Breaking: First jury note to Merchan. Requesting testimony.
Jury deliberations began Wednesday in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, placing the outcome of the history-making case in the hands of a dozen New Yorkers who have vowed to be fair and impartial in the face of their unprecedented task.
apnews.com
Jury asks for testimony of David Pecker and more.
excerpts:
The prosecutors have returned to the courtroom, shortly after a phone in here rang. Typically, that type of phone call in the midst of deliberations means that the jurors have sent a note. The paralegals sitting in the front row look excited, as does one of the prosecutors.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, is not here.
Trump just walked back in, alerted as he sat in his holding room, along with his entourage.
Asked in the hallway outside the courtroom how he was feeling as the jury deliberated, Trump simply raised a fist and shook it, a gesture he has made throughout the trial as he has tried to project strength to the news media while avoiding questions.
The judge is back on the bench. He explains that the jurors sent a note, signed by the foreperson, at 2:56 pm. The jurors have four requests.
Three of the requests relate to testimony from David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, who prosecutors say was part of a conspiracy to suppress negative news on Trump’s behalf during the 2016 election. One of them relates to testimony from Michael Cohen, also alleged to be a part of that conspiracy.
The jurors want to hear both men’s testimony about the Trump Tower meeting where Pecker testified that the two men reached that agreement with Trump himself. Perhaps they are seeking to compare their stories.
At first glance, the jurors' focus on David Pecker, a witness who offered damning testimony against Trump, seems like a bad sign for the defense. On the other hand, they seem to want to check the testimony of Michael Cohen, who the defense sought to tar as a liar, against that of Pecker.
The jurors asked to hear two other portions of David Pecker’s testimony. The first is about the phone call he testified he had with Trump during an investor meeting, in June 2016, during which Trump acknowledged that he knew Karen McDougal.
The second appears to pertain to Pecker’s decision not to collect reimbursement from Trump for his hush-money deal with McDougal. The wording from the jurors is slightly unclear, so this is the only request that we’re not entirely sure about at the moment.
Typically, when jurors request to hear testimony, they return to the courtroom and the relevant portions of the transcript are read aloud by the court reporters. Sometimes court reporters have a little fun with this, doing impressions and imitating accents. I’d be surprised to see that here. The court reporter is already on the witness stand, waiting for the jury.
