Trump trial live updates: 1st day of deliberations wraps with no verdict

The jury in Donald Trump's hush money trial has entered the courtroom and taken their seats. Ahead of deliberations, Judge Juan M. Merchan has begun instructing the panel on the law that governs the case and what they can consider as they work toward a verdict.

Jurors will not receive copies of the instructions, but they can request to hear them again as many times as they wish, Merchan said.

"It is not my responsibility to judge the evidence here. It is yours," he told them.

Trump leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes as Merchan told jurors that reading the instructions would take about an hour.

The prosecution team has entered the courtroom ahead of this morning's jury charge.

Prosecutors Josh Steinglass, Matthew Colangelo and Rebecca Mangold are seated at the counsel table, and seven other members of the district attorney's team are in the gallery.

Former President Trump entered the courtroom minutes later.

The jury in Donald Trump's hush money trial is comprised of 18 Manhattan residents.

The main jury includes seven men and five women. There are also six alternate jurors who've listened to the testimony, but won't join in the deliberations unless one of the main jurors needs to drop out or is removed.

The jury represents a diverse cross-section of the borough and come from various professional backgrounds, including a sales professional, a software engineer, a security engineer, a teacher, a speech therapist, multiple lawyers, an investment banker and a retired wealth manager.

Jurors' names are being kept from the public.

Across more than four weeks of testimony, prosecutors called 20 witnesses. The defense called just two.

Among the prosecution's key witnesses: Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, porn actor Stormy Daniels, tabloid publisher David Pecker and lawyer Keith Davidson, who negotiated hush money deals for Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Cohen testified that he paid $130,000 in hush money to Daniels at Trump's behest weeks before the 2016 election to keep her quiet about her claims of a sexual encounter with him a decade earlier. Trump denies the encounter took place. Cohen also said Trump was involved in an arrangement to repay him and log the payments as legal expenses.

Daniels gave an at-times graphic account of the alleged encounter.

Pecker testified about agreeing to be the "eyes and ears" of Trump's campaign by tipping Cohen off to negative stories, including Daniels' claim.

Davidson talked about negotiating the deals and what he said was Cohen's frustration after the Daniels deal that Trump still hadn't repaid him.

The defense's big witness was attorney Robert Costello, who testified last Monday and Tuesday about negotiating to represent Cohen after the FBI raided Cohen's properties in 2018.