Trump trial live: Closing arguments begin in New York court

This morning, Todd Blanche reminded jurors that at
its core, this was a documents case, and the hush money and Stormy Daniels
matter wasn’t central to the case.

But he has spent a significant amount of time dismantling events he says
did not matter.

We’ve gone through two catch-and-kill deals that were arranged
on Trump’s behalf. Now we’re on the biggest one of all, Stormy Daniels’
$130,000 pay-out.

Blanche began by again denying that Trump
and Daniels ever had sex.

Legal experts I spoke to ahead of closing arguments had believed that wading into the
Daniels story like this would be a mistake.

“Stormy Daniels doesn’t have to be a liar for them to win,” Anna Cominsky, a
professor at New York Law School, told me.

“I think that’s the potential place where, if they take that a little too far,
the jury might say no, we’re not going to go along with, ‘everybody’s lying.’”

Cominsky saw shades of Trump’s own aggressive denial tactics in such an
argument.

“It’s surprise to no one that there is most likely a lot of pressure
from the client to paint certain people as liars,” she said.

“That’s not
necessarily the best defence strategy.”