Pratiksha Ghildial
Reporting from outside court

There are more people than usual gathered outside the courthouse today.

It feels like a bit of a circus as one man tries to sell some Trump merchandise on one side, and a few women shout “We love Trump!” on the other.

There is also a woman holding a placard with Trump’s famous mugshot that says “Never Surrender”.

A vlogger is recording himself talking about a “sham trial” as music blares out of a speaker belonging to another protester next to him.

The man selling the merchandise, Dion Cini, says, “I am here to celebrate President Trump. Whatever the result of this trial, he wins,” he says.

A short time ago, a small fist fight broke out in the park between a Trump supporter and opponent, but police quickly broke it up.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche continues to try to distance Donald Trump from the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.

He notes that we didn’t hear testimony from several people involved in the payment - including Daniels’ manager Gina Rodriguez.

This should leave jurors to speculate, he says.

Blanche casts doubt on the testimony of Daniels’ lawyer, Keith Davidson, whom he paints as an extortionist.

Prosecutors are taking copious notes in the front row as Blanche speaks.

If Blanche sticks to the timeline he gave to Justice Merchan, he could finish soon.

But before then, we have a quick break. Court should be back in 10 minutes.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Image source, Reuters

Todd Blanche is claiming that Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels both denied a sexual encounter took place.

That isn't quite true - Daniels has testified that her previous public denials were because of the non-disclosure agreement she signed.

After Daniels eventually went public, she has maintained the sexual encounter did happen.

Blanche now says that a group of people were trying to take advantage of Trump by telling this story. He's painting Daniels' situation as one of extortion.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Nearly two hours into his closing arguments, Todd Blanche is finally talking about Stormy Daniels.

He spent at least 20 minutes talking about former Playboy model Karen McDougal, because, he said, the story "tells you a lot" about Michael Cohen, whom Blanche claims is a liar.

Caitlin Wilson
US reporter

Image source, Credit: BBC

One thing we didn't expect to see today outside court was a Hollywood star at a news conference.

Robert De Niro, a New York native who appeared in a campaign ad for Biden last week, just gave a blistering critique of Donald Trump.

"Donald Trump wants to destroy not only (this) city, but the country, and eventually he could destroy the world," De Niro said.

"No one is laughing now. This is the time to stop him," De Niro added.

The Trump campaign quickly hit back in a statement, calling the actor "Low IQ Robert De Niro," and repeating their accusation that "the Biden Trial is a politically motivated witch hunt".

De Niro was also joined by two former police officers who defended the Capitol during riots by pro-Trump protesters on 6 January 2021.

The Biden campaign's appearance outside court today is a major departure from previous practice. The president and his team have avoided commenting directly on the trial.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Blanche is trying to undercut a 2016 recording that Cohen made of a conversation he had with Donald Trump.

Prosecutors have said that the audio captures the two men discussing the $150,000 catch-and-kill deal that the National Enquirer struck with Karen McDougal.

But Blanche is creating an alternate narrative: that they were actually talking about buying an archive of Trump-related materials from AMI, the National Enquirer's publisher.

Trump's lawyer said that Cohen was "painting a picture that fits his narrative, not the truth."

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

The 12-member New York jury seems relatively engaged this morning, glancing at Todd Blanche as he gives his speech.

As Blanche enters his second hour of closing arguments, jurors occasionally yawn or glance around the room, but quickly return back to the presentation displayed on the screen in front of them.

We heard earlier that the defence expects their closing arguments will take about 2.5 hours.

We're roughly half way through.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche has spent the last 10 minutes talking about a hush-money payment which former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker made to Playboy model Karen McDougal.

McDougal claims she had a months-long affair with Trump, which he denies.

Blanche is disputing this was a catch-and-kill scheme.

He claims McDougal never really wanted to publish her story in the first place, so it doesn't amount to a catch-and-kill scheme.

McDougal's payment is not part of the criminal charges Trump faces, but the prosecution used details of it during the trial to try and establish a pattern in Trump's campaign.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump has his eyes on the defence's presentation as he makes his arguments.

He sometimes glances in his lawyer's direction.

Occasionally, he seems to be nodding along as Todd Blanche makes his points.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is watching Blanche as well, taking some notes.

The defence's argument summed up in 11 wordspublished at 16:03 British Summer Time 28 May

16:03 BST 28 May

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

We've been listening to Todd Blanche lay out his final defence of Donald Trump for a little over an hour now.

He's gone over several details of the case, but you can basically boil his argument down to this: This didn’t happen. But even if it did, it’s not illegal.

Remember, this is all about sowing that all important reasonable doubt with the jury.

