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“We’ll never know if this effort to hoodwink the American voter impacted the election, but that’s something we don’t need to prove,” Steinglass said. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said Cohen, a convicted felon with a long track record of lying, had misled jurors when he said he discussed the payment and the reimbursement plan with Trump.Steinglass countered that Cohen’s dishonesty was a reflection of Trump’s malign influence.
Steinglass likewise urged jurors to ignore the politics surrounding the case. “The law is the law. And it applies to everyone equally. There is no special standard for this defendant,” he said as he wrapped up his remarks. A conviction will not prevent Trump from trying to take back the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election. Nor will it prevent him from taking office if he wins. Opinion polls show the two men locked in a tight race.Blanche said Daniels sought to blackmail Trump by threatening to go public with her story as he battled a string of unflattering stories of sexual misconduct in the final weeks of the 2016 election.