Donald Trump closes his eyes after his attorney breaks the news to him about a verdict

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Donald Trump has slept through much of his criminal trial. So it’s not surprising that when the jury announced it had reached a verdict, and Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche whispered the news into Trump’s ear, Trump closed his eyes.

Cue the jokes about Trump falling asleep again. But in reality, it’s not difficult to figure out why Trump would close his eyes upon finding out that the jury reached a verdict. Trump’s best hope of getting out of this was a hung jury, where one rogue juror held out infinitely in an attempt at protecting Trump. Now that there’s a verdict, there obviously wasn’t a hung jury.

So now we wait perhaps another twenty minutes for the jury to come in with the completed verdict forms and read the verdict aloud. It’s hard to imagine that the verdict will be anything other than “guilty.” Trump’s reaction to the news of a verdict suggests that he sees it the same way.

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