The 12 jurors who hold the legal fate of Donald Trump in their hands will continue Thursday in Manhattan court their quest for a verdict in the first criminal trial in the history of a former president of the United States, who aspires to become one again .
These seven men and five women, citizens of New York immersed for six weeks in this affair with extraordinary stakes, in the middle of the presidential campaign, began to deliberate on Wednesday. They worked for about three hours behind closed doors, in a court room, with their notes and a laptop containing the case’s evidence.
After debates during which it was often a question of sex, money and the conquest of power, they must answer a single question: was Donald Trump guilty of 34 falsifications of accounting documents, intended to hide a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels to avoid a sex scandal at the very end of her 2016 presidential campaign?
A positive response would tip the 2024 US presidential campaign into an unknown scenario.
Donald Trump, Republican candidate, could appeal and still appear on November 5 against Joe Biden, the 81-year-old outgoing Democratic president, but with a heavy hat to wear, that of a convict in court.
“Mother Teresa”
If convicted, the judge would hand down the sentence in several weeks, probably before November 5. The sentence can go, in theory and at most, up to 4 years in prison, but the magistrate can also decide on a lighter sanction, such as a prison sentence with suspended probation, or even simple community service.
Donald Trump, who was forbidden by the judge to leave the courthouse building for the duration of the deliberations, will also have to return to the Manhattan court on Thursday, where he has silently attended the proceedings since April 15.
The Republican candidate continues to present himself as the victim of a “witch hunt” orchestrated according to him by justice under the orders of the Democrats. He did not testify during his trial.
Even the Catholic saint “Mother Teresa could not brush aside these accusations,” he stormed on Wednesday, leaving the courtroom, once Judge Juan Merchan had finished reading his instructions to the jurors.
After about three hours of deliberation, the latter transmitted their first requests: they asked that extracts from certain testimonies be read back to them and wanted to rehear the judge’s instructions, a sort of legal instructions for the case.
Jurors’ deliberations can take several days. They will have to be unanimous to declare Donald Trump guilty or not guilty.
This case is only one of four cases in which the Republican candidate is charged. But the trial in New York will probably be the only one to be judged before the presidential election on November 5.