Trump Hush Money Trial: Jury’s Out, America’s on Edge

New York, May — Things are gettin’ real spicy in the Big Apple. The jury in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial are really takin’ their sweet time, entering their second day of deliberations today. Apparently, figuring out if a former president is guilty of, well, *stuff*, is harder than it looks. They’re askin’ the judge to, like, re-explain legal stuff and want to listen to certain witnesses again. The tension? You could cut it with a knife, folks. This whole shebang could seriously mess with Trump’s chances of another go at the presidency in ’24.

Jury Needs a Refresher Course (and Some Flashback Testimony)

So, yesterday, the jury — that’s twelve regular folks thrust into this whole political circus – couldn’t agree on a verdict. Today, they asked the judge to reread a whole bunch of instructions, especially the parts about how to make sense of the evidence. They also want to hear from a couple of key players again:

• Michael Cohen: Trump’s former lawyer, the guy who actually paid off Stormy Daniels. Talk about awkward Thanksgiving dinners…
• David Pecker: The former head honcho of the National Enquirer, who spilled the tea about allegedly burying negative Trump stories. Juicy stuff.

Pecker Spills the Tea: “Catch-and-Kill”

Pecker’s testimony was like something out of a movie, you guys. He claimed that back in , he and Trump basically agreed to make bad press disappear. He even talked about a phone call where Trump allegedly found out about Karen McDougal’s claims of an affair and wanted to buy her silence (awkward!). Pecker apparently told him that was the best move.

Now, here’s where it gets good: The National Enquirer actually bought McDougal’s story but then Pecker backed out of a deal to, like, gift the rights to Trump through Cohen. He called it, and I quote, a “bad idea.” Can you imagine Cohen’s reaction? Let’s just say he wasn’t too thrilled and implied “the boss” wouldn’t be happy. Yikes!