Jurors hearing the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president could render their verdict in Donald Trump's hush money case as soon as next week, with potentially big implications for the 2024 White House race.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a payment that bought the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. Daniels had threatened to go public with her account of an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, a liaison he denies.
The New York case is widely seen as the least consequential of the four criminal prosecutions Trump faces. But it has meant the Republican presidential candidate spent more time in court than campaigning in recent weeks, and brought outsize attention to the only case likely to go to trial before his Nov. 5 election face-off with Democratic President Joe Biden.