NEW YORK — The jury in the first criminal trial of former President Donald Trump went home without reaching a verdict after four hours of deliberations and will reconvene on Thursday morning.
Before the deliberations, Judge Juan Merchan told the jurors not to consider race, color, national origin, and said they shouldn’t allow any stereotypes to influence them.
“You must set aside any personal opinions or bias,” he said. “You must now allow any such opinions to influence your verdict.”
Merchan reiterated to the jury that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty and that the burden of proof rests upon the prosecution. He said that once the jury reaches a verdict, it will return to the courtroom and “the foreperson will then be asked what the verdict is for each of the charged counts.”
The jury began their deliberations at 11:30 a.m. ET as the 12 jurors will decide Trump’s guilt or innocence on 34 counts of business document fraud, which prosecutors say was committed to cover up a payment to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Jurors have a laptop with all of the evidence that they can use during their deliberations.
Trump addressed reporters in the hallway as he left the courtroom, calling the trial “rigged”.
“We have a very serious problem here, I mean our country’s going bad,” Trump said. “But we’re going to win this election, Nov. 5 is going to be the most important day in the history of our country.”
“Remember, the most important day in the history of our country. In the meantime, this trial is rigged,” he added.
The former president was very active online, posting than 20 times on Truth Social since he left the courtroom, with each one quoting commentators or legal scholars making statements that supports Trump.
The jury rang the courtroom later in the afternoon, signaling they had a note. Merchan said the court received a note with four requests: David Pecker’s testimony regarding the phone conversation with Trump while Pecker was in the investor meeting, Pecker’s testimony regarding life rights for Karen McDougal, Pecker’s testimony regarding the Trump Tower meeting, and Michael Cohen’s testimony regarding the Trump Tower meeting.
Jurors were dismissed for the day at 4:06 p.m. and will resume deliberations tomorrow.
