It's the last day of trial... Verdict soon????

Daniels "seized an opportunity" after "Access Hollywood" tape came out, Blanche says

From CNN’s Lauren del Valle, Kara Scannell, Annette Choi and Gillian Roberts, Christina Zdanowicz

After the "Access Hollywood" tape came out in October 2016, Trump attorney Todd Blanche says, "Ms. Daniels and Ms. Rodriguez seized an opportunity," speaking of Stormy Daniels and her then-publicist Gina Rodriguez.

Blanche says they thought: "Now, now's the time to strike."

Blanche shows a text messages between National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and Rodriguez saying that he believed David Pecker would pay for Daniels' story.

Blanche tells jury "there's nothing sinister" about the nondisclosure agreement with Daniels

Defense attorney Todd Blanche tells the jury "there's nothing illegal, there's nothing sinister" about the nondisclosure settlement agreement with Stormy Daniels. 

Trump's lawyer says again, "There's no evidence...except for Mr. Cohen's words that President Trump knew about that agreement in 2016."

Trump faces jury as defense continues to deliver closing argument

As Trump attorney Todd Blanche continues to deliver his closing argument in the hush money trial, Trump has turned his chair 90 degrees. He is now facing Blanche and the jury.

Blanche: "This started out as an extortion"

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now playing more of the recordings between Keith Davidson and Michael Cohen.

In the recordings, Davidson, who was Stormy Daniels' lawyer, says sometimes people "get settler's remorse."

"At the end of the day, what really happened is that somebody offered more money to Ms. Daniels. Somebody offered to pay her legal fees if she got out of the NDA she signed with Mr. Cohen," Blanche says.

"This started out as an extortion. There’s no doubt about that. And it ended very well for Ms. Daniels financially speaking," Blanche says.

"What is clear from the evidence, now going back to 2016, the agreement that Ms. Daniels entered into, is that there was a separate conspiracy between Ms. Daniels, Gina Rodriguez and Dylan Howard. And their goal was to make as much money as possible off of President Trump," Blanche says.

The defense is trying to knock down “catch and kill” stories. Here’s the latest on the closing argument

Trump's attorney Todd Blanche is delivering his closing argument, focusing on Donald Trump not knowing about the details of the checks he was signing and trying to discredit the alleged “catch and kill” stories attacking Trump.

Here are the highlights so far:

Trump had nothing to do with the checks: Blanche argued that Trump, who in the White House at the time, was very busy and did not know the details of each check. He said Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Jr., co-signed some of the checks, and former White House aide Madeleine Westerhout testified sometimes Trump would review the checks, but other times he would not.

"The leap that the government wants you to take, that he looked at the check and looked at the invoices and was part of the scheme, and remember what the scheme was, to book a legal expense as a legal expense that he was somehow in on that is absurd," Blanche said.

Cohen’s payments were disclosed: Blanche reminded the jury the Trump Organization reported the payments to Cohen from the trust and Trump’s personal account in a 1099 filing to the IRS. "There's nothing criminal about this at all, it's the way it's supposed to be done," he said. Blanche added that Jeffrey McConney, a former Trump Organization controller, kept the hand-written documents about the repayments to Cohen from the organization’s CFO Allen Weisselberg.

Karen McDougal deal: Blanche argued former model Karen McDougal’s deal was not a "catch and kill" story because she did not want it published, so it could not influence the 2016 election.

Remember: McDougal said she had a monthslong affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid $150,000 to keep quiet about it by the National Enquirer. Trump has denied the affair

Stormy Daniels deal: Blanche said Cohen "made a decision to pay that $130,000 to Ms. Daniels, he didn’t tell President Trump about it because he knew he could get credit for doing something to help President Trump at some later time." He added there was “no way” Trump knew about the payment at the time.

And, through text messages between former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and Daniels' then-manager Gina Rodriguez, Blanche tried to show Howard was not part of the conspiracy.

Blanche brings up Stormy Daniels

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is back at the podium. He picks back up with Stormy Daniels in 2016.

"Ms. Daniels has denied that there was ever any sex with President Trump in 2018 and earlier," Blanche says. "But the government wants you to believe those statements were coerced."

Blanche is also questioning Daniels' statements saying she was threatened in 2011 and that's why she went public with the story involving Trump.

One thing to note: Blanche is saying the denials were in 2018 and earlier, not the alleged sex encounter with Trump.

