Donald Trump decides against testifying in hush-money trial

Donald Trump’s lawyers have wrapped up their case after calling two witnesses, setting the stage for the next phase of the hush-money trial.

Donald Trump’s defence team rested its case in his hush-money trial Tuesday, with the former president opting not to testify.

His lawyers wrapped up their case after calling two witnesses, setting the stage for the next phase of the trial. Justice Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over the case, dismissed the jury for the rest of the week and instructed them to return next Tuesday for closing arguments. He said he expected deliberations to begin the following day.

Whether Trump would take the stand had been a question hanging over the trial. He had previously said that he intended to testify, but on other occasions he hedged. Criminal defence attorneys typically advise their clients not to testify because of the unpredictability of cross-examination. Testifying would have opened Trump up to gruelling questioning by prosecutors about an alleged sexual encounter with porn star Stormy Daniels and his treatment of other women.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to buy her silence about the alleged tryst. He has denied the allegations – and having sex with Daniels. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the charges, of being politically motivated.

Over more than four weeks, jurors have heard testimony from nearly two dozen witnesses, including Daniels and Michael Cohen, Trump’s one-time fixer who said that the former president directed the cover-up of the hush-money payment.

Merchan was expected to hold a charging conference Tuesday afternoon, where he, the prosecution and the defence hash out how to explain the law to jurors ahead of deliberations.

Earlier Tuesday, Bob Costello, a lawyer and the defence’s main witness, returned to the stand to face a final round of questioning from prosecutors. On Monday, he had given testimony that contradicted what Cohen had told jurors. Costello recalled meeting with a panicked Cohen in April 2018 after federal investigators had searched his hotel and office.

“I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump,” Costello said Cohen told him. Cohen also said he made the payment to Daniels himself and Trump had no role, Costello recounted.

Prosecutors challenged Costello’s testimony on Tuesday, portraying him as a Trump ally who pressured Cohen to remain loyal to Trump after the raids by federal authorities. Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger also showed the jury emails from 2018 in which Costello appeared frustrated that Cohen had spurned his offer of legal representation.

“You still have a lot of animosity against Michael Cohen,” Hoffinger said. “No,” Costello replied.