Judge Merchan, returning to the bench, announced, "We did just receive another note."

The judge said the jury wants to rehear the judge's instructions.

Merchan suggested bringing them back to clarify if they want the entire instructions or just a portion.

In his closing argument yesterday, prosecutor Josh Steinglass framed the 2015 Trump Tower meeting, for which the jury requested the transcript, as central to the case.

"That was the whole purpose of the Trump Tower meeting, to get AMI to help [Trump] win the election," Steinglass told the jurors, claiming that "the Trump Tower conspiracy violated New York state election law."

Defense attorney Todd Blanche, in his closing, pushed back on the significance of the meeting, saying it was AMI merely agreeing to do what it had done for decades.

"They had been doing it for President Trump since the Nineties," Blanche said of the arrangement to catch and kill unflattering stories. "Mr. Pecker told you that AMI purchases stories all the time.

"They purchased stories about Tiger Woods, Mark Wahlberg and other people. No crime," Blanche said.

The phone call between Trump and then-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, which the jury requested be read back, involved an alleged discussion about Playboy model Karen McDougal, who alleged a year-long affair with Trump that Trump has denied.

"With all of the evidence and documents in this case, it's easy to lose sight of the significance of this phone call," prosecutor Josh Steinglass told jurors during his closing argument yesterday.

Steinglass argued that the call proved that Trump "was overtly discussing purchasing [McDougal's] story to keep it from being published" -- and that it also proved that Michael Cohen was telling the truth when he said he was acting at the direction of Trump.

"This call makes it impossible for the defense to claim that Cohen was acting on his own, that he was taking it upon himself to work with AMI to purchase the McDougal story," Steinglass told the jurors.

"I will be in the robing room -- let me know when you are ready for readback," Judge Merchan said after the jury requested a review of four pieces of testimony from Michael Cohen and David Pecker.

Merchan then left the courtroom.

A court reporter dropped a 12-inch stack of transcripts on the prosecution counsel table then handed an index to the prosecutors.

Trump attorneys Emil Bove and and Todd Blanche appeared to be searching through papers on their table, while Trump sat motionless. Prosecutors were doing the same thing.

As Judge Merchan reread the jury instructions, the jury again hears what exactly is reasonable doubt in the eyes of the law.

"A reasonable doubt is an honest doubt of the defendant's guilt for which a reason exists based upon the nature and quality of the evidence. It is an actual doubt, not an imaginary doubt. It is a doubt that a reasonable person, acting in a matter of this importance, would be likely to entertain because of the evidence that was presented or because of the lack of convincing evidence," Merchan said.

The jury also heard again how to judge the credibility of a witness.

"You must decide whether a witness told the truth and was accurate, or instead, testified falsely or was mistaken," Merchan said.
Trump's team had hammered the credibility of Michael Cohen, saying he had an "ax to grind" -- and who they will rehear testimony from again later this morning.

"You may consider whether a witness had, or did not have, a motive to lie," Merchan instructed them. "If a witness had a motive to lie, you may consider whether and to what extent, if any, that motive affected the truthfulness of that witness's testimony."