Donald J. Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial will enter its final phase on Monday with the prosecution poised to complete its case and the defense considering whether to call witnesses of its own.
It will be the trial’s sixth week, and is expected to begin with the prosecution’s last and most important witness still on the stand. The witness, Michael D. Cohen, has already testified over the course of three days, telling jurors that in 2015 he entered a conspiracy to suppress information damaging to the presidential campaign of his then-boss, Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cohen, who was Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, suppressed one of those stories himself, paying $130,000 to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, just weeks before the election to bury her story of having had sex with Mr. Trump. After the election, Mr. Cohen testified, the president-elect approved a plan to reimburse him for the payment, knowing that the reimbursements would be classified as ordinary legal expenses.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has charged Mr. Trump with 34 felonies, arguing that what Mr. Cohen described was a crime: the falsification of business records.
Mr. Trump denies the sex and any wrongdoing. For two days, the defense has cross-examined Mr. Cohen about his past lies under oath, painting him as a mendacious rogue agent who is seeking revenge on Mr. Trump, the boss with whom he was once obsessed.
Once the cross-examination concludes Monday, each side will get another crack at Mr. Cohen. After the prosecution has an opportunity to question him again, so will the defense.
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