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Judge Juan Merchan notes for the record that he gave the attorneys the jury instructions on Thursday afternoon and the parties did not flag any errors over the weekend.

Merchan says he will ask the jury to stay later than 4:30 p.m. ET to fit it all, but he adds that he's "going to leave it up to them."

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Im Gipper said:

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No kidding on the length! They need to come in under 4 hours for sure. Its 34 counts, which is ALOT to have to go over, but still, 4 hours is too long!

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Judge Juan Merchan is laying out for the jury how closing arguments will go today.

"Under our law, defense counsel must sum up first, and the prosecutor must follow. The lawyers may not speak to you after that," Merchan tells the jury.

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Donald Trump's attorney Todd Blanche is delivering closing arguments as the defense tries to appeal to the 12-person jury.
He is speaking from a podium, which is turned to face the jury.
Trump's team is expected to revisit many of the arguments they made during the trial that allegedly falsified documents were not falsified because Michael Cohen was working as a lawyer to President Trump in 2017, according to a source.
They will revisit documents to support this argument and how the $420,000 Cohen made in 2017 was similar to what he made on 2016 from working for Trump.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is arguing that Trump is innocent, recalling his argument from the start of the trial.

"I started out by saying something that I'm going to repeat to you right now. It's as true right now as it was on April 22. And that is President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes, and the district attorney has not met their burden of proof period. The evidence is all in," Blanche says.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is slamming the testimony of the prosecution's key witness, Michael Cohen, during closing arguments.
"The evidence should leave you wanting more. You should want and expect more than the testimony of Michael Cohen," Blanche says.
"You should demand more than the testimony of Keith Davidson, an attorney who really was just trying to extort money from President Trump in the lead up to the 2016 election," Blanche continues.

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SwigAg11 said:

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Defense going first?!?

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Defense attorney Todd Blanche argues the case is about documents, not Stormy Daniels.
"This case is about documents. It's a paper case. This case is not about an encounter with Stormy Daniels 18 years ago," Blanche says.
"An encounter that President Trump has unequivocally and repeatedly denied occurred," he adds.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche says the jury is here to determine if Trump "had anything to do with how payment to Michael Cohen" were "booked on his personal ledger for his personal account at Trump Tower."
At the time, Trump was living in the White House and Cohen was serving as his personal attorney, Blanche says.
"The invoices were all submitted by Michael Cohen," Blanche says. "You're going to hear me talk a lot about Michael Cohen today, and that should not surprise you. You cannot convict President Trump of any crime beyond a reasonable doubt on the words of Michael Cohen," Blanche says.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is arguing that key individuals who were mentioned during Michael Cohen's testimony that did not testify.
"There were key conversations, key interactions that he claimed he had with Dylan Howard, with Keith Schiller, Allen Weisselberg. Those are important," Blanche says.
"Keith Schiller, Dylan Howard, Allen Weisselberg were not witnesses in this trial," he added.

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This is about whether President Trump, while living in the White House in DC as leader of the free world was responsible for book ledgers in NY, which were accurate and also not intended to influence the election.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is showing the courtroom a graphic that shows an invoice, a voucher, a check and a check stub.
The slide shows that the invoice that was created by Michael Cohen was sent the Trump Organization, where accounting personnel including Deb Tarasoff handled the processing.
Blanche says the checks were "autogenerated."

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aggiehawg said:

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I posted the link early this morning.

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"Cohen typically wrote 'for services rendered'. But here's the thing, and I don't even think there's dispute bout this, Cohen was rendering services to Trump as his personal attorney," Trump attorney Todd Blanche says.
Blanche acknowledges that former Trump accountant Deborah Tarasoff testified that she often stapled invoices to the associated checks to be signed by Trump.
"General practice is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt," Blanche said.
Blanche says Tarasoff "never spoke to President Trump about anything to do with the checks or invoices."

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Trump attorney Blanche is pointing to Michael Cohen's email to Allen Weisselberg from May 2017 where he attached an invoice and asked Weisselberg to "call me to discuss the last open foundation matter," suggesting Cohen was working for Trump in 2017 while he was paid.
Blanche is also arguing that Michael Cohen did the legal work in 2017 because there was a retainer agreement, pointing to the other retainer agreement Cohen had as a consultant in 2017. Blanche specifically notes that Cohen was paid $100,000 for six meetings with Novartis.
"That's how retainer agreements work," Blanche says, nothing he was "on call" for the company "just like he was on call with President Trump."

