2nd day of deliberations set to begin

Live73 updates

• Here’s what happened on Wednesday

  Day one of jury deliberations in Trump’s hush money trial ended without a verdict. But the 12 jurors on the panel that will decide whether Trump is guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records did get down to work. Here’s a recap of what transpired:

  • Before court resumed, Trump attacked Judge Juan Merchan and appeared to again violate his gag order by going after witness Michael Cohen. “Kangaroo court! A corrupt and conflicted judge,” Trump wrote in all caps on Truth Social. “There was no crime, except for the bum that got caught stealing from me!”

  • When court began, Merchan instructed the jury on how they should go about rendering a verdict in the case. “You and you alone are the judges of the facts,” he said.

  • Jurors should not “speculate about matters related to sentence or punishment,” Merchan said, adding that he alone would be responsible for deciding those questions if Trump was found guilty.

  • “If you are not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of the charged crime, you must find the defendant not guilty,” Merchan told the jury.

  • Merchan then went over the specific charges Trump is facing. “A person is guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree when with intent to defraud, which includes the intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof, he makes or causes a false entry in the records of a business enterprise.” He then sent the jury to begin their deliberations.

  • After nearly four hours, the jury sent the court two notes. One requested that portions of the testimony be reread. The second asked the judge to repeat his instructions.

• Wed, May 29, 2024 at 10:12 PM GMT+2

  Judge dismisses jury for the day

  Judge Juan Merchan has dismissed the jury for the day. Jurors had been brought back into the courtroom to have testimony they requested reread, but the court had not finished compiling all of that material.

  Merchan advised them not to discuss the case or to read about it. And with that, the first day of deliberations ended without a verdict.

  Deliberations will pick back up again at 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 10:05 PM GMT+2

  Jurors return to courtroom

  The jury has returned to the courtroom to hear portions of the trial testimony read from the transcripts.

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 10:03 PM GMT+2

  Jury sends judge a 2nd note

  As the court prepared to reread testimony requested by the jury, Judge Juan Merchan announced that the jury had sent him a second note requesting clarification on his instructions for rendering a verdict.

  “We did just receive another note,” Merchan said, according to CNN, who then read what it stated: “We the jury request to rehear the judge’s instructions.”

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 10:01 PM GMT+2

  Pro-Trump supporters and protesters clash outside courthouse

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 9:30 PM GMT+2

  Jury will be brought back into courtroom to rehear portions of testimony

  After receiving a note from the jury requesting to rehear certain portions of the trial testimony, Judge Juan Merchan said the jurors would be brought back into the court and that those sections would be read aloud from court transcripts.

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 9:14 PM GMT+2

  Attorneys, Trump and judge return to courtroom after jury sends its first note

  After a bell rang, signaling that the jurors had sent their first note while deliberating, attorneys for the prosecution and defense, as well as Trump and Judge Juan Merchan, all returned to the courtroom.

  “We received a note,” Merchan told the parties.

  According to the New York Times, the note contained requests for four items:

  • Testimony regarding a conversation between National Enquirer chief David Pecker and Trump

  • Pecker’s testimony regarding the decision not to finalize an agreement with former Playboy model Karen McDougal

  • Testimony that Pecker delivered about his meeting with Trump at Trump Tower

  • Michael Cohen’s testimony about the same meeting

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 8:27 PM GMT+2

  Supreme Court Justice Alito tells Democratic senators he won’t recuse himself from Trump cases

  

  While the jury in Trump’s hush money trial began their deliberations, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito made clear that he has no intention of recusing himself from decisions that will affect separate criminal cases involving the former president.

  Alito sent a letter Wednesday to Democratic senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, both of whom asked Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to ensure Alito recuses himself in any case relating to the 2020 election, informing them that he would do no such thing.

  Durbin and Whitehouse had cited a flag controversy as grounds for Alito’s recusal from matters before the Supreme Court, such as whether presidential immunity protects Trump from being prosecuted for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.

  While Alito acknowledged that his wife had flown flags associated with the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” campaign, he said that that fact did not justify his recusal.

  “A reasonable person who is not motivated by political or ideological considerations or a desire to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases would conclude that this event does not meet the standards for recusal,” Alito wrote in his letter. “I am therefore duty-bound to reject your recusal request.”

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 7:47 PM GMT+2

  Test your knowledge of the case

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 6:53 PM GMT+2

  Test your knowledge of the case

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 6:37 PM GMT+2

  Here’s what happens now

  The 12 jurors — seven men and five women — started deliberating at 11:28 a.m. ET. Here’s what happens now:

  • The jurors have a laptop to review any evidence if needed.

  • The jury does not have printed jury instructions and will have to ask Judge Merchan to read them back in part, or in whole, as needed.

  • The jurors handed in their cellphones and electronic devices to a court officer before they began deliberations.

  • There are six alternate jurors; they are not part of jury deliberations. They cannot be excused, in case one of them is needed to replace one of the original 12 jurors. They must go to a separate room and hand in their cellphones and electronic devices while the jury deliberates.

  • The judge said jurors will work until 4:30 p.m. ET today. Beyond that, Merchan will reevaluate how long deliberations will go each day.

  • Trump and attorneys for the defense and prosecution must remain at the courthouse during jury deliberations.

