Hello hello from New York and day whatever the hell it is of the criminal trial of Donald Trump. It's day two of jury deliberations over the Manhattan District Attorney's falsifying business records charges, and all we can do is speculate and wait.
We're expecting to start off the day with a readback of testimony from former American Media Inc. CEO and Trump ally David Pecker, as well as that of Trump’s personal attorney and star cooperating witness Michael Cohen.
Yesterday, the jury asked for Pecker’s testimony related to a conversation with Trump about former Playboy model Karen McDougal. She was paid $150,000 by AMI for the rights to her story about an affair with Trump, and the requested testimony relates to how that deal played out.
Jurors also want to hear testimony from Cohen and Pecker about their 2015 Trump Tower meeting with Trump, and an alleged plan to use Pecker’s media empire to boost Trump's chances in the 2016 election.
In a second note yesterday, jurors asked to rehear Justice Merchan's jury instructions.
So we're probably looking at a little under two hours of testimony readback and a redux of the court's instructions on the law.
So we're probably looking at a little under two hours of testimony readback and a redux of the court's instructions on the law.
As I noted yesterday, juries in NY state court are not allowed to have a written copy of the jury instructions to assist them in deliberations. If they have questions, they have to be brought back in the courtroom to listen to the judge repeat his instructions orally.
Meanwhile, over on Truth Social. Apparently, he’s referring to MSNBC. 
Trump's son Eric is here today, seated next to Trump attorney Alina Habba. Real estate mogul and Trump friend Steve Witkoff, who testified at Trump's civil fraud trial last year, is also on hand.
A couple more notes from the jury start things off for the day. The jury specifies that they’d like to hear the judge’s instructions about how jurors are supposed to weigh the evidence in the case, and asks for the judge to repeat his “rain metaphor.”
The rain metaphor is a common way for judges to describe what circumstantial evidence is. It's some version of a scenario in which someone doesn’t actually see that it’s raining, but later see people in raincoats or with wet umbrellas, and thereby can conclude that it was raining
The jury is in the courtroom and Justice Merchan is reading aloud 30ish pages of his instructions. Readbacks of testimony from David Pecker and Michael Cohen to follow.
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