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Tuesday is the first full day of deliberations at the Trump Org. tax fraud trial in Manhattan.
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The jury notes have requested collations of the law for charges 2, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
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The requests may indicate that the jury is moving quickly through the nine-count case. Or maybe not.
A Manhattan jury began its second day of deliberations Tuesday in the state tax fraud case against the Trump Organization.
And while it’s impossible to know what’s going on in the jury room, the first two notes from the jurors could indicate they’re working quickly on the nine-count indictment.
On Monday, during their first four hours of deliberationsJurors sent a memo requesting a rerun of the jury charge on the second count, which accuses Trump’s real estate and golf resort empire of conspiring in a decade-long tax evasion scheme run by his top financial executives. .
Then, Tuesday morning, jurors requested a rerun of the law for counts 6, 7 and 8, which allege the company falsified business records when it generated bogus W-2 forms for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017. .
Later, at 11:30 a.m., they sent their third note, requesting a replay of the jury charge for the final count, 9, alleging forgeries in a major set of ledgers kept by Trump himself.
Are they moving quickly through the nine count indictment? Are you at the finish line of the deliberations, with less than six hours of deliberations?
Of course, there’s no way to know what’s going on; Defense attorneys and prosecutors often warn each other not to try to interpret the inscrutable “tea leaves” that are jury notes.
But there was a sign of unanimity from the jury, also on Tuesday afternoon.
A court official sent the trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, a folded white notebook sheet.
On it were written in pen the numbers 2, 3, 4, 6 and 11.
“Five jurors who are not taking notes request that they be issued writing materials so they can take notes now,” the judge told the parties, five Trump attorneys and three prosecutors who had gathered in the courtroom to the last update.
“It was a communication from the court officer,” Merchan said, holding up the note, which listed the jury numbers of those who would receive notebooks.
“There are no words, just numbers,” the judge said of the court’s new display, a certain irony in his voice. “But I’ll give it to you so you can take a look at it.”
A court clerk, a young woman, cautiously held the page of the notebook by one corner, between her thumb and forefinger, and passed it first across the defense table and then across the prosecution table. All the lawyers leaned forward as she walked past them.
“Let the record reflect,” said the judge, still puzzled by the bizarre court evidence, “what the defendants and the prosecution have seen,” he paused and smiled, “the numbers.”
The five jurors obtained their new, blank notebooks in time to take notes on counts 6, 7, 8, and 9.
The jury of four women and eight men is deciding whether two Trump subsidiaries, the Trump Corporation, which directly employs its top executives, and the Trump Payroll Corporation, which pays everyone both doing business and the Trump Organization, are criminally liable for a decade-long tax fraud scheme.
Defense attorneys insist that no one named Trump was involved in the scheme, which was no doubt led by former CFO Allen Weisselberg and top payroll executive Jeffrey McConney.
Prosecutors have countered that Weisselberg and McConney were not “rogue” executives, but very loyal. They told jurors that Weisselberg and McConney intended to benefit not only themselves through the tax evasion scheme, but also their company: an essential element under New York corporate responsibility law.
Prosecutors also cited numerous documents signed by Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump as evidence that they were aware of the scheme.
Trump himself is not on trial, nor are any of his three eldest sons, who have served as his executive vice presidents, just the two subsidiaries.
But a tax fraud conviction would cost the Trump Organization a fine of up to $1.6 million. Felony status for his company would also be a significant black eye for Trump as he prepares for his third campaign for the presidency.
Read the original article at Business Insider