NEW YORK (AP) — The jury in Donald Trump ’s criminal hush money trial has reached a verdict, but they have requested extra time to complete forms related to their decisions on the 34 felony counts the former president faces.
It was the second day of deliberations Thursday after the panel began the weighty task a day before. The jury deliberated for about 9 1/2 hours total: about 4 1/2 hours Wednesday and five hours Thursday.
At the heart of the charges are reimbursements paid to Trump’s former lawyer Michael 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.
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Prosecutors say the reimbursements were falsely logged as “legal expenses” to hide the true nature of the transactions.
The charges Trump faces 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.S. president.
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JURY FINDS TRUMP GUILTY OF ALL CHARGES
The jury in Donald Trump’s hush money trial has found him guilty of all of the charges against him.
A LAST-MINUTE CHANGE OF PLANS
The “hurry up and wait” beat of jury deliberations in Donald Trump’s hush money trial has given way to anticipatory tension — and some surprise. The jury transmitted the news that it reached a verdict by note to Judge Juan M. Merchan at 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, just few minutes after he’d announced to the courtroom — minus the jury — that court would adjourn at 4:30 p.m. barring a verdict.
Merchan said his plan was to allow jurors to keep working until that time and then send them home to start fresh on Friday.
Moments later, that plan went out the window. The verdict will be read in court soon.
TRUMP WAITS FOR READING OF VERDICT
Donald Trump is now sitting in the courtroom with his arms folded across his chest as he awaits the reading of the verdict in his hush money trial.
JURY REACHE
S A VERDICT AND REQUESTS EXTRA TIME TO FINALIZE FORMS
The jury in Donald Trump’s hush money case has reached a verdict. It asked for and additional 30 minutes to fill out the form.
JURY WILL DELIBERATE UNTIL 4:30 P.M. THURSDAY, JUDGE SAYS
Judge Juan Merchan announced jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial will continue deliberating until 4:30 p.m. and then, if they haven’t reached a verdict, they will be sent home for the day and resume their work on Friday.
Merchan summoned Trump, his lawyers and prosecutors to the courtroom to inform them of his scheduling plans. The former president told reporters in the hallway before entering, “I want to campaign.”
Once inside, he surveyed the crowd as he walked to his seat at the defense table. His son Eric returned to his place in the gallery behind the defense table.
Following the judge’s announcement, Trump and one of his attorneys, Todd Blanche, had an animated, whispered exchange, but Blanche was smiling.
IN A COURTROOM DEVOID OF JUDGE AND JURY, REPORTERS WAIT FOR NEWS
As deliberations wear on in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, it’s a bit of the old adage “hurry up and wait” at the New York courthouse.
With the jury working in secret in a separate room, and Trump and his team holed up elsewhere in the building, reporters remain in the courtroom waiting for word — or rather the sound — of a new development.
Each time the jury has a question — and eventually, if it reaches a verdict — it must send a note to the judge. The way it signals that it has a note is by ringing a bell that blares in the courtroom. The sound is akin to that of an old telephone or alarm clock.
So far Thursday, the bell hasn’t rung at all. It tolled twice within an hour on Wednesday signaling notes from the jury to have certain testimony read to them along with a portion of the jury instructions.
That’s made for a somewhat surreal scene in the normally bustling Manhattan courtroom. The front of the room where the action happens is empty, save for a few court officers and staff: no judge, no prosecutors, no defense team, no former president, and certainly no jurors.
The room that reverberated with dramatic testimony and tense arguments over the last six weeks is now eerily quiet, save for the clicks of laptop keys and the din of chatter amongst reporters and members of the public sitting, watching and waiting for the bell to ring.
NORTH DAKOTA’S BURGUM SEEN OUTSIDE OF MANHATTAN COURTROOM
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, seen as one of the potential running mates for Donald Trump, was outside the courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday doing television interviews.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is being tried on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Burgum was among the Republican officials who accompanied Trump to court in recent weeks as a show of support, but he was not seen inside court with him Thursday.
Also seen outside the courthouse was Trump senior campaign advisor Jason Miller. He said Trump is “doing great” when asked how the former president was doing while waiting for the jury to deliberate. Miller is among the aides who accompanied Trump on Thursday.
The former president is accused of falsifying internal Trump Organization records as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.
The courtroom has closed for lunch. Proceedings resume at 2:15 p.m.
TRUMP PROCLAIMS INNOCENCE AS JURY DELIBERATES
Former President Donald Trump is continuing to rail against his hush-money trial and proclaim his innocence.
“I DID NOTHING WRONG! IN FACT, I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT,” he wrote on Truth Social. “The testimony in Court was amazing for the Defense!”
Trump has pleaded not guilty.
The jury began its second day of deliberations on Thursday. The panel is deciding whether to convict or acquit Trump of some, all or none of the felony counts he’s charged with.
The former president is accused of falsifying internal Trump Organization records as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.
JURORS ARE SENT TO RESUME DELIBERATIONS
Jurors have been sent to resume deliberations in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial after rehearing testimony from key witnesses.
The 12 jurors reheard portions of testimony given by former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker as well as Michael Cohen.
The jury deliberated for about 4 1/2 hours Wednesday without reaching a verdict. Before day’s end, they asked to rehear testimony from the tabloid publisher, and Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer. On Thursday morning, the judge responded to a jury request by rereading 30 pages of jury instructions related to how inferences may be drawn from evidence.
Trump faces 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
A guilty verdict would deliver a stunning legal reckoning for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee as Trump seeks to reclaim the White House.
JURY REHEARS PORTIONS OF TESTIMONY FROM NATIONAL ENQUIRER PUBLISHER
After roughly a half hour of rehearing some of the judge’s legal instructions, jurors in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial listened to something else they requested: portions of testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker.
Court stenographers reread both witnesses’ testimony about an August 2015 Trump Tower meeting at which Pecker agreed to publish articles that favored then-candidate Trump and assailed his opponents and to serve as the campaign’s “eyes and ears” for potentially damaging stories and rumors so they could be suppressed.
The jury also asked to rehear Pecker’s testimony about a phone call he says he had with Trump about a hush money deal that the National Enquirer’s parent company made with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and about Pecker’s his decision not to sell the rights to McDougal’s story to Trump.
She claimed she had an affair with Trump, which he denies.
Trump faces 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
JURORS REHEAR INSTRUCTIONS RELATING TO MICHAEL COHEN’S TESTIMONY
The 12 jurors who are weighing the evidence in Donald Trump’s ‘hush-money’ trial have reheard instructions relating to Michael Cohen’s testimony.
It was one of many instructions jurors asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to reread on Thursday, the second day of jury deliberations.
Trump fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen is crucial to the prosecution’s case against Trump, jurors were reminded that they can’t convict the former president on Cohen’s word alone.
“Under our law, Michael Cohen is an accomplice,” and a defendant can’t be convicted of any crime based only on the testimony of an accomplice unless it is supported by corroborative evidence,” Merchan said.
