Today is Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The prosecution has offered up its closing arguments in the Drumpf election interference trial just moments ago. Attorney Joshua Steinglass has delivered the prosecution’s closing argument in about four to five hours of passionate speechifying. Steinglass just wrapped his address to the jury at 7:57 p.m., according to Rachel Maddow tonight. This was an extremely long day for jury and defendant, in which the day started at 9 and ended around 8. Instead of the defense’s crutch on painting Michael Cohen as a liar, which everyone knows already, the prosecution referred to the mountain of evidence indicting the former president in this tawdry scheme to defraud the American electorate. Steinglass went through every piece of evidence for the benefit of the jury.

In an online article for RawStory, the prosecutor makes the case that Dump’s election interference case does not actually turn on the testimony of the former president’s onetime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen who was smeared by Drumpf’s defense team, but that it turned on the startling testimony of former Trump communications official Hope Hicks who came to the stand, against her will, and delivered evidence against her former boss. The article is entitled ‘Nail in the coffin’: Hush money prosecutor reveals surprising crux of case against Trump,” and it is by Matthew Chapman.

Today’s court proceedings went past its usual end time in order to hear summations in full – first from Todd Blanche in Trump’s defense and then from prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, who went on for nearly five hours. Egad!

Judge Juan Merchan is expected to give instructions to the jury tomorrow, after which the matter will rest in the jurors’ hands.

It was Hicks who said, “I think Mr. Trump’s opinion was it was better to be dealing with it now, and that it would have been been bad to have that story come out before the election.” About this testimony, Steinglass asserted that it was “the final nail in the coffin” for Drumpf.

Much of the defense in the case, which charges Dump with business fraud for allegedly concealing the nature of hush payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, has centered on discrediting the testimony of Cohen, who served as the prosecution’s final witness and argued that his own role in facilitating those payments was at Trump’s implicit direction and with his knowledge.

Specifically, Dump’s defense has sought to portray Cohen as a liar (but what about his boss who has lied over 30,000 times in his presidency – and continues to lie to this day about everything?) who can’t be trusted, citing his previous false claims to Congress and in several other contexts – claims that Cohen does not deny, but says he did at Drumpf’s own directive.

Some of the greatest drama during the trial came when the defense called Cohen’s former legal adviser Robert Costello to the stand, where he proceeded to antagonize the judge and forced the courtroom to be cleared.

One particular moment of high drama occurred in today’s proceeding when Todd Blanche, during his closing argument, made an impassioned – but highly inappropriate – plea to the jury to not send his fucking client to jail. At that point, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass objected and said, “That was a blatant and wholly inappropriate effort to call sympathy for their client.” That’s when Judge Merchan excoriated Blanche for such an outrageous remark. Many pundits agreed that Blanche’s statement about sending Dump to jail was highly prejudicial and contrary to the rules. The jury is not supposed to hear anything about what type of jail sentence could accrue if the defendant is found guilty. That is decided by the judge. Blanche should be ashamed of himself for saying it, but since he’s Dump’s lawyer, I doubt he has any shame.

I heard that there was real drama outside the courtroom when legendary actor Robert De Niro was heckled by loathsome Trump supporters who called him a “washed-out actor.” De Niro joined the Biden campaign for a press conference outside the courtroom where he praised the heroism of former police officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone for their actions on January 6, 2021, when a stupid bystander interrupted him, calling the men “traitors.” De Niro tackled the guy verbally, saying, “I don’t know what to say to you.” Thank you, Mr. De Niro for your service to the Biden campaign! If Drumpf can attract a large contingent of Reputins at his trial, then we can get De Niro to deride Drumpf in comments outside the courtroom. Let’s get more celebrities behind Biden, not just De Niro.

There could be a verdict in this trial sooner than later. Let’s hope it comes down to a guilty one, of course.

Stay safe and be well.