Former President of the United States Donald Trump will not testify at his historic trial for hidden payments to an adult film actress, where the examination of the case ended Tuesday without him delivering 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.
“On 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. 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, then that he was already married to his wife Melania. Donald Trump denies this relationship.
Unanimously
To find him guilty, the unanimity of the jurors will be required. “Everyone says that there is no crime (…) All the experts say that there is no crime and that I have done nothing wrong,” he said. his arrival in court on Tuesday, the former president of the United States, the first in history to appear in a criminal trial. If the septuagenarian were convicted, he could still run for president.
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.
Risk
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 defense called two witnesses. Donald Trump assured before the trial that he would testify. He finally gave up, as many observers predicted, for whom he would have exposed himself to merciless cross-examination from prosecutors.
The trial alternated between dry and technical phases, and intense testimonies, such as those of Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen. 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.
The former lawyer himself took charge of the payment a few days before the vote in 2016 and assured that Donald Trump had validated his reimbursement in 2017. Expenses disguised according to the accusation as “legal costs” in the accounts of his Trump Organization business group, hence the prosecution for accounting falsifications.