But then, during the deliberations, the jury requested to rehear the 55 page of instructions.
Secondly, they wanted to rehear parts of the testimony by Michael Cohen, and National Enquirer publisher, David Pecker.
Why?
Was there doubt?
Legal Expert Jonathan Turley says,
“The only reason why a jury would send out a request to hear the instructions again is if there’s a disagreement about what the instructions are, that indicates that there may be a conflict with jurors in that room about what their standard is, how they’re supposed to look at the evidence.”
So the question remains, what happened behind the closed doors while the jurors went over the facts of this farce trial?
Turley upends narrative claiming Trump jury requests are 'great news' for prosecutors: 'Pretty chilling' https://t.co/maxjFVsilA
— Woodland (@nordicscripts) May 31, 2024
Blaze reports:
Legal expert Jonathan Turley believes several jury requests indicate not-so-good news for prosecutors targeting Donald Trump.
Hours after they began deliberations, the 12-person jury deciding Trump’s fate in the hush-money case submitted two notes to Judge Juan Merchan.
In the first note, jurors made four requests related to the testimony of David Pecker and Michael Cohen, two key witnesses at the trial. In the second note, the jury requested to rehear Merchan’s complicated instructions, which took more than an hour to read on Wednesday morning.
From Turley’s perspective, the note requesting the jury instructions does not bode well for the prosecution.
“I’m surprised that some other networks have said, ‘Look, this is really great news that they sent this out.’ I gotta tell you, as a criminal defense attorney, I would not view this as clearly good news for the prosecution,” he said on Fox News.
“The only reason why a jury would send out a request to hear the instructions again is if there’s a disagreement about what the instructions are,” he explained. “That indicates that there may be a conflict with jurors in that room about what their standard is, how they are supposed to look at the evidence.”
The request for transcripts of Cohen’s testimony, Turley added, could indicate the jury is scrutinizing Cohen’s testimony. This is important because Merchan told the jurors they could disregard his testimony if they believe he lied about any material fact.
“I don’t consider this such a clearly positive thing for the prosecution. As a defense attorney, I would welcome this type of request. They were only in there for a few hours, and they asked to hear the instructions again, and they asked to hear core testimony,” Turley explained.
Still, there remains a problem for Trump, Turley said: Merchan’s controversial instructions.
“They are very one-sided, and they have converted this into something of a canned hunt.”
Did all the jurors come to the same conclusion on their own?
Or was their an outside influence putting pressure on them?
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