‘Two-bit big shot’: Robert De Niro unleashes on Donald Trump outside hush money trial

New York: US President Joe Biden has made a rare intervention in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, deploying Hollywood actor Robert De Niro to unleash on his Republican rival outside the court where a jury is set to decide his fate.

As closing arguments began in the former president’s historic trial on Wednesday (AEST), De Niro made a surprise appearance in Lower Manhattan flanked by police officers who defended the US Capitol building during the January 6 riots in 2021.

Robert De Niro argues with a Trump supporter after speaking to reporters in support of Joe Biden.Credit: AP

Describing Trump as a “tyrant” who New Yorkers tolerated “when he was just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot two-bit playboy”, De Niro, a native of Manhattan, warned voters about the dangers of a second Trump presidency.

“People thought they could control Hitler, thought they could control Mussolini, it didn’t happen,” said the Goodfellas star, as Trump supporters yelled profanities in the background.

“A dictator is a dictator, and that’s what Trump wants to do and be.”

De Niro recently lent his voice to an attack ad for Democrats that paints Trump as a threat to democracy, but his cameo at the court was the first major attempt by the Biden campaign to directly lean into Trump’s legal woes.

Donald Trump returns to the courtroom after a break during closing arguments in his hush money trial.Credit: Pool Getty

Biden has so far been reluctant to do so, for fear of giving weight to the perception of political interference. His troubled son, Hunter, also faces legal problems of his own, losing a last-minute bid this week to throw out gun charges he is facing in federal court next month.

However, amid polls showing that Biden is trailing in key battleground states – with voter discontent over issues including the war in Gaza, the border crisis and his age – the Democrats have sought to recalibrate, prompting Trump’s team to hit back.

“What you just heard from is a desperate and failing and pathetic campaign who knows that they are losing,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in response. “It is a full-blown concession that this trial is a witch hunt that comes from the top.”

The war of words came as people queued up for hours – some paid professional line-sitters to camp out for days – just to get one of the few seats inside the 15th-floor courtroom.

The former president has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a $US130,000 payment his then-lawyer Michael Cohen made to silence an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.

Prosecutors say Trump directed the payment to stop the scandal derailing his chances of becoming president in 2016, and that Trump later reimbursed Cohen while president, but disguised the payment as a legal retainer, in violation of the law.

But in his final pitch, defence lawyer Todd Blanche insisted the payments to Cohen were legitimate fees for his legal services and “there was absolutely no intent to defraud”.

“Beyond that, there was no conspiracy to influence the 2016 election,” he added.

Michael Cohen leaves his apartment building on his way to Manhattan criminal court earlier this month.Credit: AP

Blanche spent considerable time reminding the jury that Cohen was a convicted criminal and liar whose word could not be trusted, describing him as “the embodiment of reasonable doubt”.

He also took aim at Daniels, who had earlier told the jury in explicit detail about the one-night stand she had with Trump in 2006, when he was newly married to his current wife Melania.

Seeking to paint her as someone who wanted to make money off the former president, he told them: ”She wrote a book, and she has a podcast and a documentary.“

“This started out as an extortion. There’s no doubt about that, and it ended very well for Ms Daniels – financially speaking,” Blanche said.

Stormy Daniels recounted having sex with Donald Trump in a hotel room.Credit: Getty

Prosecutor Josh Steinglass began his closing argument by reminding the jury that at its heart, the case against Trump was about “a conspiracy and a cover-up”.

And that conspiracy, he said, began with an August 2015 meeting in Trump Tower between Trump, Cohen, and National Enquirer editor David Pecker, where they devised a plan to bury damaging stories about the new Republican candidate, a practice known as “catch and kill”.

To that end, the National Enquirer was a “covert arm” of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Steinglass said, and “this scheme, cooked up by these men, at this time, could very well be what got president Trump elected”.

While Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing, prosecutors have shown the jury 11 cheques, 12 ledger entries and 11 invoices (making up the 34 records contained in the charges) used to pay Cohen in 2017.

David Pecker answers questions on the witness stand at the trial in April.Credit: AP

The invoices were transferred by accounting staff at the Trump Organisation, with some of the money coming from a Trump family trust and most of it coming from personal accounts.

The New York trial is one of four criminal trials Trump faces, but it is the only one he has not been able to delay ahead of the November 5 election.

If the jury finds him guilty on all 34 counts, it would make him eligible for a prison sentence of up to four years – although Judge Juan Merchan could also impose a probation or lesser sentence given the non-violent nature of the crime and the fact that Trump does not have a criminal history.

Alternatively, the jury may not be able to reach a unanimous decision, resulting in a hung jury and a mistrial, or they could find Trump not guilty, resulting in an acquittal.

As the jury went on a brief break, Trump posted from his Truth Social site.

“BORING!” he wrote.

After five hours, the prosecution finished its closing arguments and the jury was dismissed for the night. They will be given jury instructions when they return to court on Thursday (AEST), before deliberating on Trump’s fate.

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