Donald Trump’s Lawyer Makes Final Plea in Hush Money Trial

Donald Trump's lawyer urged jurors to focus on documentation rather than salacious details to find Trump not guilty in his criminal hush money trial. Blanche claimed prosecutors failed to prove Trump illegally falsified documents to cover up a payment to Stormy Daniels. Jurors may begin deliberations soon.

Donald Trump's lawyer urged jurors on Tuesday to look past the salacious details in his criminal hush money trial and focus on the paperwork at the heart of the case as he urged them to find the former president not guilty of criminal behavior.

"This case is about documents. It's a paper case," Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said as he began his closing argument after six weeks of trial. Blanche said prosecutors had failed to prove that Trump, the 2024 Republican candidate for president, illegally falsified documents to cover up a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to advance his 2016 presidential campaign.

“President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes, and the district attorney has not met their burden of proof. Period," Blanche said as the trial resumed after a week-long break. Blanche was making his final bid to influence the 12 jurors who decide whether Trump will become the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime. Jurors could begin deliberations as soon as Wednesday.

Once Blanche finishes, prosecutors will sum up the witnesses and evidence they have presented as they argue Trump, 77, illegally falsified records to cover up the payment that ensured Daniels would not go public with her story of a 2006 sexual encounter. Trump denies wrongdoing and says he never had sex with Daniels.

Justice Juan Merchan, overseeing the trial, said he would ask jurors to stay late so both sides could complete their arguments on Tuesday. "You and you alone are the judges of the facts in this case," he told jurors.

Prosecutors have the burden of proving Trump is guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt," the level of certainty required by U.S. law. They will make their closing argument after the defense, as is standard in New York criminal trials. "Why can't the defense go last? Big advantage, very unfair," Trump posted on social media early on Tuesday.

A conviction will not prevent Trump from trying to take back the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election. Nor would it prevent him from taking office if he won. Opinion polls show the two men locked in a tight race. Blanche told jurors not to rely on the testimony of Daniels or of lawyer Michael Cohen, who testified that as Trump's fixer he handled the payment to Daniels and that Trump approved the cover-up.

Cohen testified that he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket and Trump paid him back after the election, disguising those payments as monthly legal fees. Blanche said those payments were indeed monthly legal fees as Cohen served as Trump's personal lawyer during that time.

"In life usually the simplest answer is the right one, and that’s certainly the case here,” Blanche said. During the trial, jurors heard about Cohen's felony convictions and imprisonment, his history of lying and his lingering animosity for his former boss. Cohen also admitted to stealing from Trump's company.

If found guilty, Trump faces up to four years in prison, although imprisonment is unlikely for a first-time felon convicted of such a crime. Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, normally a misdemeanor under New York law.

Prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office elevated those charges to felonies, saying Trump falsified those records to disguise what amounted to an illegal campaign contribution: the payment that bought Daniels' silence about the alleged 2006 sexual encounter at a time when Trump was already facing multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies wrongdoing. His lawyers have implied that the payment for Daniels' silence was intended to spare Trump's family from embarrassment, not to protect his White House bid. Prosecutors will cite testimony to argue otherwise.

Trump faces three other criminal prosecutions as well, but none is likely to go to trial before the election. Separate cases in Washington and Georgia accuse him of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, while another case in Florida charges him with mishandling classified information after he left office in 2021.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in all of the cases and says they are an effort by Biden's Democratic allies to hobble his presidential bid.