Trump's Defence team were hamstrung by Trump's lies & arrogance.
Denying he slept with Stormy & that he knew nothing of the payments, both blatant lies, meant they had no chance of the most obvious defence that the payments were made purely for personal reasons. That could have provided reasonable doubt on the election law violations.
On the tax law violations there was overwhelming written evidence from the CEO notes on a bank statement on how they concocted the scheme to hide a reimburement as legal services.
The fact that twice as much was paid to Cohen, how much Trump micro managed payments together with the fact Cohen never had a retainer sealed his fate.