  • Any verdict, guilty or not guilty, must be reached unanimously by all 12 jurors.

  • There’s no telling how long jury deliberations will take — it could take days, or even weeks.

  • If Trump is found guilty on just one count, the former president will be sentenced at a later date. If Trump is found not guilty on all counts, he will be acquitted.

  • If jurors cannot reach a unanimous decision, Merchan will urge them to continue deliberations.

  • If the jury remains deadlocked, it will result in a hung jury, which means a mistrial is declared. At that point, the prosecution would have to decide whether to bring the case against Trump again.

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 6:02 PM GMT+2

  What Trump told reporters as jury began deliberations

  

  Trump spoke to reporters as jury deliberations got underway. He started off by laying into Judge Juan Merchan and complained about the 34 felony charges against him, saying, “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges,” referring to the Catholic saint known for her missionary work.

  The former president meandered into talking about President Biden, blaming him for the trial and the status of the southern border. He quickly transitioned into berating Robert De Niro, who spoke on behalf of the Biden campaign outside the Manhattan courthouse Tuesday, calling the actor a “broken-down fool.”

  Trump also complained about how the hush money trial has taken him away from the campaign trail, calling it an “unfair trial.”

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 5:46 PM GMT+2

  Judge explains which decisions must be unanimous when jurors consider felony charges

  

  The reason the 34 counts of falsifying business records were raised to felony charges was that the first crime allegedly committed — the business fraud — was intended to conceal other crimes, which were related to influencing the 2016 election, according to prosecutors.

  Judge Merchan explained that the other crimes are alleged violations of N.Y. Election Law 17-152, which prohibits conspiracies to promote (or prevent) a person from being elected to public office through unlawful ways.

  The unlawful means in this case could be: violations of election law, falsification of other business records or violations of tax law. The judge said the jury needs to agree unanimously that Trump intended to conceal other crimes, but jurorsdon’t need to all agree on what those other crimes were.

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 5:32 PM GMT+2

  Jury deliberations have begun

  Judge Merchan has finished reading the instructions to the jury and they have begun to deliberate.

  The jurors had to give their cellphones to a court officer before deliberations started, and all 12 jurors can discuss the case only while all of them are present.

  Merchan said they will work until 4:30 p.m. ET today.

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 5:12 PM GMT+2

  Trump calls Judge Merchan ‘corrupt and conflicted’ on Truth Social before court this morning

  Before he arrived at the courthouse this morning, Trump described his trial as “kangaroo court.”

  “Kangaroo court! A corrupt and conflicted judge,” Trump wrote, in all caps. “There was no crime, except for the bum that got caught stealing from me!” he added, referring to his former lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen.

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 5:05 PM GMT+2

  Judge explains criteria for a guilty verdict of falsifying business records in 1st degree

  

  Judge Merchan explained the specific charges the jury will have to consider against Trump, which are 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Those business records are 11 invoices, 12 vouchers and 11 checks related to the reimbursement of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former so-called fixer, after Cohen made a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

  “A person is guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree when with intent to defraud, which includes the intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof, he makes or causes a false entry in the records of a business enterprise,” Merchan explained, according to CNN.

  The jury must be unanimous in finding the defendant guilty, but the jury doesn’t need to agree on “whether the defendant committed the crime personally, or acted in concert with another, or both.”

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 4:37 PM GMT+2

  Judge Merchan is instructing the jury

  Judge Juan Merchan is reading instructions for the jury and noted that they will not receive a hard copy. But they can ask Merchan to read them back in part or in whole if needed. Here’s what the judge has told them so far:

  • “You and you alone are the judges of the facts,” he said, adding jurors “are responsible for deciding whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty,” according to CBS News.

  • Merchan instructed the jurors to set aside any opinions or biases in favor of or against Trump when considering the verdict

  • The jurors can’t “speculate about matters related to sentence or punishment” because that is up to the judge, according to CNN.

  • They can’t hold it against Trump for not testifying because the defendant doesn’t have to prove he is not guilty. That burden is on the prosecution.

  • He said it’s not enough to say the defendant is “probably guilty” while explaining what reasonable doubt means. “If you are not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of the charged crime, you must find the defendant not guilty,” Merchan said, noting the opposite is also true, according to CNN.

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 4:21 PM GMT+2

  Here’s who showed up to Trump’s trial today

  

  • Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.

  • Trump’s longtime friend Steven Witkoff

  • Aides Natalie Harp, Karoline Leavitt, Jason Miller and Steven Cheung

  • Boris Epshteyn, Trump’s indicted legal adviser

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 4:15 PM GMT+2

  Trump arrives at courthouse for jury deliberations

  

  Former President Donald Trump has arrived at the courthouse in Manhattan, where jury deliberations in his criminal hush money trial will begin soon. Judge Juan Merchan is delivering jury instructions, which is expected to take about an hour.

  Trump and attorneys for the prosecution and defense are expected to stay at the courthouse in case a verdict is reached today.

• 

  Wed, May 29, 2024 at 2:01 AM GMT+2

  Prosecution wraps up closing arguments

  Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass wrapped up his closing arguments after five hours and thanked the jury for their time. Judge Juan Merchan will give the jury instructions on Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET for about an hour before they begin deliberations.