Trump tri­al: Pros­e­cu­tors com­pare Cohen to ‘tour guide’ for hush mon­ey crimes

NEW YORK — Man­hat­tan pros­e­cu­tors began their clos­ing argu­ments Tues­day after­noon in the hush mon­ey case against Don­ald Trump, com­par­ing the for­mer president’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen to a “tour guide” for the 34-count indict­ment.
Pros­e­cu­tor Joshua Ste­in­glass acknowl­edged that the defense used Cohen’s his­to­ry of cred­i­bil­i­ty issues as a theme for their own clos­ing argu­ments, accus­ing Trump of want­i­ng to make Michael Cohen the focus of the case dur­ing his attor­ney Todd Blanche’s clos­ing argu­ments ear­li­er in the day.

Michael Cohen leaves his apart­ment build­ing on his way to Man­hat­tan crim­i­nal court in New York, Mon­day, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

“This case is not about Michael Cohen. It’s about Mr. Trump and whether he should be held account­able for mak­ing false busi­ness entries in his own busi­ness records. Whether he and his staff did that to cov­er up elec­tion inter­fer­ence,” Ste­in­glass said, adding that Cohen’s role as the star wit­ness was to pro­vide “con­text and col­or” to the alleged fal­si­fied re …