NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Mother Teresa couldn’t beat the “rigged” charges against him, signaling the former president isn’t banking on exoneration as a Manhattan jury kicked off deliberations that will determine whether he campaigns as a felon.
“But we’ll see,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump lowered expectations for an acquittal while his oldest child, Donald Trump Jr., said his father would win in November by describing the case as an underhanded attempt to throw the campaign to President Biden. He said attempts to kneecap his father through the legal system will backfire on Democrats.
“No matter the verdict, the American people can see right through this entire fraudulent trial, which is nothing more than election interference,” the younger Mr. Trump said in an exclusive statement to The Washington Times.
He said the Biden campaign spent months claiming it had nothing to do with the case but “outed themselves” by holding a press event outside the courthouse with actor Robert de Niro this week “to pressure the jury.”
The jury of seven men and five women started deliberating after state Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan spent an hour instructing them on the law.
“You are the judges of the fact, and you are responsible for deciding if the defendant is guilty or not guilty,” the judge said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team say Mr. Trump used his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to pay hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels near the 2016 election and criminally concealed the effort with a series of reimbursement checks to Mr. Cohen that were mislabeled to conceal a campaign-oriented conspiracy.
Paying hush money or engaging in a nondisclosure agreement is not illegal. Prosecutors said the records were falsified with an intent to hide another unidentified crime, perhaps an election or tax crime.
Four hours into deliberations, the jury sent a note to the court requesting a read-back of testimony from key prosecution witnesses, signaling they were doing a deep dive into the evidence and not making a snap decision.
Moments later, they asked the judge to read back jury instructions he’d given them earlier in the day, a sign it might have been hard to digest all the arcane parameters of the New York law that requires them to find intent to commit a second crime.
Judge Merchan said he would provide the material to the jury on Thursday morning.
SEE ALSO: Trump denounces ‘kangaroo court’ as New York trial goes to the jury
Ultimately, the jury will decide if Mr. Trump becomes the first former president to be convicted of a crime. A verdict may come at any time, making it a tense and pivotal moment in U.S. history.
Prosecutors entered a large pile of evidence in the case, so the deliberations may take a long time even if jurors from the liberal stronghold of New York are eager to convict. Two jurors were tasked with working the laptop that contains the piles of emails, phone records and other exhibits.
Some jurors might find the defense proved reasonable doubt and push for acquittal, or induce a hung jury, prolonging the process beyond the weekend.
An acquittal would vindicate Mr. Trump. But on Wednesday, he used his courthouse platform to soften expectations.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are running neck and neck ahead of the November election, and conviction could turn off undecided voters or it could add fuel to his run. Undoubtedly, Mr. Trump will argue a conviction is purely political.
“The whole thing is rigged,” Mr. Trump said. “Mother Teresa could not beat those charges. But we’ll see. We’ll see how we do. It’s a very disgraceful situation.”
Mr. Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors charged him at the felony level, meaning they must prove the intent to defraud “includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.”
Judge Merchan said the prosecutors believe the second crime was a violation of a New York election statute that prohibits any two or more persons from conspiring to promote or prevent the election of a person by unlawful means.
In a boon for prosecutors, the judge said jurors “need not prove that the other crime was committed, aided or concealed” or be unanimous in what “unlawful means” were used.
Prosecutors say the unlawful means may include: violations of certain federal limits on campaign contributions, which in the relevant years were capped at $2,700; the falsification of other business records, including bank documents related to Mr. Cohen’s creation of a limited liability company; or a violation of tax laws.
If convicted, Mr. Trump faces up to four years in prison for each count. Even if convicted on all counts, any term behind bars would likely run concurrently.
He is unlikely to do hard time, given he would be a first-time, nonviolent offender. There are logistical complications around imprisoning a former president with Secret Service protection, which the judge might take into consideration if he needs to sentence Mr. Trump.
The sentence could involve probation. Mr. Trump can still run for president if convicted since the Constitution only sets guardrails around age and citizenship status for candidates.
During the trial, prosecutors said Mr. Cohen paid off Ms. Daniels when she shopped a story about a 2006 sexual encounter with Mr. Trump at Lake Tahoe.
Mr. Trump wanted to bury the story because his campaign was under duress from the emergence of an “Access Hollywood” audio recording in which he spoke crudely about women, according to prosecutors.
They alleged that efforts to make Mr. Cohen whole in 2017 turned criminal when Mr. Trump and his employees logged a series of checks as payment for legal services, shrouding the aim to reimburse Mr. Cohen for the Daniels payment.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said nondisclosure payments are legal and that prosecutors proved Mr. Trump was trying to win the 2016 election but fell far short of demonstrating a criminal plot. He said Mr. Trump thought he was signing checks for Mr. Cohen’s legal services while he was running the country from the White House.
Notes from the jury request testimony from Mr. Cohen and National Enquirer executive David Pecker about an August 2015 meeting with Mr. Trump in which, prosecutors said, the trio hatched a plan to run positive stories about Mr. Trump and negative ones about his opponents. Prosecutors argued it was the start of a plot that culminated with the Daniels payment and reimbursement scheme.
Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Trump sat quietly at the defense table in a navy suit and golden-yellow tie as Judge Merchan read instructions to the jury.
The judge said because Mr. Cohen is considered an “accomplice” in this case, his testimony must be corroborated by other evidence to convict Mr. Trump.
He also said jurors should not hold Mr. Trump’s decision not to testify against him, since the defense doesn’t have to prove anything. The verdict must be unanimous.
The judge did not, however, instruct jurors that paying hush money is not a crime. Mr. Trump’s lawyers wanted the court to make that clear but Judge Merchan said the point was raised in testimony and attorney arguments, and the prosecution never contested it.
“To the next level and actually give an instruction from the bench, I think is taking it too far and I don’t think it’s necessary,” the judge said at the jury-charging conference earlier in the trial.
• Seth McLaughlin reported from Washington.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.