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche says the prosecution has suggested there was "some conspiratorial agreement" to reimburse Michael Cohen.
"He was working for free, That's what they said to you," Blanche said.
"Cohen lied to you," Blanche said, punctuating each word. "Cohen lied to you."
Trump's lawyer told the jury that Cohen lied when he said on direct examination that he did minimal work for Trump in 2017 but then acknowledged multiple assignments he worked on in 2017 during cross-examination like the Summer Zervos lawsuit Cohen served as co-lead counsel.

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Trump's attorney Todd Blanche also alleges that Michael Cohen was lying when he said there was never a retainer agreement with Trump in 2017.
Blanche points to the email former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg sent to Cohen when he was leaving Trump Org, which stated, "please prepare the agreement we discussed so we can pay you monthly."

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"You didn't see a retainer agreement, there's no evidence that there was one ever put together," Blanche says.

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"The fact that there was a verbal retainer agreement from Mr. Cohen and President Trump is consistent with the practices from another lawyer you heard from... Keith Davidson," Blanche says.
Judge Juan Merchan sustained one objection from Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass when Blanche suggested it didn't matter that there was no written retainer agreement.
"He, meaning Mr. Cohen was President Trump's personal lawyer, period," Blanche says.
Blanche asks if the retainer agreement makes sense, or Cohen.

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"There's a reason why in life, usually the simplest answer is the right one," Trump attorney Todd Blanche says, arguing that's "the case here."

"The story Mr. Cohen told you on the witness stand is not true," he says of Michael Cohen's testimony.

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"There is no evidence that President Trump knew anything about this voucher system. No evidence. Not a single word," Trump attorney Todd Blanche tells the jury.
"If the government reads to you quotes from a book… you should be suspicious. That's a red flag," Blanche says.
"If the reason the government is going to ask you to conclude that President Trump knew anything about this voucher system is because something he wrote in a book where he was assisted by ghost writers decades earlier, there's a problem in the proof," he continues.
"Proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not include a passage in a book from decades earlier, ladies and gentlemen," Blanche says.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is reminding jurors that the Trump Organization always labeled any expenses coming from a lawyer as "legal expenses" in the company's system. He argues the government has tried to criminalize this practice.

"That's absurd. It's not a crime," Blanche says.

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SwigAg11 said:

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Has Blanche brought up the larceny and embezzlement yet?

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Trump is leaned back in his chair, turned slightly toward the jury and his attorney Todd Blanche while Blanche makes his presentation.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche says the prosecution could've called Don Jr. and Eric Trump to testify if they thought they were a part of the alleged conspiracy to reimburse Michael Cohen.
Blanche shows the jury the first two checks to Cohen that are signed by former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg and Eric Trump. One check was signed by Weisselberg and Eric, the other by Weisselberg and Don Jr.

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"Both of these checks were approved by Eric and Don Jr., and President Trump had nothing to do with them. There's no evidence he had anything to do with anything involving these checks," Blanche argues.

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The check stub description says "retainer," which Blanche says is automatically generated from the system based on the voucher which was inputted by former Trump accountant Deborah Tarasoff not Trump.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now walking through the testimony of former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout.
Westerhout was one of the witnesses who told jurors Trump was "very busy," and said that sometimes he would look at the checks she brought him, and sometimes he would not, Blanche says.
"You can't convict President Trump because sometimes without being specific at all, President Trump looked at invoices that somehow he had full knowledge of what was happening. That is a stretch and that is reasonable doubt ladies and gentleman," Blanche says.
"The leap that the government wants you to take, that he looked at the check and looked at the invoices and was part of the scheme, and remember what the scheme was, to book a legal expense as a legal expense that he was somehow in on that is absurd," Blanche adds.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche also argues that there's "nothing sinister" about Trump's personal checks being sent to Trump employees' personal addresses, rather than the White House in order to get them to Trump for a signature.

"It's common sense," Blanche says, once you understand the slow moving mail system at the White House.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now turning to Michael Cohen's testimony.
"How is the government going to ask you to convict President Trump, based on the words of Michael Cohen?" Blanche asks.
"What the people have done what the government did for the past five weeks, at the end of the day, is ask you to believe the man who testified two weeks ago, Michael Cohen," Blanche says.
Blanche adds that Cohen's testimony "not corroborated by anything."
"There's not a shred of evidence," Blanche says.

