After 15 days of testimony from 20 witnesses, the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Monday rested its case against Donald J. Trump.
The case was capped by three days of grinding cross-examination of his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who finally stepped off the stand on Monday afternoon, leaving jurors to weigh the truthfulness of the prosecution’s star witness.
The defense began its case on a mission to sully his credibility, but the second witness Mr. Trump’s lawyers called to the stand quickly became embroiled in a squabble with the judge, Juan M. Merchan. The judge, not surprisingly, prevailed.
Though the defense is expected to be brief, Justice Merchan said that closing arguments would not happen until next week.
The former president is charged with falsifying 34 business records related to the reimbursement of the $130,000 hush-money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Mr. Trump in Lake Tahoe, Nev., in 2006. Mr. Trump, 77, has denied the charges and that he had an encounter with Ms. Daniels. If convicted, he could face prison or probation.
Here are five takeaways from Mr. Trump’s 19th day on trial.
‘The defense calls Robert Costello.’ It didn’t go well.
After Mr. Cohen was done, the defense commenced. After brief testimony from a paralegal about phone records, the defense called Robert Costello, a former legal adviser to Mr. Cohen, who said they spoke in 2018 and that Mr. Cohen told him that Mr. Trump “knew nothing” about payments to Ms. Daniels.
But after several objections by prosecutors, Mr. Costello said “jeez.” Soon after, Justice Merchan sent the jury away and scolded Mr. Costello for not displaying “proper decorum” and giving him “side-eye.”
It didn’t stop there: Justice Merchan quickly cleared the courtroom of reporters to deal with Mr. Costello, a dramatic step that did not reflect well on the witness.
Prosecutors addressed a phone call with a photograph.
Last week, Todd Blanche, Mr. Trump’s lead attorney, dramatically confronted Mr. Cohen about a phone call on Oct. 24, 2016.
Mr. Cohen said that during that call to the phone of Mr. Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, he talked to Mr. Trump about the payoff to Ms. Daniels. The defense had another theory: He was complaining to Mr. Schiller about pranks that a teenager was playing on him.
After cross-examination, prosecutors sought to introduce a photo showing Mr. Trump with Mr. Schiller together about the same time as the call. The photo was admitted into evidence, even though the defense tried to prevent it.
The importance of that argument over Mr. Cohen’s testimony, which bears on his general credibility, seems clear to Mr. Blanche, who mentioned it at least twice Monday. The photo — and the jury’s interpretation of it — could become significant.
Defense lawyers had mixed results as they tried to muddy the waters.
Mr. Blanche seemed to be searching for a decisive moment.
He tried to raise questions about other phone calls that Mr. Cohen said he placed to Mr. Trump around the time of the hush-money payment. But Mr. Cohen stood firm, saying “my recollection is that I was speaking to him about Stormy Daniels, because that was what he tasked me to take care of.”
But Mr. Blanche found success after he moved on from calling him Mr. Cohen a liar to calling him a thief. Under his questioning, Mr. Cohen admitted to stealing $30,000 from the Trump Organization.
A prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, gave Mr. Cohen the chance to say his theft was an angry reaction to having his bonus sharply cut, and he agreed that it was wrong. But the image remained of a man stealing from a company he’d previously praised as a “big family.”
Cohen was surprisingly steady.
Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s combustible former lawyer and fixer, never lost his temper, despite admitting all manner of bad behavior during his testimony. On Monday, he also admitted to having a financial interest in the outcome of the case — Mr. Trump is a topic of his podcast and other endeavors. But he said that a Trump acquittal would be better economically.
A galloping trial slows to a stroll.
The trial was clipping along last week and it seemed possible that the jury would be deliberating before Memorial Day. But those plans were dashed on Monday when Justice Merchan announced that closing arguments would be delayed until after the long holiday weekend.
The defense is expected to rest on Tuesday, barring a last-minute surprise, and it could mean a very extended break for jurors.
The parties are then expected to make their closing arguments on May 28, after Memorial Day. Whom that timing helps is hard to divine, though it certainly gives both sides time to hone their final pitches.
It also provides jurors a clear runway to deliberate as long as necessary.
