Dem
51
GOP
49
The closing arguments in the Trump criminal fraud case are now in the books. Undoubtedly, the jurors are happy, because it was an 11-hour day for everyone involved.
First up was the defense, with Todd Blanche taking a bit over two hours to sum up his side's position. There are really only two things to know here. The first is that Blanche spent enormous time and energy trying to further besmirch Michael Cohen. Blanche even came up with some "clever" Trump-style nicknames for the former fixer, including "MVP of Liars" and "GLOAT—Greatest Liar of All Time." Team Trump better hope there are at least a few sports fans on the jury who understand those references.
Near the end of his remarks, Blanche also tried for a little backdoor jury nullification, asking the jury to "not send my client to prison." This drew an immediate objection from the prosecution, and a tongue-lashing from Judge Juan Merchan: "Making a comment like that is highly inappropriate. It is simply not allowed, period. It's hard for me to imagine how that was accidental." We did not go to law school, but from where we sit, a move like that makes it appear as if the defense is desperate, and doesn't have faith in its case.
Once Blanche was done, it was time for Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass to take his turn. He apparently has not heard that you should always leave them wanting more, because he took about an hour to respond to Blanche's closing, and then almost 4 more hours to run through the entire prosecution case. Many people in the room reported that jurors were clearly becoming bored, and their attention was wandering.
There were two main themes to Steinglass' closing. The first was that Michael Cohen is not the entire case, and that there are mountains of evidence that back up what he said. The second is that there are great principles at stake here, including a transparent and functional democracy, and no man is above the law. Only the jurors know if they found those latter claims to be compelling.
It is expected that the jury will receive instructions this morning, and that they'll begin deliberations by lunchtime. Roughly 50% of the legal-expert talking heads think a verdict will be in by Friday afternoon, because the jurors will be eager to finish this thing. And the other 50% think deliberations will stretch well into next week, because there are so many moving parts and there are 34 different counts to consider. For our part, we are hoping for a verdict no later than 9:30 a.m. PT. We'll probably be disappointed, though. (Z)