the important nature of the case and reach “very specific” findings.
“When you say it’s a very important case, you’re asking me to change the law and I’m not going to do that,” Judge Merchan said during a conference outside the presence of jurors.
In weeks of testimony, prosecutors tried to convince the jury that Mr. Trump used his lawyer, Mr. Cohen, to pay hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels near the 2016 election and criminally concealed the payments with a string of reimbursement checks to Mr. Cohen that were logged as payments for legal services.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers say he did nothing wrong and that payments to Mr. Cohen were legitimate expenses, not part of a cover-up scheme as alleged in the indictment.
Mr. Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and says the trial is a sham designed to stop his campaign.
Because prosecutors charged Mr. Trump with felony-level counts, they must prove Mr. Trump engaged in a scheme that showed intent to commit additional offenses.
“The jury will need to be informed that, to find Trump guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the prosecution must have proven that the accounting entries were false, fraudulent, and intended to cover up or commit a separate crime,” said Joseph Moreno, a former federal prosecutor. “This means that in addition to being inaccurate, [the entries] must have defrauded a victim or victims, and they must have been done to further a second crime.”
He said Mr. Bragg hadn’t been clear about the other crime.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said Tuesday the additional crime would be a violation of election law from the alleged conspiracy.
Mr. Colangelo said the additional crime doesn’t need to be completed, but there needs to be “intent to commit another crime.”
Throughout the trial, prosecutors insisted that Mr. Trump made payment to Ms. Daniels to protect his election chances after the porn star alleged a sexual encounter in 2006.
Defense lawyers said the nondisclosure agreement with Ms. Daniels had a broader purpose — that Mr. Trump wanted to protect his brand and family by quashing a false story from Ms. Daniels.
“Every single person is saying there’s no crime. It’s a kangaroo court,” Mr. Trump said before an afternoon jury-charge conference.
The debate over jury instructions seemed like a dry, inside-baseball affair but the wording is critical to how the jury deliberates and arrives at a conviction or acquittal.
“How jury instructions are framed can make or break a case for a defendant in a criminal case,” said Brian Claypool, a trial attorney.
Judge Merchan rejected a defense request to include an instruction about the lack of limits on campaign contributions from a 2016 candidate’s personal funds. He said defense lawyers were free to argue in summations that Mr. Trump, being of wealth, could have paid the hush money himself.
The judge reserved judgment Tuesday on whether to accept the defense’s request to add “willfully” to sections of the instructions regarding election law, and he included suggestions from both sides on other matters.
Mr. Trump, wearing a golden tie, shuffled papers and sat quietly while his lawyers jockeyed for favorable terms. An entourage of Mr. Trump Jr., actor Joe Piscopo, House Republicans and former Trump aides sat in the front rows of the courtroom.
Earlier Tuesday the jury heard from Robert Costello, a lawyer who conferred with Mr. Cohen in 2018, and a paralegal who briefly testified about phone records.
Mr. Costello testified that Mr. Cohen told him, repeatedly, that he did not have any dirt on Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cohen said he did not trust Mr. Costello and opted for a different attorney. He felt Mr. Costello was part of a “back channel” to Mr. Trump, through former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, that was designed to make sure he didn’t flip.
“You lost control of Mr. Cohen for Mr. Trump?” prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said.
“Absolutely not,” Mr. Costello said.
Mr. Trump’s attorneys said there was no pressure campaign.
“Did you ever pressure Michael Cohen to do anything?” Mr. Bove said.
“I did not,” Mr. Costello said.
• Tom Howell Jr. reported from New York. Alex Swoyer reported from Washington.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.