Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:27 p.m. ET
Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse
The point of reviewing this timeline again seems to be to link Trump to each and every action that prosecutors say led to the crime, the falsification of 34 business records related to the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:29 p.m. ET
Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse
But it may be difficult to understand why we’re reviewing these dates that we already spent so much time on today, and Joshua Steinglass, now back in February 2018, is not necessarily explaining exactly why he seems to be repeating himself.
May 28, 2024, 7:17 p.m. ET
Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse
Joshua Steinglass has an interesting challenge here. He has to guide these jurors through some of the most important parts of his argument — the closing of his closing — while keeping an eye on the time, seeking to drive home the key points he wants to make without being repetitive or alienating them.
He’s got 45 minutes, and it seems as if he’s hoping to jolt the jurors, yelling that there’s no reason to believe that Cohen didn’t alert Trump to Stormy Daniels’s story in early October 2016.
Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:21 p.m. ET
Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse
Reviewing the evidence from that month that corroborates Cohen’s testimony, including his calls with Trump, Steinglass asks: “Is this timing just all a coincidence, every single one of these things? ” No, is his implied answer, so obvious he doesn’t say it. Instead, he asserts: “Mr. Trump is being kept abreast of every development.”
Jonah Bromwich
May 28, 2024, 7:23 p.m. ET
Jonah Bromwich Reporting from inside the courthouse
Steinglass is now highlighting more key testimony, including Hope Hicks's remarks that it would have been “out of character” for Cohen to have made that payment out of the kindness of his heart — meaning, without approval from Trump.
10 minutes ago
Maggie Haberman Reporting from inside the courthouse
The jurors had seemed to be holding up, as we are entering hour 11 of them being here, before the last break. But some are starting to look a little over it.
