NEW YORK (AP) — The first day of jury deliberations in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial concluded after the panel sent their first two notes to the judge Wednesday afternoon, just a few hours after beginning deliberations.
They requested to rehear jury instructions, as well as rehear testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker about the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting where he agreed to identify negative stories for Trump, a phone call he says he had with Trump about the Karen McDougal deal, and his decision not to sell the rights to McDougal’s story to Trump.
The jury also asked to hear Michael Cohen's testimony about the same Trump Tower meeting.
Judge Juan M. Merchan said it would take some time to gather the requested testimony and about a half hour to re-read it to the jury. Deliberations will resume Thursday morning.
The historic deliberations followed Tuesday's whirlwind of closing arguments, which stretched into the evening as prosecutor Joshua Steinglass accused Trump of intentionally deceiving voters by allegedly participating in a “catch-and-kill” scheme to bury stories that might obliterate his 2016 presidential bid.
The defense approached its summation much in the same way it approached cross-examination: by targeting the credibility of star witness Michael Cohen.
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.
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.
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.