After Judge Juan Merchan wrapped up his instructions to the jury he had one last order for Donald Trump, his legal team and the prosecutors.
‘I do direct all of you to be please here,’ he said Wednesday, before heading for his robing room. ‘You cannot leave the building.’
It is another humbling moment for the man who was leader of the free world for four years and may yet be again after November’s election.
He held up traffic with his motorcade and closed airspace in Air Force One. But for the past five weeks in a New York courtroom, Trump has had to follow rules laid out by a judge and enforced by bailiffs.
He must be in place before the judge calls the court to order, and must get to his feet when the jury enters and leaves the room.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to the press as the jury began its deliberations Wednesday. For once, Trump has little control over his days while waiting for a verdict
Now he must spend hours each day waiting in one of the fading courthouse’s meeting rooms for the seven men and five women of the jury to finish their deliberations.
He is stuck each day on the 15th floor of a crumbling courthouse where his aides have complained about the state of the restrooms and where an ‘asbestos abatement’ warning is pinned beside the elevators.
It is a very ordinary setting for a real estate mogul who made his money in glittering Manhattan towers and whose surname became a byword for luxury.
The jury deliberated for four and half hours on Wednesday before being sent home for the night by Judge Juan Merchan.
Ahead of that, they asked to rehear a slew of testimony from a key Trump Tower meeting, where the prosecution alleges that a ‘capture and kill’ scheme was devised to bury negative stories, and from tabloid king David Pecker, the then publisher of the National Enquirer.
The jury’s request sounded around courtroom 1530 in the form of a buzzer, sending bailiffs scurrying to alert the judge, defense and prosecution.
Trump returned to the courtroom, chatting with his lawyers, to hear the judge read the jurors’ note requesting four pieces of testimony.
They include Pecker talking about a phone conversation he had with Trump and his decision not to finalize a deal for Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story.
In his testimony, Pecker said Trump told him: ‘”I don’t buy any stories.”
Judge Juan Merchan delivered his instructions to the jury and they began their deliberations late on Wednesday morning. They spent 4.5 hours deliberating before being sent home
David Pecker was the first witness called by the prosecution. The former publisher of the National Enquirer said he offered to be the ‘eyes and ears’ of the Trump campaign
Twelve jurors will decide Donald Trump’s fate after sitting through six weeks of testimony
‘And he said that, “Any time you do anything like this, it always gets out.”
‘So I said … so I said, “I still believe that we should take this story off the market.”
‘And he said, “Let me think about it, and I’ll have Michael Cohen call you back in a few days.”‘
Trump denies 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels just ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The prosecution alleges he directed a plot to buy up negative stories, using his fixer Cohen and friend Pecker to seek out and sign up women to stop them going public.
Pecker’s description of the phone call, conducted during an investor meeting, could be damaging for Trump’s defense, suggesting as it does that Trump was pondering a deal and was using Cohen to relay decisions and instructions.
It could also bolster the prosecution’s case that Trump had never been interested in buying negative stories before but was willing to consider it once the election loomed.
Don Jr joined his father in the courtroom on Wednesday as deliberations began
Natalie Harp (left) and Karoline Leavitt leave the courthouse as deliberations begin
Trump supporters were out in force in front of the courthouse on Wednesday
Trump supporters and their opponents spar outside the criminal court where former President Donald Trump is on trial
In contrast, the defense has argued that Trump simply wanted to protect his family and was not thinking about hiding damaging information from voters.
Pecker eventually pulled out of a $150,000 deal to transfer McDougal’s life rights to a shell company set up by Cohen after he conferred with lawyers. He said Cohen told him that ‘the boss’ would be ‘very angry’ at him.
And the jurors also wanted to hear testimony from both Cohen and Pecker about a 2015 meeting at Trump Tower, when Pecker said he agreed to be the ‘eyes and ears’ of the recently launched presidential campaign.
That meeting is the very starting point of the prosecution’s case, making a natural point for jurors to direct their attention.
Soon after their first request has been read by the judge, the buzzer sounded again. This time the jury was asking to hear his jury instructions again.
Trump has swapped out his ties on a daily basis. On Wednesday it was a gold spotted number
As he arrives in court, he walks past the railing that defines where he can address the cameras
It was a reminder of where power in this case now lies: With the seven men and five women of the jury.
They have been told by the judge to set aside their feelings about Trump and to take as long as they need to come up with a unanimous verdict.
‘You are the judges of the facts, and you are responsible for deciding whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty,’ Merchan told them in their final instructions.
At times, Trump has looked like a caged beast in court. He has glared at the public gallery, staring at reporters, and was caught uttering obscenities by the judge early on in proceedings.
Other times he tries to wield power almost in plain sight, slouching back in his chair, eyes closed in a display of either sleep or disdain for the court around him.
He has changed his tie on a daily basis in another effort to control what he can. Once a week it is the familiar red neckwear, with a navy blue suit and white shirt, but on Wednesday it was gold, with a dotted pattern, while plain blue, patterned blue, orange and buttery yellow have all also featured.
And then there are the 15th floor press appearances in front of the cameras, where he can say whatever he likes (so long as he does not infringe a gag order preventing him talking about witnesses.)
‘Mother Teresa could not beat these charges,’ he said on Wednesday at lunchtime.
‘These charges are rigged. 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.’
But even then, as he delivers his freewheeling attacks, he is not as free as he looks. Railings define exactly where he can stand as he addresses the cameras.
