Former President Donald Trump’s trial in New York is coming to a close—here’s what you should know as the country braces for a verdict in the case.
The case centers around $130,000 in hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claims that she had an affair with Trump in 2006. In 2016, then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen paid Daniels to keep her silence about the affair amid the 2016 election.
The payments themselves were fully legal—but prosecutors say that describing the payments as retainer fees on financial disclosures constituted an unlawful attempt to influence the 2016 election.
The testimony of Cohen, who turned his coat on Trump, forms the backbone of the case, in which Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Last week, both the prosecution and the defense rested their case.
Today, the competing sides will present a summation of their case to the jury.
Both sides have reminded jurors that this case is about falsified business records, and prosecutors are expected to emphasize the volume of records they have entered into evidence.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors have shown emails, texts, phone call logs, contracts, and other documentation in efforts to establish that there was a scheme in place to influence the 2016 presidential election, and an effort to conceal it in the creation of 11 payments to Cohen.
They have argued that the records speak for themselves and are evidence of intent to defraud.
The defense, meanwhile, will likely seek to attack the credibility of the 20-plus witnesses brought to the stand by prosecutors—most notably, they’ll likely go after Cohen, a convicted perjurer who confessed on the stand to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from Trump.
After the day-long summations, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan will give jurors instructions on the law, which should last around an hour.
From there, it’ll be up to the jury to deliver the first ever criminal verdict against a former president.
The defense feels good about the case they’ve made, but Trump still has to contend with jurors from highly liberal Manhattan, where nearly 87 percent of residents voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.
—Joseph Lord, Catherine Yang, and Michael Washburn
![Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks to the media in Los Angeles, on March 30, 2024. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F04%2F29%2Fid5639770-RFK-GettyImages-2126432528-LSedit-1200x800.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
TARGET ON RFK Jr.
Conspiracy theorist. Anti-vaxxer. Dangerous. Spoiler.
Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. entered the 2024 presidential race in April 2023, critics have described him in many ways.
In the early stages of Kennedy’s campaign, he was mostly ignored by Biden and the Democratic National Committee. Trump praised him and called him a “a very smart guy, and a good guy.”
But the rhetoric shifted on both sides of the aisle when Kennedy opted to leave the Democratic primary last October and run as an independent candidate.
Now, less than six months before Election Day, Kennedy’s campaign is gaining momentum and causing concern for the camps of both Biden and Trump. He is a distant third in national polls, but he is drawing support from conservatives, independents, moderate Democrats, and libertarians.
And with that, officials from the two major parties and the two opposing campaigns are escalating their attacks, with each accusing Kennedy of being a spoiler for their party.
Democrats claim Kennedy is a “stalking horse” for Trump and is financed by MAGA donors to prevent Biden from winning a second term. Republicans paint him as a “radical, far-left liberal” who is only in the race to keep Trump from returning to the White House.
After his earlier praises for Kennedy, Trump later said in a video that Kennedy is “the most radical left candidate in the race,” though Trump still admitted, “he’s got some nice things about him, I happen to like him.”
That tone shifted later when Trump accused Kennedy of being “a Democrat plant” and “a radical left liberal” who is in the race to help Biden get re-elected.
Earlier this week, Kennedy and Trump each made a bid for votes from libertarians and Libertarians alike during the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C.
During his remarks, Kennedy attacked Trump for his approach to COVID-19, an area where Trump enraged libertarians during the height of the pandemic in 2020.
Trump, meanwhile, marketed himself as a libertarian—a position he says he arrived at after being indicted on 91 charges—and asked for the party’s endorsement, or their votes.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and pro-Biden groups, meanwhile, have directed significant resources to derail Kennedy’s bid to get on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The DNC earlier this year announced an initiative to target third party candidates including Kennedy, independent Cornel West, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
But despite the allegations, Kennedy says he’s a spoiler for both parties.
“This is a three-man race,” Kennedy told The Epoch Times. “I intend to win.”
The heightened attacks come as Kennedy is attempting to get himself on the debate stage on June 27, when Biden and Trump are set for their first primetime face-off of the 2024 election.
Kennedy claims he’ll meet the criteria—including being on the ballot in enough states to win 270 electoral votes—before then.
It remains to be seen whether Kennedy will be allowed to debate, and whether that could pull him from the low 10s in polling up to a more formidable foe.
—Joseph Lord and Jeff Louderback
BOOKMARKS
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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) made headlines last week after three members of his staff—including his communications director—announced they were leaving. But, The Epoch Times’ Mark Tapscott reported, criticisms of Johnson for staff turnover are misguided, and leave out some key details about the inner workings of the speaker’s office.
The Libertarian Party has nominated Chase Oliver, a former Senate candidate that received 2 percent of the vote in Georgia, to head the party’s presidential ticket. The Epoch Times’ Aldgra Fredly reported on the nomination of Oliver, which comes after both Trump and Kennedy made their pitch to Trump during the 2024 convention.
After dozens of innocents were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making his apologies on the world stage. An article by The Wall Street Journal details what Netanyahu said, and the international response to the news.
Near-collisions at airports across the U.S. reached record highs last year—and most of those incidents, according to an article by Politico, happened during the summer. As the industry prepares for summer travel, fears loom large in Washington and elsewhere about the potential for collisions.