Twelve New Yorkers are on deck.
As Donald Trump’s first criminal trial races toward its climax, his attorneys are previewing how they will beseech a jury next week to spare their client the shame of being the first ex-president to be convicted of a crime.
On a wild day in court Monday, Judge Juan Merchan accused one disrespectful defense witness of trying to stare him down, while the ex-president’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, sensationally admitted to stealing thousands of dollars from his old boss’ firm.
But beneath the uproar, there is also a clear sense that this trial – which is intertwined with the country’s future, given Trump’s bid to reclaim the White House – is now in its fateful endgame.
The presumptive Republican nominee’s lawyers made a long-shot bid for the dismissal of his first criminal trial before the jury has even been asked to deliberate. The gambit is a familiar one for defense teams that rarely works, but it offered a glimpse into the narrative Trump’s lawyers will place before the jury, likely next Tuesday, after the Memorial Day holiday.
