The first day of deliberation in the criminal trial of Donald Trump ended without a verdict, and so the jury will get back to work Thursday morning.
The panel — seven men and five women, all from Manhattan, where the trial is set — went behind closed doors just before noon on Wednesday after a more-than-six-week trial, the first criminal prosecution of an American president.
In midafternoon, the jurors asked to hear again portions of testimony by David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, who prosecutors say was part of a conspiracy to suppress unflattering stories on Mr. Trump’s behalf during the 2016 election. Another jury request related to testimony by Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, who became a crucial witness for the prosecution.
Through testimony and dozens of exhibits, prosecutors portrayed Mr. Trump as a man — and presidential candidate — desperate to keep the account of an extramarital tryst out of the public eye in 2016.
That story, told by Stormy Daniels, a porn star, is at the core of the charges against Mr. Trump, who faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with a $130,000 hush-money payment to Ms. Daniels. Prosecutors say that payment, less than two weeks before the 2016 election, was made by Mr. Cohen, and the false records were meant to conceal his reimbursement. If convicted, Mr. Trump faces a sentence ranging from probation to four years in prison.
During the trial’s often blistering cross-examinations, the former president’s defense attacked the credibility of both Mr. Cohen and Mr. Daniels, casting them as money-hungry opportunists and liars. The case, which has drawn a crush of reporters to the downtown courtroom of Justice Juan M. Merchan, was awash in lurid details of sex and covert deal-making, as well as claims of a plot by Mr. Trump and others to illegally influence the 2016 election.
The criminal case is one of four against Mr. Trump, but most likely the only one that will go to trial before Election Day.
Here’s what to know:
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The jury asked for evidence detailing a deal involving another woman: After lunch Wednesday, the jury asked for documents relating to another hush-money deal with Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had a monthslong affair with Mr. Trump in 2005 and 2006. (Mr. Trump denies this.) Ms. McDougal, who did not testify, was paid $150,000 in August 2016 by The National Enquirer’s parent company in exchange for her story, which The Enquirer then did not publish, a practice known as “catch and kill.”
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Trump continues to speak out: Shortly after the jury began deliberating, Mr. Trump headed into a hallway outside the courtroom, where he has regularly made remarks during the trial, which he has cast as a Democratic plot. On Wednesday, the presumptive Republican nominee compared himself to a Nobel Peace Prize winner and saint. “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges,” Mr. Trump said. “These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged.”
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There’s no way to know when a verdict might come: After closing arguments that lasted until 8 p.m. Tuesday, jurors had about four and a half hours of deliberations on Wednesday, after Justice Merchan gave them instructions on the law and the charges Mr. Trump was facing. It’s common to wait days, or even weeks, for a verdict. The jurors reconvene on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Here’s how deliberations work.
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The core of the charges: Prosecutors say Mr. Trump tried to disguise repayments to Mr. Cohen as ordinary legal fees. Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies sleeping with Ms. Daniels, despite her testimony, under oath, about a sexual encounter with him in Lake Tahoe, Nev., in 2006. Here’s a refresher on the case.
