Jury deliberations in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial are set to enter a second day as jurors navigate the weighty task of evaluating the former president’s guilt and innocence alongside the facts of the case
Jury deliberations in Donald Trump ’s criminal hush money trial will enter their second day on Thursday after the panel began the weighty task a day before.
Deliberations concluded Wednesday with the panel asking Judge Juan M. Merchan to rehear portions of crucial testimony from two key witnesses: former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer. Jurors also requested to rehear jury instructions.
The jury deliberated for about 4 1/2 hours.
Deliberations in the hush money case will go on for as long as the jury needs. While the standard court day runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a break for lunch, Merchan told the panel it could work as late as 6 p.m. if it wished.
At the heart of the charges are reimbursements paid to Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in exchange for not going public with her claim about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.
Prosecutors say the reimbursements were falsely logged as “legal expenses” to hide the true nature of the transactions.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, charges which are punishable by up to four years in prison. He has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
The case is the first of Trump’s four indictments to reach trial and is the first-ever criminal case against a former U.
