BREAKING: Jury Reaches Verdict In Trump Trial

On Thursday, the 12-person jury in the business records fraud trial brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump reached a verdict. The jury, which heard closing arguments on Monday and Tuesday, has been in deliberation for the past two days and notified Judge Juan Merchan that they had reached a verdict at around 4:20 PM EST, just ten minutes before they were due to be excused for the day.

The 12 New Yorkers asked Judge Merchan earlier in the day for him to reread his jury instructions as well as testimony from witness David Pecker, the National Enquirer publisher that assisted in hiding the Stormy Daniels affair story, and Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer.

Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records after he reimbursed Cohen for a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to prevent her from spreading a story about an alleged affair that took place with Trump at Lake Tahoe in 2006.

When deliberations began on Tuesday, Trump appeared to be pessimistic about his chances of acquittal, telling the press outside the courtroom, "Mother Theresa could not beat these charges."

"These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged. The whole country is a mess between the borders and fake elections, to have a trial like this where the judge is so conflicted he can't breathe. He's got to do his job," Trump said. "I took a big lead in the polls over the last few weeks. Something is going on. Because I think the people of this country see that this is a rigged deal."
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"Then they had a protest with Robert De Niro yesterday, who is a fool, a broken down fool. He got MAGA'd yesterday. He got a big dose of it," the presumptive GOP nominee said in reference to a Biden campaign press conference hosted by the actor outside the courthouse on Tuesday. "Remember, November 5, the most important day in the history of our country. In the meantime, this trial is rigged."

This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.

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