Blanche has to give jurors enough reason to be sceptical of the prosecution's case that they haven't met the high burden of proof to convict.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Blanche has now turned to the catch-and-kill scheme of the National Enquirer tabloid. This was where negative stories about Trump were bought and buried, to boost his campaign in 2016.

The magazine's publisher David Pecker testified to the scheme during the trial, and prosecutors have pointed to this as a conspiracy.

But it's not uncommon for campaigns to try to work with media outlets, Blanche says.

They want to amplify their message and attack their opponents.

“This is a campaign, this is an election," he said. "This is not a crime.”

He says the deal was all about “business”.

“This was good business for AMI,” Blanche says, referencing the National Enquirer’s parent company.

“It’s AMI doing what they do and what they have done for decades."

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche is giving us a preview into what he thinks the prosecution will say.

He says he expects the government to talk about “three separate unlawful means” which they claim Donald Trump participated in. Blanches outlines them as federal campaign finance violations, tax violations and other books and records violations.

“None of them make any sense,” Blanche claims.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche is now pivoting to the second tier of the charges: that Trump allegedly falsified the business records to conceal another crime.

Prosecutors allege that Trump was part of a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.

“I don’t even think you have to get to this,” he tells the jury.

“There is no crime, period."

But even if jurors did consider this, they would find no evidence of any kind of crime, he adds.

He then returns to an argument from his opening statement - all of this was just normal campaigning.

“Every campaign in this country is a conspiracy” to get a candidate to win, he tells the court.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche has moved on to the next part of his argument: “No Intent to Defraud”.

Blanche claims that because Donald Trump disclosed his reimbursements to Cohen to the Internal Revenue Service, that means he had no intention of fraud.

He tell the jurors: "the government has to tell you that President Trump caused these entries, even if false, with an intent to defraud".

“There’s no evidence, ladies and gentlemen" of this, he claims.

Back in the courtroom, Blanche is still attacking Cohen's testimony.

The defence lawyer is questioning how Cohen's $130,000 hush-money payment turned into a $420,000 reimbursement.

During the trial, prosecutors showed a document with Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg sketching out the math for the reimbursement.

Blanche tries to undercut a key piece of Cohen's testimony: that Weisselberg briefed him and Trump on the plan at a meeting in early January 2017, and Trump "approved it".

Blanche called it a "ridiculous story".

Blanche asks: Why would someone as notoriously frugal as Trump give Cohen nearly half a million dollars for a $130,000 payment?

Cohen had testified that it was "grossed up" for taxes, and to include a bonus.

Blanche points out that Cohen's early work with the Trump Organization involved trying to negotiate Trump's bills to be as low as possible.

The document showing Cohen's payment plan is “full of lies," Blanche claims.

He says the jury has no evidence for why Weisselberg "grossed up" the reimbursement.

Image source, NY Courts

Meanwhile outside court, Hollywood actor and native New Yorker Robert DeNiro is speaking on behalf of the Biden-Harris campaign outside court.

He calls Trump a "clown" and attacks his politics. We'll bring you more of what he said soon.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Inside the courtroom, I can't quite make out how Donald Trump is reacting.

A court officer is blocking my view and Todd Blanche's PowerPoint takes up the entire screen that normally shows Trump's face.

But I can see a sketch artist's intricate drawing from where they sit in in front of me.

In it, Trump appears to be looking intently at Blanche from his seat at the defence table.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche turns his attention back to dismantling Cohen’s credibility.

“How is the government going to ask you to convict President Trump based on the words of Michael Cohen?” he says.

The jurors have already been told - repeatedly - during the trial that Cohen is a convicted felon who was imprisoned, in part for lying to Congress.

Prosecutors will have to take care to reconstruct Cohen’s credibility before the jurors.

They will likely try to point to other witness’ testimony that they claim corroborates Cohen’s statements.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Blanche reminds the jury that when Donald Trump was signing Michael Cohen's reimbursement cheques, he was president and busy running the country.

He reminds the jury of Madeleine Westerhout's testimony. The former White House aide said that sometimes Trump would look at the cheques and invoices, and sometimes he would not.

“That isn’t surprising," Blanche says.

As for the process of sending Trump cheques to the White House via FedEx for his signature - "There's nothing sinister about that. It's common sense," Blanche tells the court.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Todd Blanche asks why the prosecution didn't call Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, since they signed some of the cheques to Michael Cohen which were paid from Trump's trust.

The prosecution decides whether to call witnesses, he says, so why omit them?

It's important to note, however, that the defence could have also called them as witnesses, and didn't.