Judge says jurors will go late today

Judge Juan Merchan says that the jurors are going to go late today, as each side seeks to finish up closing arguments. 

Merchan commented the jurors may need a snack run "and they seemed to like that." 

He did not specify how late. 

Court may take a lunch break when the defense finishes its closing argument

Judge Juan Merchan says the court may take a lunch break early today once Trump attorney Todd Blanche is done with the defense's closing argument. However, he was non-committal, saying it depends on the time.

Blanche says he has about 30 minutes left of closing argument

Trump attorney Todd Blanche says he's on pace with his closing argument, so he thinks he has about 30 minutes left.

Blanche spoke for one hour and 54 minutes before the break. At the start of the day he estimated his closing argument would take about two and a half hours.

Here's a timeline of key dates at the center of Trump's hush money case 

Through witness testimony and exhibits, prosecutors tried to prove that Donald Trump falsified business records to cover up hush money payments made to prevent adult film star Stormy Daniel’s claim of an affair with Trump from becoming public before the 2016 presidential election.

The defense has been poking holes at Michael Cohen's testimony about the allegations against Trump as it presents its closing argument today.

Soon the decision of whether to convict Trump will be in the hands of 12 jurors.

Here's a timeline CNN compiled of key events in the hush money case:

• August 2015: Trump meets with then-American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker at Trump Tower, prosecutors say, where Pecker agrees to be the “eyes and ears” for Trump’s campaign and flag any negative stories to Trump’s then-fixer Michael Cohen.
• September 2016: Trump discusses a $150,000 hush money payment understood to be for former Playboy model Karen McDougal with Michael Cohen, who secretly records the conversation. McDougal has alleged she had an extramarital affair with Trump beginning in 2006, which he has denied. 
• October 7, 2016: The Washington Post releases an "Access Hollywood" video from 2005 in which Trump uses vulgar language to describe his sexual approach to women with show host Billy Bush. 
• October 27, 2016: According to prosecutors, Cohen pays Daniels $130,000 through her attorney via a shell company in exchange for her silence about an affair she allegedly had with Trump in 2006. This $130,000 sum is separate from the $150,000 paid to McDougal. Trump has publicly denied having any affairs and has denied making the payments. 
• November 8, 2016: Trump secures the election to become the 45th President of the United States. 
• February 2017: Prosecutors say Cohen meets with Trump in the Oval Office to confirm how he would be reimbursed for the hush money payment Cohen fronted to Daniels. Under the plan, Cohen would send a series of false invoices requesting payment for legal services he performed pursuant to a retainer agreement and receive monthly checks for $35,000 for a total of $420,000 to cover the payment, his taxes and a bonus, prosecutors alleged. Prosecutors also allege there was never a retainer agreement. 
• January 2018: The Wall Street Journal breaks news about the hush money payment Cohen made to Daniels in 2016. 

The defense's closing arguments have gone on for about an hour and 54 minutes.

Trump attorney brings up text messages between Daniels' former manager and National Enquirer editor

Defense attorney Todd Blanche refreshes the jury on text messages they saw between former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and Stormy Daniels' then-manager Gina Rodriguez about selling the Trump story in April 2016.

"If there was really a 'catch and kill' conspiratorial relationship, then why did everybody ignore that story in April? Why did it not go anywhere for months and months and months?" Blanche asks.

Blanche also brings up text messages exchanged between Rodriguez and Howard in June 2016, noting that Howard writes: "Not much pisses me off these days. Except Donald Trump."

Blanche says there's "no scenario in which Mr. Howard can be part of this conspiracy. It appears he doesn't like Mr. Trump at all." Blanche goes on to say that the jury didn't hear from Howard nor from Rodriguez so he said it is really speculation. 

Daniels and Rodriguez were more aggressively trying to sell her story, Blanche says.

"Mr. Howard is willing to help them. He wants to help Ms. Daniels and Ms. Rodriguez to get money. That’s not a conspiracy involving Mr. Pecker, President Trump and Michael Cohen."

Trump attorney: Untrue that Daniels' story "caused some sort of panic"

Trump attorney Todd Blanche again suggests that because Stormy Daniels' story was already out there in 2011, it was not election interference and it did not cause panic in the Trump campaign.

"The public was aware of them, so again the idea that when Ms. Daniels surfaced in 2016 that it caused some sort of panic amongst everybody is not true, it’s just not true," Blanche says.