Will the jury reach a decision on the second day of deliberations?
The First Criminal Trial Against a Former and Sitting U.S. President: Judicial Decisions in the First Grand Juror Case
The 12 jurors will need to unanimously agree to either convict or acquit Trump in the first criminal case against a former or sitting U.S. president. If Trump wins the GOP nomination in the election in four years, he would need to wait in the building. This could take more than one day.
There’s no dispute about the fact of the payments. It’s necessary for prosecutors to prove that Trump made them to cover up more crimes, such as violating the campaign finance law and mischaracterizing payments for tax purposes.
The verdict had to be unanimous. If the jury can not come to a unanimous decision, the judge will declare a mistrial and the jurors will behung. The district attorney prosecuting the case will have to decide whether to try the case again.
In addition, the jurors asked for the Judge to read back the portion of the jury instructions about how they should consider certain testimony, rules around liability, definitions of intent and New York tax law.
A jury investigation into a case of misleading a former Trump communications aide to the public about sex with Trump and his adviser, Daniels McDougal
Prosecutors allege that Trump falsified business records in order to conceal another crime. According to the instructions, the other crime does not need to be proven or agreed upon.
In order to determine this, the jury may look at three of the prosecution’s theories: Federal Election Campaign Act violation, falsification of other business records or violation of tax laws.
The jurors won’t be using their phones as they head into a room to begin deliberations. They have a single laptop with all the evidence. They are going to deliberate for at least an hour Wednesday. The legal team has been told not to leave the building unless there is a jury note indicating a question or a possible verdict.
The basis of the 34 counts of fraud was a repayment scheme, in which 11 false invoices, 12 false ledger entries and 11 checks were used to cover up the fact that the repayment was legal. Nine of the checks were signed by Trump.
In August 2015, two months after Trump decided to run for president, David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer met with Trump and Cohen at Trump Tower.
Over the next year, Pecker said he carried out this role. He told the truth, as did an attorney who represented Daniels and McDougal. McDougal pondered going public with her story about an affair with Trump. Trump was going to reimburse Pecker for the rights to that story. That never happened.
According to the testimony of a former Trump communications aide, Trump bragged in the Access Hollywood tape about being able to do what he wanted. You can do anything. Grab them by their p**s.
Daniels testified that there was a power deficit that made her believe she had to have sex with Trump when she found him on the hotel bed.
She testified that he offered a role on Celebrity Apprentice. A mis trial was denied after the defense learned that the sex wasn’t entirely wanted. It also provided a motive for Trump to suppress the story. Prosecutors said, “Trump knew what happened in that hotel room” and didn’t want it to come out. Some intimate details of her alleged sexual encounter, which the judge agreed with the defense were not needed, were included in the testimony.
Cohen wired money to Daniels with an understanding that he would be repaid. Cohen testified to a number of conversations with Trump, backed up by phone records, including on the day he wired the payments. But the defense rattled Cohen on cross-examination when it presented evidence that one of the calls which Cohen had said was made through Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, was instead with Schiller about threats from a 14-year-old prankster.
A number of witnesses testified that Trump was making a payment to influence women voters in order to keep them on board. Hicks, who said Trump, by then in the White House, told her that it was better the story came out in 2018, rather than 2016.
The payments were described as a legal retainer. Weisselberg is serving time for perjury and did not testify in the trial.
Cohen said he and Weisselberg met and discussed the agreement with Trump shortly before he left for Washington, on or about Jan. 17, 2020. Cohen said Trump approved the deal, saying at the end of the meeting that “it was going to be one heck of a ride,” in Washington. Cohen said he and Trump discussed the arrangement again, in early February, in the Oval Office. Photos and White House records corroborate that the two met in the Oval Office at the time.
Source: Jury begins deliberations in Trump’s hush money case
A New York trial trial against a former US president, Donald Trump, and his wife, Karen McDougal, during a phone call with Trump
Depending on the case, the sentence may or may not include jail time, but legal experts believe that imprisonment for a former president is unlikely. A conviction does not prevent Trump from being the GOP nominee, nor continuing his bid for president. His attorneys have in the past appealed civil trial decisions in New York.
The jurors are from all around Manhattan, including Hell’s Kitchen, Murray Hill and the Upper West Side. They are litigators, teachers, physical therapists and investment bankers. Their hobbies range from wood and metal working, hiking, fly fishing and exploring New York City. There are 10 people, eight men and five women.
The jury is anonymous due to safety concerns. Jurors are identified by numbers, are not allowed to be photographed or recorded, and only lawyers have access to their names.
The jurors went back to the courtroom at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday to review their requests that were made during their first five hours of deliberations. They requested that portions of testimony be read back to them.
Specifically, the passages jurors asked about were from former National Enquirer tabloid publisher David Pecker: his testimony regarding a phone call with Trump, the negotiations around the purchase of a story from Playboy model Karen McDougal and of a meeting with Trump in Trump Tower in August of 2015. Michael Cohen was subpoenaed to testify about that Trump Tower meeting. The stenographers read the transcript.
During the trial, prosecutors had argued that during that 2015 meeting in Trump Tower, Trump, Pecker and Cohen entered into an agreement to use Pecker’s tabloid networks to find and quash stories that could hurt the Trump campaign. This deal, prosecutors said, is what eventually led to the “catch and kill” and payouts to McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels. The two were paid to keep quiet about affairs with Trump, which happened in the months leading up to the election.
