By Luc Cohen, Jack Queen and Andy Sullivan
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The hush money trial of Donald Trump resumed on Wednesday. Jurors are expected to deliberate behind closed doors on whether he will become the first US president convicted of a crime.
It was far from certain how long it would take for them to reach a verdict in the case against 77-year-old Trump, who is accused of falsifying business records to extract a hush-money payment to a porn star in the final weeks of the to cover up the 2016 elections.
Deliberations would begin after Justice Juan Merchanwho was supervising the case, had finished giving instructions, and that could take several hours.
“I charge you to decide this case based on the evidence and the law,” Merchan began. “You must put aside any personal opinions or prejudices you may have for or against the suspect.”
The 12 jurors sat in silence in a New York courtroom for more than six weeks as prosecutors laid out their case and Trump’s lawyers tried to throw it out.
Their judgment could upset the 2024 presidential race, in which Trump is again trying to win the White House.
A conviction will not stop Trump, the Republican candidate, from taking back the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 elections. It also won’t stop him from coming to power if he wins.
Opinion polls show the two men in a tight race. But Reuters/Ipsos polls have shown that a guilty verdict could cost Trump the support of independent and some Republican voters.
A verdict of not guilty would remove a major legal barrier, freeing Trump from the obligation to juggle court appearances and campaign stops. If convicted, he is expected to appeal. Trump faces three other criminal charges, but these are not expected to go to trial before the Nov. 5 election.
Biden campaign officials say a ruling will not substantially change the dynamics of the election.
Trump said nothing as he entered the courtroom. On social media, he repeated his complaints that the trial was a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
During the trial, jurors heard testimony from porn star Stormy Daniels, who described in lurid detail a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, and from Michael Cohen, the former Trump fixer who paid $130,000 to buy her silence during Trump’s White House run in 2016.
Prosecutors from District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office in Manhattan say the payment could have contributed to Trump’s victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton by keeping an unflattering story out of the public eye.
“We will never know whether this attempt to deceive the American voter affected the election,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told jurors during his closing arguments on Tuesday.
They say Trump repaid Cohen in monthly installments disguised as legal fees. They have charged him with 34 felonies for falsifying business documents, and face the burden of proving Trump’s guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt,” the standard under US law.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies ever having sex with Daniels. His lawyers say Cohen, a convicted felon, lied under oath when he said Trump knew about the Daniels payment before the election and helped set up the reimbursement system after his victory.
“He is literally the biggest liar of all time,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche told jurors on Tuesday.
Merchan imposed a gag order to prevent him from intimidating witnesses and jurors, and fined him $10,000 for violating it.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Luc Cohen in New York and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Howard Goller)
