NEW YORK — Attorneys in Donald Trump’s hush money trial argued Tuesday over what instructions a judge will give the jury tasked with deciding the former president’s fate, and defense attorneys repeatedly emphasized that the instructions must say Trump had to have acted willfully to be convicted.
Trump attorney Emil Bove’s requests had a common theme during the high-stakes hearing on jury instructions. Bove wanted Judge Juan Merchan to strengthen Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s burden of proof that Trump falsified business records at a felony level.
Bragg had elevated Trump’s charges, which are normally misdemeanors, to felonies by attaching them to the stipulation that Trump also had an “intent to defraud that includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.”
Bragg, an elected Democrat, has not been clear about what
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