Trump hush money trial prosecutors rest case after Cohen cross examination ends

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

62% : Trump was married to former first lady Melania Trump at the time, and she had given birth to their son, Barron, four months earlier.
59% : Trump said as much upon arriving at the courtroom on Monday morning.
58% : During his direct examination last week, Mr Cohen recounted how he constantly kept Trump apprised of the Daniels matter from early October 2016, a month before Election Day, when her story came to his attention, through February 2017, when the Trump Organisation began issuing Mr Cohen checks to reimburse him for the hush money he paid - with Trump's approval, he said - drawing on personal funds he deposited in a shell company and wired to Mrs Daniels' attorney.
57% : Starting in April 2017, Trump himself signed nine of the 11 checks with his familiar black Sharpie signature.
56% : On Monday, Mr Blanche raised the records of two other phone calls with Trump - on October 26, 2016, for a total of four-and-a-half minutes - right before Mr Cohen wired a $130,000 (£102,000) payment and he, Mrs Daniels and Mr Davidson signed the non-disclosure agreement.
52% : " Later, Mr Blanche pressed Mr Cohen about his specific recollections about those conversations with Trump.
51% : Mr Cohen testified he has earned about $4.4 million (£3.4 million) since the fall of 2020, or more than $1 million (£787,000) a year, by authoring two books and hosting podcasts - all about Trump, with a focus on this case.
43% : Mr Cohen told the jury Monday he had "more than 20" conversations with Trump in October 2016 about the Mrs Daniels deal in person or on the phone.
43% : " Mr Blanche asked if Trump's getting convicted would benefit Mr Cohen financially? Mr Cohen replied: "It's better if he's not, for me, because it gives me more to talk about in the future.
41% : You think he's going to fool 12 New Yorkers?" referring to the jurors. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo counter-argued Trump had set in motion the events that caused the false ledger entries to be made, and the evidence of Mr Cohen's 2017 payments being a hush money reimbursement, not a legal retainer, is "overwhelming".
37% : Defence attorney Todd Blanche last week challenged Mr Cohen's recollection of a short phone call on October 24, 2016, when Mr Cohen says, he updated Trump that he had cemented a verbal agreement with Mrs Daniels and her attorney, Keith Davidson, who also testified for the prosecution.
36% : Trump told reporters in the hallway: "We paid a legal expense.
35% : ITV News US Correspondent Dan Rivers reports The prosecution has rested its case in the first criminal trial in US history of a former president, Donald Trump.
35% : "This was for reimbursement," Mr Cohen told the jury on Monday, not a legal retainer agreement, which he did not have after Trump named him his personal attorney outside the White House.
28% : " The defence appeared to be laying a foundation to argue Trump regarded the $35,000 (£28,000) monthly Cohen checks he signed as legitimate legal expenses.
26% : But Mr Cohen admitted he continued to help Mr and Mrs. Trump with some personal legal issues, though he never billed Trump for his time.
25% : Later, Ms Hoffinger asked Mr Cohen if he had any doubt Trump told him to work out the Mrs Daniel hush money payment with CFO Weisselberg or that Trump gave him the final signoff?
24% : On that date, Mr Cohen maintains, in a minute-and-a-half phone call to the mobile phone of Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller, who was traveling with Trump in Tampa, Florida, he first advised Schiller of a problem he was having with a teen prank caller and then spoke to Trump about the Mrs Daniels hush money deal.
23% : Mr Cohen's testimony was pivotal to understanding the deal for pornographic movie actress and director Stormy Daniels to keep quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign about her July 2006 encounter with Trump at a Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
16% : Mr Blanche argued there has been no evidence of intent to defraud by Trump and that Mr Cohen "lied to this court repeatedly".
14% : Mrs Daniels has testified she had sexual intercourse with Trump one time, the day they met at a celebrity golf tournament, which Trump denies.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.