After 21 days of trial, the opposing lawyers in the Donald Trump Hush Money Trial have spent today appealing directly to the jurors. Today's closing argument is the last chance for each side to convince 12 everyday New Yorkers of Donald Trump's guilt or innocence. A former President facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. And what the state alleges was a scheme to conceal Hush Money payments to an adult film star in an effort to suppress damaging information in the days before the 2016 election. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass telling jurors it could very well be what got President Trump elected. The defense in its summation, saying there was no crime, that the state had failed in its burden to prove Mr. Trump's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And blasting key witness, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen as the MVP of liars. Laura Jarrett was in court today.

Tonight, the first trial of an American President soon in the hands of seven men and five women. Prosecutors closing their case, arguing former President Trump orchestrated a criminal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election. To pull the wool over voters' eyes, they say, by ordering the payoff of Stormy Daniels and then covering it all up. Prosecutor Joshua Stein glass trying to establish a pattern of Mr. Trump burying damaging stories that could derail his 2016 campaign, pointing to a key conversation secretly recorded by Mr. Trump's then attorney, Michael Cohen, the star prosecution witness, where Mr. Trump discussed an alleged payoff of a different woman, Steinglass calling it jaw-dropping.

So what are we doing? Funding. Yes. And It's all the stuff.

But much of closings today focused on the credibility of Cohen. We didn't pick him up at the witness store. The defendant chose Michael Cohen, Stine Glass said, acknowledging Cohen's criminal history and admitted lies under oath, but telling jurors, You don't need Michael Cohen to connect these dots, but as the ultimate insider, he can do just that. The defense has also tried to discredit Cohen as motivated to lie, desperate to put Mr. Trump behind bars, pointing to Cohen's own podcast.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, and you better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to me and my family.

But Stine Glass took that head on, arguing today Cohen is understandably angry because Mr. Trump dropped him like a hot potato after the feds came calling in 2018, urging jurors to see this case not about Michael Cohen, it's about Donald Trump. In his closing arguments, Trump attorney Todd Blanch tore into the prosecution institution's case and its reliance on Cohen's testimony, blasting Cohen as the human embodiment of reasonable doubt, branding him the gloat, the greatest liar of all time, and the MVP of liars, saying he lied to Congress, judges, prosecutors, bankers, his family, adding, he came in here, raised his right-hand, and lied to each of you repeatedly, pointing to one of the trial's most dramatic moments when Cohen was confronted with phone records suggesting he never spoke to Mr. Trump about Daniels in an October 2016 phone call lasting just 96 seconds, but instead had called Mr. Trump's bodyguard to complain about a teenage prank collar. Lange arguing today, he told you he spoke to President Trump. That was a lie, and he got caught red-handed. That is perjury. Blanche striking at the heart of the 34 low-level felony counts Mr. Trump faces for allegedly falsifying his business records, arguing none of the invoices, vouchers, or checks were false, saying the legal retainer language on the records wasn't criminal or sinister, but merely generated by accounting software at the Trump Organization, and there was nothing wrong with it.

President Trump is innocent, Blanche said. There is no crime, period.

This is not the trial that should happen. It's a very sad day. This is a dark day in America.

Laura, let me ask you about the length of the prosecution's closing argument. It's a bit unusual.

Yeah, Lester, it's rare to see closing arguments stretch on in a case like this. The prosecution going over four hours at this point. At times, the jury appearing attentive, other times less so. But we do expect that this jury will finally get the case tomorrow morning. Lester.

All right, Laura Jarrett, thank you. It was a chaotic scene outside the courthouse, with the Biden campaign holding its first event there, including an appearance by a Hollywood star. Gabe Gutierrez has the latest.

You think by yelling and intimidating, you're not going to intimidate.

Outside the Manhattan courthouse, the drama took another tumultuous twist. That's actor Robert De Niro in a different role, surrogate for the Biden campaign, clashing with pro-Trump protester.

We're trying to be gentlemen in this world, Democrats. You are gangsters. You are gangsters. You are gangsters.

Also on hand, first responders who were at the Capitol on January sixth.

Donald Trump is the greatest threat to our democracy.

This event, a sharp change for the Biden campaign, which had largely avoided the trial since it began six weeks ago.

If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted.

With many Democrats Rats nervous about the state of the race, less than a month before the first presidential debate, NBC News was first to report the Biden campaign is deploying a more aggressive strategy to define Mr. Trump to voters as a threat to democracy and the architect of repealing Roe v Wade, the former President's family, firing back, blasting the Biden team for holding an event near the courthouse.

Right across the street tells us exactly what we all knew all along, that it is a political persecution. It is a witch hunt.

The White House is considering whether the President would speak publicly here after the trial ends. Sources familiar with the discussions tell NBC News that has yet to be decided.

Lester? Gabe Gutieris. Thank you. Thanks for watching. Stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media.