Trump trial live updates: Countdown to the hush money trial verdict begins as court returns for closing arguments

Donald Trump will return to court for the first time in a week for closing arguments in the historic hush money trial.

The former president’s lawyers and prosecutors will make their final pitches to the 12 jurors who will decide his fate.

The panel of Manhattan residents listened to 22 witnesses over five weeks in the case that is quickly ending.

Here’s what you can expect as attorneys for both sides argue their case before the jury:

They searched his books for examples of how he micromanaged the Trump Organization, how he was motivated by revenge and how he saw sexual potential in encounters with women.

In doing so, they tried to show the jury that he monitored every penny that went in and out of his company, and strengthened their claim that he must have known that hush money payments to Stormy Daniels were being concealed as legal fees.

Trump denied 34 charges of falsifying company records.

And his defense team tried to show that he was a busy manager who left the processing of invoices, general ledger postings and cutting checks to lower-level managers.

As the trial against Donald Trump over hush money payments to a porn star enters its final stages, Trump’s wife Melania Trump is noticeably absent from the courtroom.

Over the course of five weeks, a series of Trump supporters, including Republican lawmakers, former administration officials, vice presidential hopefuls and some of his own children, have been in court.

They’ve endured hours of salacious testimony as the ex-president stands trial on 34 charges of falsifying company records in connection with a hush-money payment for porn star Stormy Daniels.

However, Melania Trump has stayed far away from the New York criminal chamber in Florida.

Legal experts told DailyMail.com what it could mean