Closing arguments in Donald Trump ‘s historic hush-money trial began Tuesday morning in a Manhattan courtroom, giving prosecutors and defense attorneys one final opportunity to convince the jury of their respective cases before deliberations begin. Defense lawyer Todd Blanche spoke for about 2.5 hours in the morning while prosecutor Joshua Steinglass was expected to go as long as 4.

5 hours. Follow live updates. By the Associated Press Steinglass By the Associated Press Steinglass is telling the jury that Cohen did little work for Trump in 2017, despite the checks he was receiving.

Trump’s lawyers contend the payments were for legal services Cohen provided that year. Advertisement The prosecutor pointed to Cohen testifying he did only about 10 hours of legal work that year. “Mr.

Cohen spent more time being cross-examined at this trial than he did doing legal work for Donald Trump in 2017,” Steinglass quipped. “Do you think there’s any chance Donald Trump would pay $42,000 an hour for legal work by Michael Cohen?” But Cohen didn’t suffer, Steinglass said, noting he got a “cool title” that helped him reel in lucrative consulting clients. By the Associated Press As the prosecution’s summation resumes, Steinglass turned from the hush money arrangements before the 2016 election to the alleged effort to mask Cohen’s reimbursement for the Daniels payout.

“Even after Mr. Trump got elected, he still had to make sure that no one found out about the conspiracy,�.