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HTownAg98 said:

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Foreverconservative said:

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Merchan is going to advise the jury that the prosecutor DOES NOT have to prove every element of the crime beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt.

This is, by the way, absolutely unconstitutional in case you were wondering. 🤦‍♂️

— 🇺🇸 The FJC 🇺🇸 (@The_FJC) May 28, 2024

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This is a lie. The jury will have to find beyond a reasonable doubt to render a guilty verdict on the counts he's been charged with.

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"The idea that President Trump would agree to pay (Michael) Cohen $420,000" even though he only owed him $130,000 "is absurd," Trump attorney Todd Blanche says.

"That's what Mr. Cohen wants you to believe happened in that meeting where Mr. Weisselberg walked in with that piece of paper and supposedly showed it to President Trump. That is absurd," Blanche adds, placing extra emphasis on the last three words.

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BIDEN CAMPAIGN: The Biden-Harris campaign will hold a press conference with special guests outside of the Manhattan criminal courthouse where Donald J. Trump is on trial.

— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) May 28, 2024

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now turning to the meeting in Trump Tower and Michael Cohen's testimony that former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg turned to him and told him that they were going to pay him over 12 months.

Blanche argues there's nothing corroborating Cohen's testimony that he met with Weisselberg and Trump while Trump was president-elect, and that they went over the repayment plan.

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Michael Cohen is "asking you to believe he was just going to work for free," Trump attorney Todd Blanche said to the jury.
Blanche says, "Do you believe that for a second? That after getting stiffed on his bonus in 2016 when he thought he had worked so hard... Do you think Mr. Cohen thought 'I'm going to work for free' Is that the man that testified or is that a lie?"

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now arguing that that both Michael Cohen and former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney testified they didn't know why Allen Weisselberg grossed up the money.
Cohen said he didn't care why the figure was $360,000 he just wanted to get his money. And McConney said "nobody would know," Blanche says.
"The witnesses who actually testified in this courtroom: One says I don't know and I didn't care," and the other said nobody would know, Blanche argues.
Blanche says the prosecutors might suggest there was a tax scheme involved in the alleged conspiracy but points to Cohen's testimony when he said he wasn't sure about how "grossing up" of the amount would affect his taxes and that he didn't think about it.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now showing the bank statement where former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg summed up the $420,000 repayment.

"The point of this document is, it contains lies. Again, you have to accept if you accept Mr. Cohen's version of what happened that they were all in this together," Blanche says of Cohen, Weisselberg and Trump.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche is going back to the hand-written documents from Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney, a former Trump Organization controller, about the repayments to Cohen,
Blanche questions why McConney would have kept them with payroll documents if there was some evidence of a crime.
"He didn't get rid of them, he didn't try to destroy them," Blanche says.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche brings up the legal standard, that prosecutors need to prove that Trump caused records to be falsified with an intent to defraud.
"How do you know there's no intent to defraud? You saw in evidence that the Trump Organization reported this. There's a 1099 that reflects the payments from (the) trust and Trump's personal account to Michael Cohen," Blanche says.
Blanche says Trump Org. sent the forms to Cohen, whose duty it was to report the income for taxes.
The 1099 filing "shows the Trump Org. disclosed these payments to the IRS, both from the trust and from President Trump's personal account," Blanche says.
"There's nothing criminal about this at all, it's the way it's supposed to be done," he argues.
Blanche shows the jury the tweet from Trump in 2018 when he refers to this as a retainer agreement.
"If there was an intent to defraud why would he do that?" Blanche asks.

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche briefly showed the jury the Office of Government Ethics forms from 2017 that show a note about the payments to Michael Cohen from the revocable trust.

"How can it be that there was any intent to defraud by President Trump when he discloses it to the IRS, he tweets about it and he submits it on his Office of Government Ethics forms?" Blanche asks

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Trump attorney Todd Blanche turns to the 2015 Trump Tower meeting with David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Inc., the National Enquirer's parent company.
Blanche notes that Pecker had agreed to publish flattering stories about Trump and attack his opponents.
"This is the same thing AMI had been doing for decades. They had been doing it for President Trump since the 90s," Blanche says. "This was good business for them. A mutually beneficial relationship with celebrities."

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