NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump remained unusually silent Wednesday as his trial reached its apex with jury instructions ahead of deliberations that will have repercussions for his presidential campaign against President Biden.

Mr. Trump decided not to address the hallway cameras on the way into the courtroom. Typically, he addresses the cameras before and after court.

He had a limited entourage with him, not the parade of congressional members, actors and others who accompanied him earlier in the trial.

The former president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., sat in the front row alongside Alina Habba, an attorney who represented Mr. Trump in civil cases and has been a fixture at the trial.

State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan is instructing jurors on the law that must guide their deliberations. A verdict could come at any time after that.

Prosecutors alleged 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.

The other crime, which the judge plans to instruct jurors they do not have to agree upon to find Mr. Trump guilty, elevated the business records fraud from a misdemeanor to a felony.

Each of the 34 charges is punishable by up to four years in prison. Mr. Trump has denied the charges.

The defense said Mr. Cohen paid Ms. Daniels on his own to earn kudos from Mr. Trump down the road, and that Mr. Trump thought he was signing checks for Mr. Cohen’s legal services while he was running the country from the White House.

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.