NEW YORK — The jury in former President Donald Trump’s secret trial is expected to resume deliberations Thursday after asking to rehear potentially crucial testimony about the alleged scheme at the center of the landmark case.
The 12-person jury deliberated for about 4 1/2 hours Wednesday without reaching a verdict. In addition to asking to hear again testimony from a tabloid editor and Trump’s former lawyer and personal aide, jurors also asked to review at least part of the judge’s hour-long briefing that was supposed to guide them on the law. .
It is unclear how long the deliberations will last. A guilty verdict would provide a stunning legal reckoning for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee as he tries to reclaim the White House, while an acquittal would represent a major victory for him and embolden him on the campaign trail. Because verdicts must be unanimous, it is also possible for the case to end in a mistrial if the jury is unable to reach a consensus after days of deliberations.
Trump struck a pessimistic tone after leaving the courtroom after reading jury instructions, repeating his claims of a “very unfair trial” and saying: “Mother Teresa couldn’t beat these charges, but we’ll see. We’ll see how we do.”
During the deliberations, he remained inside the courtroom, where he posted complaints about the trial on his social media and cited legal and political commentators who see the case in his favor. He did not testify in his own defense, a fact the judge told jurors they could not take into account.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records at his company in connection with an alleged scheme to hide potentially embarrassing stories about him during his 2016 presidential election campaign.
The charge, a felony, arises from refunds paid to Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, after he made a secret $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels to silence her claims that she and Trump had sex in 2006. Trump is accused of misrepresenting Cohen’s reimbursements. as legal expenses to hide that they were linked to a secret payment.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and maintains that Cohen’s payments were for legitimate legal services. He also denied the alleged extramarital sexual encounter with Daniels.
To convict Trump, the jury would have to unanimously decide that he created a fraudulent entry in his company’s records or caused someone else to do so and that he did so with the intent to commit or conceal another crime.
Prosecutors say the crime committed or concealed by Trump is a violation of a New York election law that makes it illegal for two or more conspirators to “promote or impede the election of any person to public office by unlawful means.”
While jurors must unanimously agree that something illegal was done to promote Trump’s election campaign, they do not have to be unanimous about what that illegal thing was.
The jurors — a diverse group of Manhattan residents and professional backgrounds — often seemed fascinated by trial testimony, including from Cohen and Daniels. Many took notes and watched closely as witnesses answered questions from prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers.
Jurors began deliberating after a marathon closing argument in which a prosecutor spoke for more than five hours, underscoring the burden the district attorney’s office faces in needing to establish Trump’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Trump’s team does not need to prove his innocence to avoid a conviction, but must instead rely on at least one juror’s conclusion that prosecutors did not sufficiently prove their case.
In their first burst of communication with the court, jurors asked to hear again testimony from Cohen and former National Enquirer editor David Pecker about an August 2015 meeting with Trump at Trump Tower, where the tabloid chief agreed to be the “eyes and ears” of his fledgling presidential campaign.
Pecker testified that the plan included identifying potentially damaging stories about Trump so they could be squashed before they were published. That, prosecutors say, was the beginning of the capture-and-kill scheme at the heart of the case.
Jurors also want to hear Pecker’s account of a phone call he said he received from Trump, in which they discussed a rumor that another media outlet had offered to buy former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story that she had a year-long affair with Trump in the mid-2000s. Trump denied the affair.
Pecker testified that Trump told him, “Karen is a nice girl” and asked, “What do you think I should do?” Pecker said he responded, “I think you should buy the story and take it off the market.” He added that Trump told him he doesn’t buy stories because they always come out and that Cohen would be in touch.
The editor said he came away from the conversation thinking Trump was aware of the details of McDougal’s claims. Pecker said he believed the story was true and that it would have been embarrassing for Trump and his campaign if it had been made public.
The National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., ended up paying McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story in a deal that also included writing and other opportunities with its fitness magazine and other publications.
The fourth item requested by jurors is Pecker’s testimony about his decision in October 2016 to back out of a deal to sell the rights to McDougal’s story to Trump through a company Cohen had set up for the transaction, known as a “cession of rights”.
“I called Michael Cohen and told him the deal, the assignment deal, was off. I won’t move on. It’s a bad idea and I want you to tear up the agreement,” Pecker testified. “He was very, very angry. Really upset. Basically yelling at me.”
Pecker testified that he reiterated to Cohen that he would not go through with the deal.
He said Cohen told him, “The boss is going to be very angry with you.”
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