The jury note contains 4 requests: (1) David Pecker testimony regarding phone convo during investor meeting, (2) Pecker Testimony related to McDougal's life rights agreement, (3) Pecker testimony regarding Trump Tower meeting, and (4) Cohen testimony regarding Trump Tower meeting (via Anna Bower)
Kyle Cheney jumps on the speculation train early, but why not:
"Apply all the caveats here, but first instinct is this is not welcome news for Trump. Prosecutors spent a lot of their lengthy close focusing on value of Pecker's testimony. This is the roadmap they asked jurors to follow."
Judge Merchan asks if the laptop the jurors were given containing exhibits into evidence has Wi-Fi access. When told that it does, he asks if the Wi-Fi can be disabled. (via Anna Bower)
NO VERDICT TODAY: Judge Merchan sends the jury home, since the court is working on compiling the testimony the jury asked for, which he says will take 30 min to read back. Tomorrow deliberations will restart at 9:30 a.m. with the readback of the transcript, plus the jury instructions.
JUSTICE MERCHAN: We received another note. He reads it. The note describes what the jury wants to hear from jury instructions. Justice Merchan says he interprets the note as the jurors wanting to hear page 7-35 of the jury instructions. (via Anna Bower, Lawfare)
Justice Merchan says the jurors also requested headphones for audio.
(This suggests the jurors want to re-listen to some or all of the audio recordings that were admitted into evidence.)
(via Anna Bower, Lawfare)
Those of you who have been following since yesterday will be relieved to know that Judge Merchan has now confirmed for the record that the jurors' laptop does NOT have Wi-Fi access
The jurors, having now heard their instructions again and the requested transcript excerpts, have filed out of Judge Merchan’s courtroom to resume their deliberations (via Anna Bower, Lawfare)
Imagine you're sitting in a room with 11 semi-strangers knowing what you're about to write down is gonna be in articles, textbooks and movies for the rest of your life