Turley upends narrative claiming Trump jury requests are 'great news' for prosecutors: 'Pretty chilling'

Legal expert Jonathan Turley believes several jury requests indicate not-so-good news for prosecutors targeting Donald Trump.

Hours after they began deliberations, the 12-person jury deciding Trump's fate in the hush-money case submitted two notes to Judge Juan Merchan.

'That is pretty chilling for people that believe strongly in the criminal justice system and the very high standard of proof that’s required.'

In the first note, jurors made four requests related to the testimony of David Pecker and Michael Cohen, two key witnesses at the trial. In the second note, the jury requested to rehear Merchan's complicated instructions, which took more than an hour to read on Wednesday morning.

From Turley’s perspective, the note requesting the jury instructions does not bode well for the prosecution.

“I’m surprised that some other networks have said, ‘Look, this is really great news that they sent this out.’ I gotta tell you, as a criminal defense attorney, I would not view this as clearly good news for the prosecution,” he said on Fox News.

“The only reason why a jury would send out a request to hear the instructions again is if there’s a disagreement about what the instructions are,” he explained. “That indicates that there may be a conflict with jurors in that room about what their standard is, how they are supposed to look at the evidence.”

The request for transcripts of Cohen’s testimony, Turley added, could indicate the jury is scrutinizing Cohen’s testimony. This is important because Merchan told the jurors they could disregard his testimony if they believe he lied about any material fact.

“I don’t consider this such a clearly positive thing for the prosecution. As a defense attorney, I would welcome this type of request. They were only in there for a few hours, and they asked to hear the instructions again, and they asked to hear core testimony,” Turley explained.

Still, there remains a problem for Trump, Turley said: Merchan’s controversial instructions.

“They are very one-sided, and they have converted this into something of a canned hunt. What Judge Merchan has said is that you could divide four, four, four. You could have three groups of jurors who view the facts materially differently. They could disagree as to what crime was behind this effort to falsify business records, and Merchan will still treat that as a unanimous verdict,” he explained. “That is pretty chilling for people that believe strongly in the criminal justice system and the very high standard of proof that’s required.”

Court resumed on Thursday just after 9:30 a.m.

After the jury was re-empaneled, Merchan re-read his instructions, prompting some jurors — including one of the panel's two attorneys — to write diligent notes. Afterward, the court began re-reading the requested witness testimony.

The jury is expected to restart deliberations after all requested testimony is re-read.

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