With closing arguments being delivered in the criminal hush money trial in Manhattan, former President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to angrily rant that Judge Juan Merchan did not allow him to submit the legal defense that he wanted.
"THE GREATEST CASE I’VE EVER SEEN FOR RELIANCE ON COUNSEL, AND JUDGE MERCHAN WILL NOT, FOR WHATEVER REASON, LET ME USE THAT AS A DEFENSE IN THIS RIGGED TRIAL," Trump wrote. "ANOTHER TERM, ADVICE OF COUNSEL DEFENSE!"
It is unclear exactly what "advice of counsel" defense Trump wanted to use. An advice of counsel defense is a claim that a potentially criminal act was done because an attorney advised it was legal or necessary.
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Trump is charged with falsification of business records, for an alleged hush payment scheme to adult film star Stormy Daniels to conceal an affair the two had, which Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argues was effectively a scheme to defraud voters out of crucial information and interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies the affair with Daniels.
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Much of the trial was dominated by testimony from Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney and fixer who facilitated the payments.
He implicated Trump at the heart of the scheme, while the defense sought to paint Cohen as a pathological liar whose word was meaningless.
The prosecution, for their part, sought to establish testimony and chains of evidence independent of Cohen, only using him to tie up the facts with an overarching narrative.
With closing arguments complete, the trial will move on to the jury deciding the facts of the case and rendering a verdict. Some legal experts have suggested that the claims made by Trump's defense team in closing are a sign that they are bracing for a conviction.
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