Remembering the political climate when Access Hollywood tape leakedpublished at 18:38 British Summer Time 28 May

18:38 BST 28 May

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Having covered the 2016 election, defence lawyer Todd Blanche's downplaying of the Access Hollywood tape's impact on Donald Trump's campaign seems pretty specious to anyone with a recollection of that time in American politics.

Blanche claimed in his closing arguments that the tape wasn't a "doomsday" event.

But in the history of US elections, there have been few incidents that generated as much outrage as that recording of Trump making lewd comments about women.

It didn't leak in a vacuum, either. After the Access Hollywood tape, women were coming forward in outlets like the New York Times claiming Trump had sexually harassed or assaulted them (he vehemently denied the allegations.)

I worked at The Washington Post when they published the Access Hollywood tape, and I recall the days-long fallout from the bombshell recording.

In what now seems inconceivable, Republican leaders were denouncing him and calling for him to drop out of the race.

Republicans seemed to think he would lose to Hillary Clinton.

Of course, we now know that Trump won the election despite the tape.

But in that moment in time when the tape came out, from a political standpoint, it did seem like a "doomsday" event for him externally.

Biden campaign switches strategy on Trump trialpublished at 18:26 British Summer Time 28 May

18:26 BST 28 May

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign had been trying to keep its distance - rhetorically and geographically - from Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York City.

That changed a few hours ago.

As Trump’s lawyer was giving his closing arguments inside the courthouse, Hollywood actor Robert De Niro and two former police officers who were at the US Capitol riot, were bashing the former president outside the courthouse.

The event was organised by the Biden campaign, although the president himself is still in Washington DC and has only referenced the trial in somewhat veiled jabs. The three outside the courthouse focused their criticisms on the former president’s actions leading up to and during the Capitol attack.

It represents a change of strategy in the closing days of Trump’s criminal trial – and arrives at a time when some Democrats have publicly expressed concern that the campaign hasn’t been aggressive enough in attacking Donald Trump.

The Trump campaign - which released a statement saying that the Biden event proves the New York prosecution was politically motivated - held its own courthouse press conference in response, shortly after the Biden team concluded.

Court will resume in just under an hour, at 14:00 local time.

But stick with us as we bring you more lines from inside and outside the court, plus analysis.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

We are now on lunch, but prior to that there was a bit of drama in the courtroom.

Defence lawyer Todd Blanche was reprimanded for a comment he made to the jury about the prospect of sending Trump to prison.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass objected to the prison comment, and claimed it was a "blatant" and "inappropriate" effort to garner sympathy for Donald Trump.

Justice Merchan rebuked Blanche, saying his conduct was "outrageous".

He called it "highly inappropriate" and "simply not allowed."

And then, potentially echoing a bit of verbal punctuation Blanche used repeatedly today, Justice Merchan added, "Period."

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

After reaching a crescendo, Todd Blanche ends his summations after about three hours.

"If you focus on the evidence... this is a very, very easy and quick not guilty verdict," he tells the jury.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche’s closing arguments have lasted well over 2.5 hours. During that time, he has focused on one primary strategy: taking down Michael Cohen.

He ends his closing arguments calling Cohen the “human embodiment of reasonable doubt”.

Raising his voice, he calls Cohen the “GLOAT” - the Greatest Liar of All Time.

He’s hoping that if just one of the jurors can cast aside Cohen’s testimony, prosecutors will lose their case.

Blanche employed several other strategies during his arguments, claiming Trump was not a participant in a larger scheme to influence the 2016 election.

And Blanche has claimed even if Trump did, it was not illegal.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche has accused the prosecution of introducing faulty evidence, including records of text messages from Melania Trump and Trump's bodyguard, Keith Schiller.

He has also called into question the accuracy of the data retrieved from Michael Cohen's phone.

"How can you trust" that the evidence is reliable? Blanche asks rhetorically.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Image source, Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg

Todd Blanche is finishing with 10 reasons why he says jurors should have reasonable doubt.

Here are a few of them:

• Trump had no intent to defraud
• There’s no proof that Trump ever saw the vouchers from Cohen
• There was no intent to unlawfully influence the 2016 election
• There is no falsification of business records, “period”

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Blanche is returning to another tactic he has used to undercut Cohen's credibility: his statements about Trump on his podcasts and on social media.

Blanche plays snippets from Cohen's podcasts where the former lawyer seems to delight in the idea of Trump going through the criminal process.

He shows a social media post that Cohen shared, showing Donald Trump in an orange prison uniform.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

From Todd Blanche’s closing arguments, you might think Michael Cohen is the one on trial.

Blanche has focused on Cohen’s credibility for much of his closing argument.

He calls Cohen a thief who stole from the Trump Organization. “He lied to you,” Blanche tells the jury.

He has told them at least four times this morning that Cohen lied to them, a centrepiece of the defence’s argument.

Blanche is hoping he can convince the jurors to discard Cohen’s four-day testimony.

