The 12 jurors who will decide whether Donald Trump becomes the first former president in American history to be convicted of a felony have begun deliberating on Wednesday, May 29. Before the jurors went behind closed doors to reach a verdict, Judge Juan Merchan took more than an hour to go over 55 pages of instructions.
The instructions outlined how the jury is to review evidence, what they can and cannot take into consideration and what the laws Trump is accused of breaking state.
Read all 55 pages here.
Here’s part of what the judge told jurors:
First and foremost, what does it mean to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?
“The law does not require the people to prove a defendant guilty beyond all possible doubt,” Merchan explained. “On the other hand, it is not sufficient to prove that the defendant is probably guilty. In a criminal case, the proof of guilt must be stronger than that. It must be beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The judge also instructed the jurors to take all bias they may have toward the former president, whether good or bad, out of the equation.
He added that it’s up to jurors to determine the credibility of witnesses and they can choose to disregard some or all of what a witness said based on their perceived truthfulness.
Merchan reminded jurors their verdict must be unanimous. However, to find the defendant guilty, they do not need to be unanimous on whether Trump committed the crime personally or by acting in concert with another — or both.
Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records. Since it’s a felony, the jurors also have to determine that Trump falsified those business records while committing another crime, in this case, violating federal election law.
Trump is accused of trying to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and then falsifying business records to cover it up.
There are six alternate jurors who have not yet been dismissed. Merchan said he wanted them to be on standby in case there’s a need for them during deliberations.
