Closing arguments ended on May 28 in Donald Trump’s falsified documents case in New York City, leaving in the hands of the jury whether he will be a convicted felon heading into the 2024 presidential election.
Jury deliberations will begin in a few hours.
The case could result in jail time for the former president, although it’s widely considered to be the least consequential of the four criminal prosecutions he’s facing. It’s unclear how long the jury will deliberate.
Todd Blanche, who spoke for the defense, used his closing arguments to attack Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and witness for the prosecution. Blanche described Cohen as “the GLOAT: the greatest liar of all time” and told the jury he was the “embodiment of reasonable doubt.”
Cohen was a key part of the prosecution’s attempt to claim Trump reimbursed him for payments to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford as part of an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election. He is also a convicted perjurer who, as Trump’s legal team noted, has attacked the former president and expressed “delight” at seeing Trump booked on criminal charges.
“He lied to you repeatedly,” Blanche said of Cohen. “He lied many, many times before you even met him. His financial and personal well-being depends on this case. He is biased and motivated to tell you a story that is not true.”
Trump has denied wrongdoing and having an affair with Clifford. He has described the case as bogus and election interference.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office attempted to defend Cohen but prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said “we didn’t choose Michael Cohen to be our witness. We didn’t pick him up at the witness store.”
Steinglass told the jury there was a “mountain” of corroboration for the allegations against Trump. Referencing Clifford, Steinglass said: “We don’t have to prove that sex actually took place, but the defendant knew what happened in that hotel room and the extent that you credit her testimony, that only reinforces his incentive to buy her silence.”
The attorneys clashed over the alleged “catch and kill” scheme involving former Playboy model Karen McDougal and the National Enquirer. Steinglass said it showed “the defendant’s cavalier willingness to hide this payoff” while Blanche claimed McDougal’s deal with AMI, the National Enquirer’s parent company, was “not a catch-and-kill” scheme.
Outside the courthouse, actor Robert De Niro criticized President Trump and got into a shouting match with one of his supporters. De Niro told the supporter “you are gangsters” while the man told him “you are washed up.”
Both Trump’s and Joe Biden’s campaigns made an appearance. The former claimed the presence of the latter proved the political nature of the prosecutions against Trump. A Biden adviser indicated he was present because of the media attention, not the trial itself.
—Sam Dorman and the Associated Press
PROPERTY OWNERS CHALLENGE OPEN FIELDS DOCTRINE
A Prohibition-era Supreme Court ruling landed some property owners in hot water with government agents. Now, they are fighting back against what they say were violations of their constitutional rights.
Tom Manuel of Covington, Louisiana, took great pains to identify his property as private by posting “No Trespassing” signs and marking his boundary lines with blue paint. That’s why he was shocked when he was confronted by a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agent while hunting on his land.
Manuel answered the warden’s questions and then asked one of his own: What probable cause did the agent have for entering his property?
“He said, ‘The mere fact that you’re hunting was all the probable cause I need,’” Manuel told The Epoch Times of the Dec. 6, 2023, incident.
As it happens, the Supreme Court laid the legal groundwork for Manuel’s encounter with the game warden 100 years ago when it instituted the “open fields doctrine.”
The doctrine established that citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights do not extend to property outside the “curtilage” of—or area directly adjacent to—any structures on their land.
And Manuel is not the only property owner to have been caught unawares by this rule.
On April 28, 2023, Josh Highlander, his wife, and young son were playing basketball on their property in New Kent, Virginia, when they spotted a figure in camouflage clothing in the woods behind their house.
Highlander’s suspicions that it was a game warden were later confirmed when he learned that wardens had taken a wildlife camera he’d set up to search for evidence of hunting violations.
The camera had been on a post in an open field, making it fair game for state agents, according to Harvard Law School professor Maureen Brady.
But Highlander and Manuel, both represented by the Institute for Justice, are pursuing legal recourse.
The institute reports that approximately 1.2 billion acres, or 96 percent, of all private land has no Fourth Amendment protection because of the open fields doctrine.
Seven states have rejected the doctrine, however—including Louisiana. In 1978, the state’s Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution requires a warrant for law enforcement to enter private property.
But Louisiana wildlife officers are still taught to trespass, said Institute for Justice attorney James Knight, who is representing Manuel in his lawsuit.
“So, what Tom is asking the Court to do is to reaffirm that older decision … and to tell the officers that they would have to get a warrant,” Knight said.
Their ultimate goal, Knight and Manuel said, is to ensure compliance with the Fourth Amendment.
—Michael Clements and Samantha Flom
BOOKMARKS
Terms have been set for the first presidential debates between Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, but it’s unclear who benefits most from those arrangements, The Epoch Times’ Lawrence Wilson reports. Experts weigh in on who they think is more favorably positioned.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a gag order on Trump was denied by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday, The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reports. The request followed claims the former president made about the FBI’s raid on his home.
Actor Robert De Niro joined the Biden campaign and two former Capitol Police officers in New York on Tuesday to criticize Trump, The Epoch Times’ Jacob Burg reports. The press conference came as the former president’s Manhattan criminal trial was wrapping up.
Trump has endorsed the primary opponent of House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good (R-Va.), The Epoch Times’ Jackson Richman reports. The former president’s criticism comes after Good traveled to New York to support him amid his ongoing criminal trial.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) managed to fend off a primary challenge by Brandon Herrera, a gun rights YouTuber in a runoff election yesterday.