Closing Arguments to Begin in Trump Criminal Trial

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial enters its final stage Tuesday as defense lawyers and prosecutors deliver their closing arguments in a last attempt to sway the 12 New Yorkers who will decide his fate.

First the defense and then the prosecution will spend hours weaving disparate strands of evidence into a cohesive story that they hope will resonate with the jurors, who heard weeks of testimony related to a $130,000 hush-money deal that Trump’s onetime fixer, Michael Cohen, struck with the porn actor Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election.

Here’s what to know:

— The charges: Trump is accused of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to money paid to Cohen after he bought Daniels’ silence about her account of a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. If convicted, Trump faces up to four years in prison. The 22 witnesses called in the case did not include Trump, who opted not to take the stand in his own defense.

— Dueling stories: Prosecutors have argued that Trump directed Cohen to pay Daniels and approved a criminal scheme to reimburse Cohen, disguising the repayments by saying that they were made for legal services that in fact were nonexistent. Their case is backed by the testimony of Cohen, as well as Daniels, several other witnesses and phone records, text messages and emails.

Lawyers for Trump have cast Cohen as a liar, suggested that he acted alone in paying Daniels and argued that he was never even reimbursed for the payment. Instead, they have said, Trump repaid him for actual legal services. Trump also says he never had sex with Daniels.

— What to expect Tuesday: Todd Blanche, the lead defense lawyer, is expected to deliver his side’s closing argument and to assert that the case hinges on Cohen, whose testimony provided the only evidence that Trump had direct knowledge of a plot to falsify the reimbursement records. He will cast Cohen as a jilted ex-employee who is obsessed with Trump and would profit from his conviction.

He may also seek to call jurors’ attention to two key characters who did not testify: Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s longtime moneyman, who prosecutors say devised the structure of the reimbursement, and Keith Schiller, Trump’s longtime bodyguard. In late 2016, both men had crucial dealings with Cohen revolving around the hush-money payment.

But Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor who will get the last word, could object to any references to Weisselberg, who is currently behind bars for perjury in a separate case. He is also expected to highlight every last shred of evidence — including testimony from other witnesses — that supports Cohen’s account of the hush-money deal and the reimbursement.

And Steinglass may remind jurors of Daniels’ deeply discomfiting testimony about what she says was an uninvited sexual encounter as he seeks to convince jurors that Trump was desperate to silence her story in the days before the 2016 election.

— What happens next : The closing arguments are expected to take all day Tuesday and could spill into Wednesday. After both sides have summarized their cases for the jury, the judge presiding over the case, Juan Merchan, will instruct jurors on the relevant law before they begin deliberations.

— Deliberations are unpredictable: It could take the jury anywhere from a few hours to weeks to reach a verdict. During private deliberations, the courtroom will be open to journalists, but little is expected to take place. Jurors can ask the judge for specific explanations on confusing points of law, or that testimony be read back in the courtroom.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .