Former President of the United States and candidate Donald Trump will not testify at his historic trial for hidden payments to an adult film actress, where the examination of the case ended on Tuesday without him giving his version to the jurors.
After more than four weeks of debate, the second and final defense witness has completed his hearing, paving the way for the very final phases of this high-stakes trial for the Republican candidate for the November 5 presidential election.
Guilty or not, the suspense lasts
“Tuesday (next), you will hear the pleadings” of the defense and the prosecution, “and I hope that you will begin to deliberate” the following day, Judge Juan Merchan told the jurors.
The judge will then entrust the jurors with the heavy task of deciding whether Donald Trump is guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt, of 34 accounting falsifications linked to the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, to avoid a possible sex scandal at the very end of the 2016 presidential campaign.
First president on criminal trial
This payment was intended to buy her silence about a sexual relationship that the actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims to have had with Donald Trump in 2006, when he was already married to his wife Melania. Donald Trump denies this relationship. To find him guilty, the unanimity of the jurors will be required.
“Everyone says there is no crime […] All the experts say that there is no crime and that I have done nothing wrong,” said the former President of the United States, the first of the story to appear in a criminal trial. If the septuagenarian were convicted, he could still run for president.
The lawyer who makes the judge lose his temper
The examination of the case ended with a defense witness, lawyer Robert Costello, an old veteran of the courts who the day before questioned the version of the number one accuser, the former man of trusted by Donald Trump, Michael Cohen.
But this witness especially marked the hearing on Monday by making Judge Juan Merchan, usually imperturbable, come off his hinges. Speaking in a familiar and theatrical manner, not masking his exasperation at the magistrate’s interventions, Robert Costello was severely reprimanded and called to order. Seeing that he continued to stare straight into his eyes, the judge even had the room evacuated for a few minutes to explain himself to the witness.
A “consensual” but “unbalanced” relationship
The prosecution called 19 witnesses and submitted hundreds of documents to the proceedings, including exchanges of SMS and emails between the protagonists, as well as the invoices and checks at the center of the accusations.
The actress shared her experience of her meeting with Donald Trump and her sexual relationship with him in 2006, an act that was consensual, according to her, but where the “balance of power” with the businessman was “unbalanced”.
As for Michael Cohen, he directly incriminated his former boss claiming that he had approved the payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels.