The New York criminal trial of Donald Trump, the first ever of a U.S. president, is fast nearing its end, with one of his lawyers signaling Monday that Trump wouldn’t take the witness stand to defend himself.
The prosecution rested its case in the sixth week of the trial after the 12-member jury heard hours more testimony from its most significant witness, Trump’s onetime political fixer, Michael Cohen.
Cohen acknowledged over four days on the witness stand that he had been a serial liar and had stolen $60,000 from Trump’s real estate conglomerate.
Cohen also implicated Trump in the deal at the center of the allegations against the former president – a $130,000 hush money payment Cohen said he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels at Trump’s behest just before the 2016 election.
The objective of the payment, he said, was to hide her claim of a one-night sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier to keep it from voters as they headed to the polls.
A short time after Cohen’s testimony ended, the Trump defense called Robert Costello, a New York lawyer, to the witness stand for testimony buttressing its contention that Cohen is not to be believed.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove said the defense did not expect to call any more witnesses after Costello finishes testifying Tuesday morning.
Closing arguments in the case could occur May 28, with the jury then deciding Trump’s fate.
Trump has long said he would testify but apparently was talked out of it by his lawyers. Trump has denied Daniels’ claim he had a liaison with her and the entirety of the 34-count indictment against him.
