Trump trial jury set to begin deliberations in New York criminal hush money case

• A 12-member jury in the hush money trial of Donald Trump will begin deliberations in a New York courtroom.
• Trump is accused of falsifying business records relating to reimbursing his then-lawyer Michael Cohen for a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
• The Republican is the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges.

Jurors in the criminal hush money trial of former President Donald Trump are set to begin deliberating a potential verdict Wednesday, after they receive instructions from a judge in a New York courtroom.

Trump's lawyer and a prosecutor gave closing arguments all day Tuesday and into the early evening.

The case marks the first time a former U.S. president has faced criminal charges.

But Trump also faces three other criminal cases, none of which is currently expected to start trial before November, when the Republican is on track to face President Joe Biden in a rematch of their 2020 contest.

Trump is accused in this case of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to reimbursements he and his company, the Trump Organization, gave his then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen testified at trial in Manhattan Supreme Court that he paid Daniels at Trump's direction to buy her silence about an alleged one-time sexual tryst with Trump in 2006.

Prosecutors claim that Trump, by falsely recording the reimbursements to Cohen as legal expenses, had criminally covered up their true nature, which was to protect his then-reeling campaign from losing the 2016 election to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

At the time of the payment to Daniels, Trump's candidacy had been