The jury’s deliberations in Donald Trump's New York City trial mark the most suspenseful moment of a trial meant to determine whether he falsified business records to cover up a hush money scheme aimed at influencing the 2016 election. The jury deliberated for nearly five hours before being excused for the day without reaching a verdict. After after weeks of screaming matches among lawyers, blistering interrogations of high-profile witnesses, and salacious details of an alleged sexual encounter between Trump and a porn star, everything has gone quiet, Politico reports. Did the jurors’ request on Wednesday afternoon to review some testimony of key prosecution witnesses portend doom for Trump? Did their request, a few minutes later, to hear the judge rehash his instructions give Trump new reason to hope?
Trump himself has remained agitated, and seemed particularly so as the case shifted out of the lawyers’ hands and into the jury’s. “I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE CHARGES ARE IN THIS RIGGED CASE,” Trump said on Truth Social one hour into deliberations. “I AM ENTITLED TO SPECIFICITY JUST LIKE ANYONE ELSE. THERE IS NO CRIME!” Trump seems to be grappling with the possibility of jail time. In comments as he left court Wednesday, Trump alluded to his former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who he said was “suffering greatly” in jail at Rikers Island, where he’s serving five months for perjury during the Trump Organization’s civil business fraud trial last year. Trump and his allies have been lowering expectations, suggesting a guilty verdict is all but assured. Trump said "Mother Teresa" couldn't beat the case he is facing. The jury's testimony request delves into the pivotal 2015 Trump Tower meeting, a 2016 phone call between the National Inquirer's David Pecker and Trump and evidence about why Pecker backed out of a deal to turn over model Karen McDougal’s story to lawyer Michael Cohen. The testimony relates to the conspiracy prosecutors alleged is at the heart of the case.
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