History happened in Donald Trump’s criminal trial just as everyone was getting ready to leave for the day
— History happened just as everyone was about to leave for the day.
Judge Juan M. Merchan had already summoned Donald Trump, his legal team and prosecutors into the courtroom where the former president has been on trial since mid-April. The judge said he planned to send the jury home in a few minutes — at 4:30 p.m. — with deliberations to resume the next morning.
Trump looked upbeat, having animated chats with his lawyers. A bell that rang in the courtroom whenever the jury had something to tell the court had been silent all day.
In the end, it wasn’t the bell that signaled something was up, but the jingling of a court officer’s keys — a ring full of them clanking as Maj. Michael McKee hustled past the judge’s bench and out a door into a private corridor.
Then, unexpectedly, the judge was back on the bench. There was another note from the jury, signed at 4:20 p.m. Merchan read it aloud.
“We the jury have reached a verdict,” it said, and asked for an extra 30 minutes to fill out the verdict form.
The “hurry up and wait” beat of deliberations gave way to anticipatory tension.
“I’m sure you will hear from the sergeant and the major and everyone else, but please let there be no outbursts of any kind when we take a verdict,” Merchan warned everyone in the courtroom. “I’ll be back out in a few minutes.”
As the minutes ticked by, defense lawyer Todd Blanche whispered to Trump, who was stone-faced, arms crossed across his chest. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the case, entered the courtroom and sat with aides in the gallery.
