The Latest | Jury in Trump’s criminal trial to rehear key witness testimony as deliberations resume
NEW YORK — Jury deliberations in Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial enter their second day on Thursday, after the panel began the arduous task a day earlier.
Deliberations concluded Wednesday when the panel asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to repeat portions of crucial testimony from two key witnesses: former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer. Jurors also requested that jury instructions be repeated.
The jury deliberated for about 4 1/2 hours.
Deliberations in the hush money case will continue for as long as the jury needs. While the court’s standard day runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a break for lunch, Merchan told the panel it could work until 6 p.m. if he wanted.
At the heart of the allegations are refunds to Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in exchange for not disclosing her claim about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.
Prosecutors say the refunds were falsely recorded as “legal fees” to conceal the true nature of the transactions.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying company records, charges that carry a maximum penalty of four years in prison. He has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
The case is the first of four charges against Trump to go to trial and the first-ever criminal case against a former US president.
Currently:
– Trump’s hush money case has gone to the jury. What happens now?
— Highlights from the first day of jury deliberations
— Meetings and debates used to define campaigns. Now they’re about juries and trials
– Trump hush money case: A timeline of key events
Here’s the latest:
The jury in Donald Trump’s hush money trial consists of 18 Manhattan residents.
The main jury consists of seven men and five women. There are also six alternate jurors who listened to the testimony but will not participate in the deliberations unless one of the main jurors has to drop out or is removed.
The jury represents a diverse cross-section of the community and comes from a variety of professional backgrounds, including a sales professional, a software engineer, a security engineer, a teacher, a speech therapist, multiple attorneys, an investment banker and a retired asset manager.
The names of the judges are being withheld from the public.
Jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial are expected to begin their deliberations on Wednesday after receiving instructions from the judge on the law governing the case and what they can take into account as they seek a verdict in the first criminal case against a former American president.
The panel has a tough task ahead of it: deciding whether Trump should be convicted or acquitted of some, all or none of the 34 crimes he is accused of.
But what had to be proven for a conviction?
To convict Trump of falsifying corporate records, prosecutors had to convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that he not only falsified corporate records or caused the false entry of corporate records, but that he did so with the intent to commit another crime commit or conceal. Any judgment must be unanimous.
The jury’s deliberations take place in secret, in a room reserved specifically for jurors and through a deliberately opaque process.
Jurors can communicate with the court through notes in which, for example, the judge is asked for legal advice or to have certain excerpts of testimony read out. But without knowing what judges say to each other, it’s difficult to understand the meaning of any note.
It’s anyone’s guess how long the jury in Donald Trump’s hush money case will deliberate, and there’s no time limit either. The jury must assess 34 cases of falsification of company documents and that could take some time. There may not be a ruling by the end of this week.
To reach a verdict on a particular charge, guilty or not guilty, all twelve jurors must agree with the decision that the judge must accept.