{"id":2254295,"date":"2024-05-28T13:59:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T17:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trumps-defense-targets-michael-cohen-in-closing-arguments-for-new-york-hush-money-trial\/"},"modified":"2024-05-28T14:01:02","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T18:01:02","slug":"trumps-defense-targets-michael-cohen-in-closing-arguments-for-new-york-hush-money-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trumps-defense-targets-michael-cohen-in-closing-arguments-for-new-york-hush-money-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s Legal Team Focuses on Michael Cohen in Final Arguments for NY Hush-Money Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrumps-defense-targets-michael-cohen-in-closing-arguments-for-new-york-hush-money-trial%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2254295&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Former President Donald Trump&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anger-over-a-secret-hospitalization-a-hunter-biden-sighting-and-a-contentious-civil-trial-the-biggest-political-stories-of-the-week\/\" title=\"Top Political Stories This Week: Secret Hospitalization Sparks Anger, Hunter Biden Sighting, and Heated Civil Trial\">legal team delivered closing arguments<\/a> to a Manhattan jury \u200cin a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-third-world-authoritarian-tactic-trump-turns-to-top-new-york-court-to-appeal-gag-order\/\" title=\"Trump Appeals Gag Order via Top NY Court\">trial involving hush-money payments<\/a>. Trump&#8217;s \u2064defense disputes the evidence of a criminal conspiracy, citing Michael Cohen&#8217;s unreliable testimony.\u200b The trial centers on \u206334 charges \u2062related to falsifying business records for payments\u2064 to\u2064 Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Cohen&#8217;s admission\u2064 of secretly recording \u2063Trump and misappropriating funds adds complexity to the case.\u2064 Defense emphasizes the lack of evidence tying Trump\u2064 to the alleged payments.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Former President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s legal team began giving final arguments to a Manhattan jury on Tuesday morning as the trial over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/are-the-charges-brought-against-the-trump-organizations-cfo-part-of-a-witch-hunt-experts-weigh-in\/\" title=\"Are The Charges Brought Against The Trump Organization\u2019s CFO Part Of A Witch Hunt? Experts Weigh In\">alleged hush-money payments<\/a> comes to a close. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trump\u2019s defense argued that government prosecutors had presented no evidence of a criminal conspiracy, largely dependent on unreliable testimony from ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over alleged payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During his testimony earlier in the trial, Cohen admitted that he <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/ex-lawyer-for-former-president-donald-trump-testifies-that-he-secretly-recorded-him-before-2016-election\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">secretly recorded<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  Trump and that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/michael-cohen-admits-to-stealing-while-on-stand-at-trumps-nyc-trial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">he stole<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cYou cannot convict President Trump,\u201d Trump lawyer Todd Blanche <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/politics\/live-news\/trump-hush-money-trial-05-28-24\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>. \u201cYou cannot convict President Trump of any crime beyond a reasonable doubt based on the words of Michael Cohen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanche added that the secret recording Cohen made did not actually show Trump discussing payments to McDougal, as the prosecution had argued. \u201cYou don\u2019t know about the integrity of this file and this recording,\u201d he told the jury. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lawyer also argued that Cohen did not tell Trump about a $130,000 payment to Daniels.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThere\u2019s no way that you can find that President Trump knew about this payment at the time it was made without believing the words of Michael Cohen, period. And you cannot \u2014 you cannot \u2014 believe his words,\u201d Blanche said. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blanche also argued that the government was trying to create a criminal conspiracy over documents filed in 2017 when the alleged conspiracy was supposed to aid his 2016 presidential campaign. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" aria-describedby=\"sk-tooltip-9096\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1700760801843000&#038;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG\">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe charges relate to documents in 2017, and 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,\u201d Blanche said \u201cEvery campaign in this country is a conspiracy to promote a candidate, a group of people working together to help somebody win. You have to find that this effort was done by unlawful means.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trump, who has said that the charges brought against him are an attempt to interfere with his 2024 presidential campaign, has been limited in speaking out about the trial due to a gag order placed on him by Judge Juan Merchan. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a Truth Social <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/112515382786192165\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">post<\/a> on Monday, Trump called the gag order placed on him illegal and unconstitutional and said the whole prosecution was \u201cthe Biden White House at work.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Biden campaign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/biden-campaign-taps-robert-de-niro-to-rant-against-trump-outside-ny-trial-us-govt-will-perish?topStoryPosition=1\">held<\/a> a press event with actor Robert De Niro outside the courthouse on Tuesday, during which the actor railed against the former president.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former President Donald Trump&#8217;s defense team presented closing arguments to a Manhattan jury in the hush-money trial. Trump&#8217;s defense refuted the existence of a criminal conspiracy, criticizing the prosecution&#8217;s reliance on Michael Cohen&#8217;s questionable testimony. Trump, facing 34 charges, awaits the jury&#8217;s decision as the trial reaches its conclusion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":2254296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-2154516026.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2254295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/05\/GettyImages-2154516026.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2254295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2254295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2254295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2254295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}