Trump trial deliberations continue in NYC as nation anxiously waits for verdict

Manhattan jury deliberations continued on Thursday in former President Donald Trump’s criminal case after the presiding judge granted two juror requests, which asked that he repeat his instructions to them and re-read parts of testimony from former National Enquirer publisher, David Pecker.

Some of Pecker’s testimony included his recollection of what Manhattan prosecutors say was a crucial meeting in August 2015 when Pecker, Cohen, and Trump purportedly agreed to have the National Enquirer publish articles on the NYC businessman’s opponents while also paying sources for damaging stories so they would remain unpublished.

“Under our law, Michael Cohen is an accomplice because there is evidence that he participated in a crime based upon conduct involved in the allegations here against the defendant,” Judge Juan Merchan said as he re-read that portion of his 55-pages of instructions, which were issued to jurors on Wednesday after closing arguments.

The former president faces 34 felony counts for allegedly trying to falsify business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to adult entertainment star Stormy Daniels reportedly paid after an alleged 2005 sexual encounter.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has denied any wrongdoing in the case and said the sexual encounter never happened.

The prosecution has alleged that Trump paid the money to Daniels as part of an effort to silence her so it would not damage his 2016 presidential campaign.

“Our law is especially concerned about the testimony of an accomplice who implicates another in the commission of a crime, particularly when the accomplice has received, expects or hopes for a benefit in return for his testimony,” Merchan told jurors.

Merchan instructed jurors in the packed in Manhattan courtroom that “even if you find the testimony of Michael Cohen to be believable, you may not convict the defendant solely upon that testimony unless you also find that it was corroborated by other evidence tending to connect the defendant with the commission of the crime.”

Later Thursday morning, court reporters re-read testimony from Pecker about a meeting at Trump Tower in 2015, according to CNN.

That testimony revealed that that Trump, his former attorney Michael Cohen and aide Hope Hicks were present at the August 2015 meeting.

ADN has previously reported that Merchan’s family immigrated from Colombia when he was six years old.

The now Manhattan judge grew up only 10 miles away in Jackson Heights. He worked in that NYC borough during college and graduated from New York's Baruch College with a business administration degree in before graduating from Hofstra Law School on Long Island.