Former President Donald Trump chose not to testify in his criminal hush money trial on Tuesday, concluding his defense quickly and allowing jurors to begin deliberations next week.
Trump had fueled speculation for weeks about whether he would take the stand to defend himself against charges of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
By testifying, Trump might have aimed to personally convince a panel of 12 jurors and six alternates that he intended to protect his family from embarrassment, not conceal a story about an alleged sexual encounter damaging to his political prospects. However, criminal defendants typically do not testify in their own trials to avoid exposing themselves to probing questions from prosecutors and the risk of perjury if they lie under oath.
In a civil fraud trial last year, Trump’s defiant and rambling testimony led to a reprimand from the judge and ultimately a $355 million penalty. A similar performance in this case could have alienated jurors. “He could tank his whole case with one outburst,” retired New York judge George Grasso said in an interview last week.
Trump, 77, has pleaded not guilty to 34 charges of falsifying business records. He has denied wrongdoing and claimed he never had sex with Daniels, who testified in detail about a 2006 liaison she said she had with Trump.
Prosecutors argue that the altered records covered up election-law and tax-law violations since the money amounted to an unreported contribution to Trump’s campaign, elevating the crimes from misdemeanors to felonies punishable by up to four years in prison.
Outside the courtroom, Trump has criticized the judge overseeing the case as corrupt and accused prosecutors of trying to hurt his effort to win back the White House as a Republican against Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Trump’s legal team called two witnesses on his behalf. Justice Juan Merchan announced that jurors would return next Tuesday, following the three-day Memorial Day weekend, to hear closing arguments, with deliberations likely beginning the following day.
Trump’s lawyers requested Merchan dismiss the case before it reaches the jury, arguing that it relies on the testimony of a witness, the estranged former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who has a well-documented history of lying. Such dismissal motions are rarely successful, and Merchan indicated on Monday that he was inclined to let jurors assess Cohen’s credibility for themselves. Prosecutors assert that other evidence supports Cohen’s testimony.
Cohen testified that he spoke repeatedly with Trump about the payment to Daniels during the final stretch of Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign when Trump faced multiple accusations of sexual misconduct. Cohen stated that Trump worried Daniels’ story would hurt his appeal to women voters if she went public.
