NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s hush money trial moved into a new phase Tuesday, drawing closer to the moment when the jury will begin deciding his fate after testimony concluded without the former president taking the stand in his own defence. “Your honor, the defence rests,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told the judge. Trump’s team ended with a former federal prosecutor who was called to attack the credibility of the prosecution’s key witness, one of two people summoned to the stand by the defence.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office called 20 witnesses over 15 days of testimony before resting its case Monday. The jury was sent home for a week, until May 28, when closing arguments are expected, but the attorneys returned to the courtroom to discuss how the judge will instruct jurors before deliberations, a sort of road map meant to help them apply the law to the evidence and testimony. The two sides haggled over word choices, legal phrases and how to describe various campaign-related issues.
Trump, the first former American president to be tried criminally, did not answer questions about why he did not testify. Despite what Hollywood courtroom dramas might suggest, the decision to not have Trump testify isn’t all that unusual, according to criminal defence lawyers and former prosecutors. The reason is simple: Prosecutors need to prove their case, while the defence only has to show there’s reasonable doubt their client committed a crime.
And defence lawyers don.
