Trump defense trashes trial star witness Michael Cohen in closing arguments: ‘The GLOAT. Greatest liar of all time’

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Michael Cohen is “the human embodiment of reasonable doubt,” the “MVP of liars” and “the GLOAT: the greatest liar of all time,” according to Donald Trump’s defense attorney Todd Blanche.

In his closing arguments to jurors in the former president’s hush money trial on Tuesday, Mr Blanche repeatedly accused Mr Trump’s one-time “fixer” of lying throughout his testimony and suggested that Manhattan prosecutors had willingly offered up a star witness “to commit perjury to lie to you.”

Cohen testified that Mr Trump directed him to pay $130,000 to Stormy Daniels weeks before Election Day in 2016 so she wouldn’t go public with a story about having sex with Mr Trump.

His four-day testimony during Mr Trump’s criminal trial gave jurors the connective tissue for the prosecution’s narrative: Mr Trump warned Cohen to “be prepared” for stories about women when he launched his 2016 campaign, then signed the checks that reimbursed him for his payment to Ms Daniels, all as part of a plan drawn up by Mr Trump’s accountants and finalized from the White House, according to Cohen and Manhattan prosecutors.

Defense attorneys, meanwhile, have depicted Cohen as an aggrieved, selfish and fame-hungry opportunist who “had an ax to grind, because he didn’t appreciate what President Trump did or did not do for him after President Trump became President of the United States,” according to Mr Blanche.

Cohen is out “simply to protect Michael Cohen and no one else, period,” he said on Tuesday..

“He’s repeatedly, repeatedly, lied under oath,” he said. “He’s literally like an MVP of liars. He lies constantly.”

In his final statements, Mr Blanche pulled up a slide labeling him “the human embodiment of reasonable doubt.”

“You know how people say Tom Brady is the GOAT? The greatest of all time?” Mr Blanche said. “Michael Cohen is the GLOAT: The greatest liar of all time.”

This is a developing story