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Donald
Trump in
a dark
suit and
orange
tie
facing
34
felony
charges,
said his
defense
would
rest,
but he
never
would.Credit...Dave
Sanders
for The
New York
Times |
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Donald
J.
Trump’s
lawyers
mounted
a
minimal
defense
after
prosecutors
called
20
witnesses.
Closing
arguments
will
take
place
May 28.
Donald
Trump
stands
in
courtroom
hallway
facing
34
felony
charges,
said his
defense
would
rest,
but he
never
would.
Credit...Dave
Sanders
for The
New York
Times |
| |
Trump’s
Defense
Rests
After He
Chooses
Not to
Testify
in
Hush-Money
Trial
By Ben
Protess,
Jonah E.
Bromwich,
Maggie
Haberman,
William
K.
Rashbaum
nytimes.com
NEW YORK
- The
jury
heard
his
voice,
saw his
tweets
and
watched
footage
of him
campaigning
for the
presidency.
But in
the end,
the 12
New
Yorkers
weighing
the fate
of
Donald
J. Trump
did not
see him
testify.
On
Tuesday,
the
defense
rested
its case
after
Mr.
Trump
declined
to take
the
stand at
his own
criminal
trial,
forfeiting
his only
opportunity
to
defend
himself
but also
avoiding
what
could
have
been a
calamitous
error.
His
decision
made,
his
lawyers
concluded
the
testimony
phase of
the
trial,
and next
week,
the jury
is
expected
to begin
the
momentous
task of
determining
whether
the
former —
and
perhaps
future —
president
is a
felon.
Defendants
rarely
testify,
but Mr.
Trump
stands
apart as
the only
American
president
to ever
face a
criminal
trial, a
serial
litigant
who
thinks
of
himself
as his
own best
advocate.
Mr.
Trump,
who is
once
again
the
presumptive
Republican
nominee,
had said
repeatedly
that he
wanted
to
testify.
But on
Tuesday
morning,
Mr.
Trump
said in
front of
television
cameras
in the
courthouse
hallway
that his
lawyers
would
rest
without
his
taking
the
stand.
The
defense
would
offer
only one
significant
witness,
Robert
J.
Costello,
a
pugnacious
lawyer
whose
sole
task was
to
attack
the
credibility
of the
prosecution’s
star
witness,
Michael
D.
Cohen.
“We’ll
be
resting
pretty
quickly,
resting
meaning
‘resting
the
case,’”
said Mr.
Trump.
“I won’t
be
resting.
I don’t
rest.”
The
former
president,
who
spent
much of
the
trial
with his
eyes
closed,
added:
“I’d
like to
rest
sometimes,
but I
don’t
get to
rest.”
Prosecutors
accused
Mr.
Trump of
covering
up sex
scandals
to pave
his way
to the
presidency.
He faces
34
felony
counts
of
falsifying
business
records
stemming
from an
effort
to
suppress
one of
those
scandals
through
a
hush-money
payment
to a
porn
star,
Stormy
Daniels.
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