By Fiona Nanna, ForeMedia News UK

May 30, 2024

A New York jury will continue deliberations for a second day on Thursday in the historic and unprecedented criminal trial of former President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, Judge Juan Merchan provided the jurors with instructions on how to consider the charges brought against Trump, who is also the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. He reminded the jury not to discuss or research the case outside the courtroom.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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Court will resume at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.

During Wednesday’s deliberations, the jury sent two notes to the judge, including a request to hear his instructions again on how to consider the evidence. They also asked to review testimony from former American Media, Inc. CEO David Pecker and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Merchan informed the court that locating the requested testimony could take approximately 30 minutes to read back.

The jury can choose to deliberate until 6 p.m. Thursday evening if necessary.

After the first day of deliberations, Trump spoke to reporters.

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“It’s very, very unfair. I’m not campaigning; I’m in this room all day long, from morning to night, in the Biden witch hunt,” Trump said.

Trump expressed frustration that “a lot of key witnesses” were not called by the prosecution. He refrained from naming names due to a gag order.

“Because of the gag order, I won’t go into individual names, but there are a lot of big players, very big players, who could have solved this problem or actually given us the win. We already have the win. If we had a fair judge, this case would have been over a long time ago,” Trump stated.

“The confusion is nobody knows what the crime is because there’s no crime. The DA didn’t name the crime. They don’t know what the crime is. That’s the problem. It’s a disgrace.

“This should end immediately. The judge should end it and save his reputation.”