NEW YORK — After nearly two dozen witnesses, 16 days of testimony and hours of closing arguments from lawyers, it’s time for jurors to give their opinion in Donald Trump’s secret trial.
Jury deliberations began Wednesday in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. The panel of seven men and five women is tasked with deciding whether Trump is guilty of any of the 34 criminal charges of falsifying his company’s records.
Prosecutors say Trump falsified records to hide reimbursements to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign to not publicize her claim that she and Trump had sex for a decade. before.
The former president and presumptive Republican nominee has pleaded not guilty, denies any sexual interactions with Daniels and argues that payments to Cohen were correctly designated as legal expenses in company records.
Now that the case has gone to the jury, see how the deliberations will work.
If the jury convicts Trump, it must unanimously conclude that he created a false entry in his company’s records, or caused someone else to do so, and that he did so with the intent to violate or conceal a violation of a state law that makes Trump’s practice is illegal. conspirators “to promote or prevent the election of any person to public office by unlawful means.”
A conviction would mean that all jurors agreed that something illegal was done to promote Trump’s election. But they don’t have to be unanimous about what that illegal thing was. In this case, jurors could choose between three possible illegal acts:
— They were able to discover that one of the conspirators violated the Federal Election Campaign Act, which in 2016 made it illegal for a person to give anything worth more than $2,700 to a presidential campaign. It also prohibited companies from contributing to a campaign.
– They were able to discover that other business records had been falsified, including federal tax forms issued by Trump’s company to Cohen, bank records associated with Cohen’s payment to Daniels, or an invoice used when the National Enquirer’s parent company paid Karen McDougal, a former model who claimed to have had an affair with Trump, which he denied.
— They could discover that false information was filed on a tax return.
For a conviction, each juror would have to find that at least one of these illegal things happened.
Behind closed doors, in a room reserved for the jury.
While the 12 deliberate, the six alternate jurors who also followed the entire trial will be in a separate space in the courtroom. If a jury member is unable to continue due to illness or other reasons, an alternate juror will take that person’s place and deliberations will resume.
Jurors deliberated after receiving detailed instructions on the laws relevant to the case, what must be proven before they can convict, and their duty to acquit if it cannot be proven. They had to hand over their cell phones to court officials for safekeeping.
Very little. Deliberations are secret, although jurors – whose identities are being kept secret from the public – can have a court official deliver notes from them to the judge.
The first occurred about three and a half hours after deliberations began, when the jury asked to hear again some testimony from Cohen and former National Enquirer editor David Pecker. Then, as attorneys and the court gathered testimony, jurors submitted a request to hear again Judge Juan M. Merchan’s instructions on the laws applicable to the case.
Merchan read jurors’ notes in court and discussed with prosecutors and defense attorneys how to respond. The jurors were then taken into court to be asked a question by the judge: whether they wanted all of the legal instructions or just part of it. After explaining that they could respond by note, he sent them home for the night.
The re-reading will begin on Thursday morning and will be done aloud from the trial transcript. (Jurors do not have the transcript in the jury room, but they do have a courtroom laptop loaded with documents and other materials that were shown during the trial.)
Court observers sometimes speculate about what the contents of a note might imply about the deliberations, but there is no way to know for sure.
Jurors also send a note to signal when they’ve reached a verdict — or, sometimes, to say they’re stuck.
He does not have to be in the courtroom, but must be in the building. During the trial, he, his lawyers and security personnel used the courtroom across the hall for breaks.
As long as they need it. The standard court day runs from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm, with a lunch break (meals will be delivered to jurors). But judges sometimes extend the time if jurors wish. There is no limit to how many days deliberations can continue.
Yes, at the end of each court day. The jury is not secluded, the legal term for isolating the jury from the outside world. This was once mandatory for many criminal cases in New York state, but the requirement was lifted in 2001 and kidnapping is now rare.
Jurors will send a note, through a court official, saying there is a verdict, but not what it is. The judge will summon Trump, his defense team and prosecutors back to court if they are not already there, and then announce that the jury has reached a verdict.
Then the jury will be convened and the presiding officer — in New York, this job usually goes to the first juror chosen — will be asked whether the jury has reached a verdict. If the answer is yes, the person in charge will be asked what the verdict is on each charge and will respond “guilty” or “not guilty”.
Next, the jury will likely be collectively asked, “Is this your verdict?” Prosecutors or defense attorneys may also ask each juror to ask the same question individually.
If jurors send a note saying they do not agree, the judge, in consultation with both parties, must decide what to do next. Defense attorneys can request an immediate mistrial. This could be granted, but often the response is to call the jury for some form of instruction to keep trying.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys often debate what should be said. Judges can turn to the New York court system’s model language for what is known as a “modified Allen charge.” It urges jurors to make every effort possible to reach a verdict and to be willing to reconsider their positions without abandoning their conscience or judgment just to agree with others.
If the deadlock notes continue, the message may be repeated or adjusted. The same happens with the arguments for mistrial. There is no hard and fast rule about how long a jury must continue trying to resolve differences before a mistrial can be declared.
