Trump trial: Prosecutor focuses on ‘cover-up’ while defence attacks key witness

Former US pesident Donald Trump sits with lawyers while he attends his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)

Donald Trump engaged in “a conspiracy and a cover-up”, a prosecutor has told jurors during closing arguments in the former US president’s hush money trial, while a defence lawyer branded the star witness as the “greatest liar of all time” and pressed the panel for an across-the-board acquittal.

The lawyers’ duelling accounts, wildly divergent in their assessments of witness credibility and the strength of evidence, offered both sides one final chance to score points with the jury before it starts deliberating the first felony case against a former American president.