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Donald Trump departed Trump Tower moments ago and is en route to the downtown Manhattan courthouse, where a jury is set to continue a second day of deliberations to determine his legal fate in his historic criminal hush money trial. The 12 jurors— seven men and five women — will determine whether Trump is guilty of 34 felony criminal charges of falsifying business records in connection with allegedly concealing reimbursements to his then-lawyer for a purported hush money scheme to silence an adult film star about an affair shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Jurors will return to court at 9:30 a.m. Trump and the attorneys will remain in the courthouse while the jury deliberates. Trump’s team has a war room of sorts and will be in there at times during jury deliberation.

Persons: Donald Trump, —, Trump, reimbursements Organizations: Trump Locations: Manhattan

Former President Donald Trump appears in court with his lawyers Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and Susan Necheles for his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 28 in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesAs the jury is set to begin deliberating today, former President Donald Trump and his team are preparing for a possible conviction in his criminal New York hush money case. While there remains hope for a hung jury, legal advisers have privately warned Trump and his team to prepare for a possible conviction in the case. Privately, Trump has asked allies what they think the outcome will be, while complaining that the trial is rigged against him. “It’s all the about the messaging—pre-trial, during the trial and then after the trial,” one source close to Trump told CNN.

Persons: Donald Trump, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove, Susan Necheles, Spencer Platt, Trump, “, ” Organizations: Manhattan Criminal, Trump, CNN Locations: New York City, York, Manhattan

Defense attorney Todd Blanche will present first Tuesday morning with closing arguments expected to take 2.5 to 3 hours, a person familiar tells CNN. Essentially, Trump’s lawyers do not want the lead prosecutor to have another crack at the jury before they retire to deliberate. What they are expected to say today: In their closing, Trump’s team will revisit many of the arguments they made at trial — that allegedly falsified documents were not falsified because Michael Cohen was working as a lawyer to President Trump in 2017, according to the person familiar. They will also argue that if documents were falsified, it was Cohen who falsified them by lying about how much he was owed, according to the source. The Trump team does not feel that Robert Costello’s disastrous appearance on the witness stand last week will ultimately hurt their case or their arguments about Cohen.

Persons: Todd Blanche, Joshua Steinglass, Michael Cohen, Trump, Cohen, Allen Weisselberg, Trump's, The, Robert Costello’s Organizations: CNN, Trump, Lawyers, The Trump

Attorneys were at a sidebar as prosecutor Susan Hoffinger began asking Michael Cohen about a Wall Street Journal story from 2018 on American Media Inc., the payments and Cohen's conversation with ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker. "David was very concerned because it was going to affect AMI, it was going to affect him," Cohen said. Cohen says he told Pecker: "I told him that matter was going to be taken care of, and the person of course who was going to be able to do it was Jeff Sessions," who was attorney general at the time. Cohen testifies that he told Pecker that because "that was post my conversation with the president." Hoffinger confirmed with Cohen that he had already had a conversation with Trump about it at that point.

Persons: Susan Hoffinger, Michael Cohen, David Pecker, David, Cohen, Merchan, Pecker, Jeff Sessions, Hoffinger, Trump Organizations: American Media Inc, National Enquirer, AMI

Prosecutors say it’s entirely possible they could rest their case by the end of this week. Cohen himself was federally charged with campaign finance violations, tax crimes and lying to Congress in previous testimony. Judge to Cohen: Please stop talking: Trump attorney Todd Blanche urged Judge Juan Merchan on Friday to order Cohen to stop talking about the trial and Trump. Trump is not allowed to talk about Cohen because of the gag order in place. Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass responded that prosecutors have repeatedly instructed Cohen and all of the other witnesses in the case not to speak publicly about it.

Persons: Donald Trump, Cohen, Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, He’s, Trump, Alvin Bragg’s, Todd Blanche, Judge Juan Merchan, Blanche, Joshua Steinglass, ”, Merchan, White, Madeleine Westerhout, Westerhout, Daniels, she’d, Read Organizations: Trump, Manhattan, White, White House

Donald Trump is heading into the most perilous phase of his hush money trial aside from the moment when the jury retires to consider its verdict. Merchan also instructed Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, to rein in his client after complaining that the defendant had cursed audibly and shaken his head during Daniels’ testimony. The judge was concerned that the jury might notice the witness being intimidated — which he warned he could not allow to continue. So far, Trump — who has launched searing attacks on the judge — has managed to refrain from openly attacking Daniels since she took the stand. And her appearance is only an appetizer for expected explosive evidence in the coming days of the biggest star witness, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.

Persons: Donald Trump, Stormy Daniels, Trump, Judge Juan Merchan, Merchan, Todd Blanche, Daniels, —, Michael Cohen Organizations: Trump, Trump —

The defense started its cross-examination of David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, on Thursday. When asked, Pecker acknowledged he still has equity in AMI. Trump's attorney asked Pecker if he managed AMI to make money. Bove asked. Bove asked.

Persons: David Pecker, Donald Trump's, Emil Bove, Pecker, Bove Organizations: National Enquirer, American Media Inc, AMI, AMI wasn't

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