There was drama inside and outside as the Manhattan jury will soon have a clear roadmap for their deliberations in the high-profile case against former President Donald Trump. Judge Juan Merchan has given the jury instructions after a weeks long case. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The case revolves around allegations that Trump falsified records to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic performer, ahead of the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche made a strong case for Trump’s innocence, emphasizing that the burden of proof was not met by the prosecution. Blanche argued that the case boils down to documentation and has nothing to do with the alleged encounter with Stormy Daniels or the nondisclosure agreement from eight years ago. He insisted that Trump’s business records were accurate and there was no intent to defraud or conspire to influence the 2016 election.
Blanche specifically targeted the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, portraying him as unreliable and biased. “The records are not false and there was no intent to defraud,” Blanche asserted, explaining that Cohen’s bills to Trump were for legitimate services rendered and that the checks were not directly signed by Trump. He stressed that Cohen’s testimony is not credible due to his history of lying to various authorities, calling him the “human embodiment of reasonable doubt.” Blanche concluded that a guilty verdict cannot rest on Cohen’s words alone and urged the jury to focus on concrete evidence, leading to an easy not-guilty verdict.
However, there was also some fun drama from what appeared to take place outside of the courthouse with MSNBC host Joy Reid.
A Trump supporter asked her if Trump stole her haircut or she stole his.
Ben Bergquam: Did you steal Trump’s haircut?
Joy Ann Weave: “You’re a f**cking idiot!” pic.twitter.com/ucpWqTuRYP
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 29, 2024
