Both sides have now rested their cases in Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court, after further testimony from the defense’s first and only witness, lawyer Robert Costello.
Mr Costello, who was angrily admonished over his attitude by Judge Juan Merchan on Monday, provided damning emails dating from 2018 when he was called in to advise Michael Cohen, after the FBI raided his house and office, in the hope of preventing him “flipping” on his former boss, by then president of the United States.
“He’s playing with the most powerful man on the planet,” Mr Costello wrote in one of them.
MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann, for one, branded the decison to call the witness “a huge mistake” on the part of Mr Trump’s attorneys.
Despite his previous insistence that he would testify in his own defense, Mr Trump ultimately decided against it.
The defendant denies having an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels and all of the 34 felony charges he faces over the falsification of business records to hide the $130,000 payment made to her in October 2016.
Closing arguments are scheduled for next Tuesday with the jury expected to deliberate from Wednesday.
Alex Woodward is covering the trial for The Independent at Manhattan Criminal Court.