A group pro-Trump demonstrators across the street from the courthouse have been loudly heckling the news crews stationed there for the last 20 to 30 minutes, yelling things like “liars,” “screw you,” “f—k you,” and “f—k AOC.”
To convict, jurors must unanimously decide that Donald Trump falsified business records with the “intent” to cover up the hush money payout to Michael Cohen, and that the hush money was part of an illegal “conspiracy” to elect Trump in 2016 by what’s called “unlawful means,” the judge said.
But panelists can take a choose-your-own-adventure path to deciding what those “unlawful means” are.
Per the judge, jurors can consider whether the hush money payouts to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal breached campaign finance laws, were tax fraud, or whether business records were themselves falsified during that process — for example, whether Cohen fudged records to create his shell companies that he used for the payoffs.
But they don’t have to agree on what those “unlawful means” are.
“Mother Theresa could not beat these charges,” Trump said to reporters in the court hallway just now, shortly after the jury was released from the courtroom to begin deliberating.
“The trial is rigged. The judge is so conflicted he can’t breathe.”