Trump won't testify as trial enters final phase
Despite his public insistence on testifying, Trump's defense team called two witnesses, "neither of them the former president"
What happened
Donald Trump's lawyers rested their case Tuesday, ushering the former president's hush-money criminal trial into its final phase. Judge Juan Merchan dismissed the jurors until May 28, when closing arguments will begin.
Who said what
Trump's defense team called "just two witnesses — neither of them the former president," despite Trump's repeated public insistence he wanted to testify, The New York Times said. Prosecutors had called 20 witnesses. "Instead of mounting an effort to demonstrate Trump's innocence," his lawyers "focused on attacking the credibility of the prosecution witnesses," a "routine defense strategy," The Associated Press said. "The burden of proof in a criminal case lies with the prosecution."
What next?
After the jury was sent home, prosecutors and defense attorneys "sparred over what, exactly, jurors should be told before deliberations," especially about the federal law at the heart of the prosecution's felony case, The Washington Post said. "The judge’s determinations of the legal threshold for conviction may have a huge impact on what jurors think of the evidence."
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