Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool
Donald Trump needed to get a few things off of his chest as deliberations began on Wednesday (May 29) for his hush-money case.
Note that deliberations have resumed today (May 30), per the Associated Press. Ultimately, the jury didn’t come to a verdict. Instead, they asked to rehear testimony from a tabloid publisher and Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen. The jury also reportedly asked to revisit a portion of the judge’s instructions meant to guide them on the law.
Keep scrolling to see how Trump was turning up outside of court on Wednesday and the latest update on the deliberations.
Yahoo! News reports the former president ranted outside the courtroom, stating, “Mother Teresa could not beat those charges.” Additionally, Trump stated the judge was “conflicted” and “corrupt.”
“I mean that: Mother Teresa could not beat those charges, but we’ll see,” the 77-year-old said. Trump added, “We’ll see how we do. It’s a disgraceful situation. Every single legal scholar said there’s no case, and it shouldn’t be brought.” When a reporter asked Donnie to clarify if he meant that he was “holier than Mother Teresa,” he skirted the question.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee then questioned the legitimacy of his trial. He stated, “The whole thing is rigged.” Furthermore, he began a rant alleging the United States was in shambles. “The whole country’s a mess. Between the borders and fake elections, and you have a trial like this where the judge is so conflicted he can’t breathe,” he claimed.
As mentioned, the 12-person jury met for about 4.5 hours of deliberations on Wednesday without reaching a verdict. Overall, there are 18 Manhattan residents on the jury—seven men, five women, and six alternate jurors. They are tasked with deciding whether Donald is guilty of any of the 34 felony counts of falsifying his company’s records.
Donnie was headed to court in his motorcade at about 8:52 a.m. ET, per AP. Before heading into the courtroom, he rattled off a couple of comments “from pundits critiquing the case” from a paper.
Trump hit on some other familiar themes, citing poll numbers and comparing the police presence near the Manhattan courthouse to those at recent protests on college campuses.
“We’ll be here, it looks like a long time,” he said before heading to the courtroom.
The judge said Thursday that he received another jury note, explaining that the jurors want to specifically hear the description of how they are to consider the evidence and what inferences can be drawn from the facts.
They also want to hear a description of the law for the charge at issue in the case. Judge Merchan estimates that he’ll have to reread about 30 pages of instructions, which has already started.
Associated Press Staff contributed to this report.
