First day of jury deliberations in Trump New York hush money trial (2024)

The jury in Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial finished its first day of deliberations Wednesday without reaching a verdict after meeting for more than four-and-a-half hours.

Jurors will return on Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. ET to resume deliberations.

Wednesday afternoon, the jury asked to hear a readback of four separate parts of witness testimony, including from former National Enquirer chief David Pecker and Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen.

Here are the pieces of testimony the jury requested:

Jurors also want to re-hear Judge Juan Merchan’s instructions on the law that he had given them earlier Wednesday morning.

Here are the key things to know about those instructions:

Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Wednesday that Judge Juan Merchan “is not requiring a unanimous decision on the fake charges against me.”

Trump made the claim in asocial media postin which he described Merchan’s supposed position as “RIDICULOUS, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AND UNAMERICAN.” He was echoing assertions that had beencirculating among conservativesafter Fox News anchor John Robertswroteon social media earlier on Wednesday that “Judge Merchan just told the jury that they do not need unanimity to convict.”

Facts First:Trump’s claim inaccurately depicts what Merchan said.

Merchantold the jury in his instructions on Wednesdaythat their verdict “must be unanimous” on each of the 34 counts that Trump faces and that, to convict Trump of felony falsification of business records, they would have to unanimously agree that he falsified business records with the intent to commit, aid or conceal another crime — that other crime being a violation of a New York election law. But Merchan explained that whilethis New York election lawprohibits people from conspiring to use “unlawful means” to promote a candidate’s election, jurors don’t have to unanimously agree on which particular “unlawful means” Trump may have used; they can find him guilty as long as they unanimously agree that Trump used some unlawful means.

Prosecutors provided three theories of what unlawful means Trump used.Merchan told the jury: “Although you must conclude unanimously that the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were. In determining whether the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you may consider the following:(1)violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act otherwise known as FECA;(2)the falsification of other business records; or(3)violation of tax laws.”

Judge Juan Merchan is off the bench, and court is out of session.

Trump is now standing to leave the courtroom.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says the readback testimony for the jury as it stands is about 35 pages.

Judge Juan Merchan asks the parties to get the excerpt line numbers sent to him via his clerk and he will get back to them about the disputes.

The judge asked everyone to be ready to go at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Attorney Todd Blanche says the defense believes they should keep the readback narrow to the request and what happened after the meeting isn’t directly responsive to the request.

Judge Juan Merchan says he understands why Blanche would be concerned over most of the portion the prosecutors want to add.

The parties disagree about the excerpts that answer the third jury readback request – David Pecker's testimony about the Trump Tower meeting.

They're going over the first passage in dispute. They agree on what page and line to start but not where it should end.

Prosecutors want an extra page of testimony to include what happened after the meeting and the execution of the plan hatched at the meeting.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says they tried to draw a line between the substance of the meeting and what happened afterward.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is listing the transcript page numbers that will be read for three of the four requests from the jury.

Steinglass outlines the page numbers to be read for the first two requests.

When Judge Juan Merchan asks about the third request, Steinglass says, "This is the tough one."

Merchan says to skip it for now and go to the fourth one. Steinglass then lists the page numbers for the fourth request.

Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench.

"OK, where do we stand?" he asks.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass says they have made a lot of progress but there are a few issues they may need him to get involved with.

Donald Trump's legal team is requesting an expedited briefing schedule for his gag order appeal at the Court of Appeals, according to Gary Spencer, a public information officer for the court.

This is regarding the same preliminary appeal statement the court received last week. It has not decided whether it will actually hear the appeal or not.

Separately, Spencer said the Court of Appeals has given both sides until June 5 to file written arguments about whether or not Trump has an automatic right to appeal, which he has claimed.

After those written arguments are submitted, the court will decide if it will hear the appeal — which could take weeks, Spencer said.

Trump has continued to rail against the gag order throughout the hush money trial. He has beencharged several thousand dollars in finesfor multiple violations andmade several false statementsabout its restrictions.