Remember, a guilty verdict needs to be unanimous.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche is reaching the zenith of his attack on Michael Cohen's credibility, to which he has devoted much of his closing argument.

“He has repeatedly lied under oath," Blanche says.

"He lied to his family.”

"He's literally like an MVP (most valuable player) of liars... He lies constantly."

But what matters, Blanche says, is that he believes Cohen has lied to the jury in this trial under oath.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Defence lawyer Todd Blanche is zeroing in on a specific round of questioning where he believes he caught witness Michael Cohen in a lie.

Cohen told the court he once spoke to Donald Trump through his bodyguard’s phone about the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.

But Blanche showed texts which suggested Cohen may have actually been discussing how to deal with nuisance calls from a teen prankster.

Cohen later said he probably spoke about both issues to Trump in that call.

“It was a lie,” Blanche yells in the court just now.

“That is perjury,” he says of Cohen’s claims that he was calling about the hush-money payment to Daniels.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Approaching the last minutes of his closing arguments, Blanche returns to his attacks on Michael Cohen's credibility.

He says Cohen only cared about himself.

“That rings true from the testimony you heard from that man over the course of several days,” Blanche says.

He suggests Cohen is acting out of revenge because Trump did not give him the position he wanted in the White House.

“Mr Cohen had an axe to grind because he did not appreciate what President Trump did or did not do for him after he became President of the United States,” Blanche says.

“I don’t know how many lies are enough lies just to reject Mr Cohen’s testimony,” he says.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

During this trial, prosecutors have alleged that the fallout from the Access Hollywood tape (where Donald Trump was heard saying he could "grab" women by their genitals because he was famous), helped motivate Trump to pay off Stormy Daniels right before the 2016 election.

Prosecutors claimed Trump's campaign could not take another hit after such a catastrophic and humiliating revelation.

Blanche is now trying to undercut that claim - and with it, Trump's supposed motivation for committing the alleged crimes.

The release of the tape was not "doomsday," Blanche says.

The Access Hollywood tape was “being set up in this trial to be something that it was not," he adds.

He claimed it was "one of many stressful stories" the Trump campaign had to deal with.

Image source, Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg

We've just received our first sketch from inside the courtroom today.

It shows Todd Blanche standing at the podium to present his closing arguments, as Trump and Justice Juan Merchan look on.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

For the past half hour of Todd Blanche’s arguments, Donald Trump has had his chair turned entirely toward his lawyer so he can look at him while he makes his final case.

Trump's three children are watching intently behind him, often looking at Blanche’s PowerPoint on the screen.

Trump's lips are pursed as he glances at Blanche, occasionally closing his eyes.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche seems to be nearing the end of his closing argument.

He is once again claiming the three hush-money payments (one to doorman Dino Sajudin, one to Playboy model Karen McDougal and one to Stormy Daniels) are not part of a broader conspiracy or catch-and-kill scheme.

Blanche raises his voice on occasion and gestures to the jury as he makes this point.

It may be his last real bid to engage the 12-member jury during a long day of closing arguments.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche is trying to undercut Stormy Daniels' credibility again.

Earlier in the trial, prosecutors had introduced public statements Daniels issued which denied the sexual encounter with Trump. These were made after the press caught wind of her story and the hush-money payment.

Blanche asks, what happened that made Daniels want to go public with her story?

"What happened was something that was worth a lot more than $130,000," Blanche says to his own question.

Blanche claims that Daniels got an offer of more money.

"This started out as extortion," he said "and it ended very well for Daniels, financially speaking," he claims.

Blanche then alleges a separate conspiracy between Daniels, her manager, and her then-attorney Keith Davidson, to extort Trump for money and fame.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We're back from our break. Blanche tells Justice Merchan he has about half an hour left in his closing argument.

Merchan tells the court that the jury has agreed to stay late tonight and there can be a "snack run" if needed.

Defence at pains to dismantle events they say aren't importantpublished at 16:46 British Summer Time 28 May

16:46 BST 28 May

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

This morning, Todd Blanche reminded jurors that at its core, this was a documents case, and the hush money and Stormy Daniels matter wasn’t central to the case.

But he has spent a significant amount of time dismantling events he says did not matter.

We’ve gone through two catch-and-kill deals that were arranged on Trump’s behalf. Now we’re on the biggest one of all, Stormy Daniels’ $130,000 pay-out.

Blanche began by again denying that Trump and Daniels ever had sex.

Legal experts I spoke to ahead of closing arguments had believed that wading into the Daniels story like this would be a mistake.

“Stormy Daniels doesn’t have to be a liar for them to win,” Anna Cominsky, a professor at New York Law School, told me.

“I think that’s the potential place where, if they take that a little too far, the jury might say no, we’re not going to go along with, ‘everybody’s lying.’”

Cominsky saw shades of Trump's own aggressive denial tactics in such an argument.

“It’s surprise to no one that there is most likely a lot of pressure from the client to paint certain people as liars,” she said.

“That’s not necessarily the best defence strategy.”