Prosecutors for the Manhattan district attorney’s office rested their case against former President Trump on Monday after more than four weeks of explosive testimony.
All eyes turn to Trump’s defense team, which has so far called on legal analyst Danny Sitko and attorney Robert Costello, a former legal adviser for Trump’s ex-fixer Michael Cohen.
The courtroom was briefly cleared so the judge could admonish Costello over his lack of “proper decorum.”
“When there is an eyewitness on the stand, if you don’t like a ruling, you don’t say ‘Geez,’” Merchan said. “You don’t give me a side eye. You don’t roll your eyes. You understand that?”
The biggest question looming over this trial is whether Trump will testify on his own behalf. Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche said Monday he has no indication about Trump’s plans.
The prosecution concluded with a rough day on the stand for star witness Cohen, as Trump’s defense team sought to cast him as unscrupulous and untrustworthy.
During Cohen’s cross-examination, he admitted to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization.
Cohen didn’t try to sugarcoat his actions during the back and forth:
“You stole from the Trump Organization,” Blanche said.
“Yes,” Cohen responded.
The money in question amounted to $60,000 meant to reimburse a firm called Red Finch for boosting Trump’s polling numbers. Cohen only reimbursed $20,000 and kept the rest for himself.
As prosecutors sought to have Cohen clean-up his story, he explained that his annual bonus had been cut and he felt he was due.
“I was angry because of the reduction in bonus, and so I felt like it was almost like self-help,” Cohen said.
Throughout the day, Trump’s legal defense team sought to portray Cohen as a liar and an opportunist who would reap a financial windfall if Trump is convicted.
Cohen admitted to previously claiming that Trump was not involved in hush money payments, saying that he had lied in the past to protect his boss.
And Cohen said he’d made millions of dollars since 2020, when he became a prominent anti-Trump voice in the media.
Cohen’s ventures include a book and a podcast called “Mea Culpa.” He was questioned about a proposed TV show about his life called “The Fixer,” which one of his podcast colleagues has apparently been shopping around.
But as our legal reporters recap, the prosecution put forth 20 witnesses over the past four weeks as they sought to make the case that Trump falsified business records in order to affect the outcome of the election.
“Cohen admitted that the 11 invoices he submitted to Trump in 2017 to cover the payment he made out of his own pocket were false records…Cohen also tied Trump to the broader conspiracy that prosecutors aim to prove occurred when allies quashed unflattering stories about the then-presidential candidate to clear his path to the White House in 2016.”
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