This is in the

This is CNN breaking news.

And welcome to the lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

Donald Trump's hush money trial is in its final phase

as the prosecution is in the midst of giving its closing arguments.

Court will be back from a break at any moment.

The prosecution has been arguing that President Trump, quote,

corrupted those around him and he got them to lie and covered up unquote.

Trump picked Michael Cohen as his fixer, the prosecution says, quote,

because he was willing to lie and cheat for Donald Trump.

This follows nearly three hours of closing arguments from Trump's defense attorney

Todd Blanche who attacked Michael Cohen using Trump-like nicknames calling him

the gloat not the goat the gloat the greatest liar of all time.

He also said that Michael Cohen is, quote,

literally like an MVP of liars,

and added, quote, I don't know how many lies

is enough lies to reject Mr Cohen's testimony, unquote.

But one of the last things the jury heard from Todd Blanche, the defense attorney,

was Blanche bringing up the prospect of Trump going to prison.

You're not allowed to do that, and that did not fly with the prosecution or

Judge Juan Murchin who called it outrageous and suggested that the mention of

prison time was part of an effort to elicit sympathy for the defendant.

...