So that happened quickly…
Donald Trump’s attorneys are still talking about calling an expert witness for the defense. And they’re even comically keeping the door open for the possibility that Trump himself will testify. But based on the exchanges in court today, it’s starting to sound like Trump may not even put on a defense at all. If so, where does that leave us?
Michael Cohen’s cross examination should be done by mid day Monday. The prosecution will then do a redirect in order to clean up the false accusations that Trump’s attorneys have made about Cohen during cross examination. But that should also be done by Monday.
If Trump doesn’t put on any defense, then we’ll be on to closing arguments on Tuesday. Judge Merchan said today that he wants the closing arguments from both sides to be finished all in one day. If this holds true, then the trial will be finished by the end of Tuesday. Then it would go to the jury for a verdict. Jurors can take as much or as little time as they want for this process. But it’s now very much looking like we could see a verdict by the end of next week.
Of course there are numerous things that could serve to drag out the process a bit. The defense could opt to call witnesses after all. Closing arguments could run long. And then there’s the fact that next weekend is Memorial Day weekend. But at this point we’re as little as a week away from a verdict in this case, and probably less than two weeks away at most.
