The Manhattan District Attorney's Office prosecutor and the attorney for former US President Donald Trump presented their closing statements on Tuesday in the weeks-long hush money trial held in a Manhattan, New York City courtroom.
Trump's attorney Todd Blanche firstly called key witness and former attorney for Trump, Michael Cohen, "literally like an MVP of liars," and the crime prosecutors say Trump sought to cover up was merely politics as usual.
"Every campaign in this country is a conspiracy to promote a candidate," said Blanche.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said the case is not about Cohen, but is about Trump and whether he should be held accountable.
Trump struck a corrupt bargain with a tabloid publisher and his former fixer Cohen to silence negative stories, which "could very well be what got Mr. Trump elected" in 2016, said Steinglass.
Jurors are expected to start deliberations on the case on Wednesday and could hand out a verdict in the coming days.
Trump faces 34 felony counts in the case on falsifying business records in a bid to hide hush money payment of 130,000 U.S. dollars in 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels, who also appeared as one of the key witnesses in the trial.
The trial was scheduled to begin on April 15 and run for six to eight weeks.
As the first former U.S. president to stand a criminal trial and the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee in the 2024 U.S. general election, Trump faces four criminal indictments.
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