arguments, the trial of the people of the state of new york versus donald j. trump is in the hands of seven men and five women, 12 jurors who will decide the first criminal case of a former president of the united states who weighed in just moments ago. >> mother teresa could not beat these charges. these charges are rigged. the whole thing is rigged. i mean that, mother teresa could not beat those charges. we will see. we will see how we do. today, white house saying a deadly israeli attack that killed at least 21 people in a tent encampment inside rafah does not cross the president's red line against a major ground offensive. questions though are being raised about whether israeli forces used american munitions in the strike. on the campaign trail, president biden and vice president kamala harris heading to philadelphia for a rally to try to shore up lagging support among critical -- a critical democratic constituency, black voters. ♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in new york. in an unprecedented trial that has galvanized the nation, 12 jurors are now deliberating on the guilt or innocence of a former president of the united states. donald trump, the presumptive republican presidential nominee, is awaiting his fate inside a manhattan courthouse steps away from where the jury is deliberating on the 34 felony counts, with which trump is charged. the jurors are behind closed doors. this is the first time that they are permitted to discuss the case amongst each other. they will be pouring over more than 200 pieces of evidence, 80 hours of testimony from 22 witnesses. yesterday's marathon closing arguments that took them well into the evening. they are going over that evidence and all of that testimony. the marathon closing arguments took them into 8:00 p.m. judge merchan laying out instructions to the jury. reminding them the burden of proof is on the prosecution and that intent to commit fraud suffices. judge merchan said that we do know whether -- if it's a verdict or simply a question -- if a question comes in, we won't know if it's a verdict until the foreperson reads it in the court. vaughn hillyard is back outside the courthouse. former fbi again counsel andrew weissmann, jeremy saland, former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade and former federal judge john jones, president of dickinson college. vaughn, walk us through the legal guidelines judge merchan gave the jury. what resources the jurors have. set the stage. >> reporter: judge merchan left these 12 jurors with meaty instructions about what they are tasked to determine. that starts with the felony counts that he is facing. that is whether donald trump caused the falsification of business records with the intent to defraud. for the purposes of breaking new york state election law by influencing the outcome of the 2016 election through unlawful means. these jurors were given several potential unlawful acts that they could determine that justified unlawful means, including tax violations, including breaking federal election law, including breaking other financial records violations. so for these jurors here, if they have questions about the law that they are being asked to determine donald trump's guiltiness or innocence over, they are able to go back to judge merchan to have him rearticulate the law that they are being asked to determine donald trump's fate over. they also at this time have two laptops that contain all of the evidence presented to them throughout the course of the last five weeks. these were five weeks' worth of testimony and exhibits and documents that were presented to these jurors. and after over eight hours of closing arguments they have officially entered into the deliberation room to determine whether donald trump is guilty of those 34 felony counts. for donald trump, upon leaving the courtroom, he has to stay in the courthouse, he said this trial is rigged. >> andrew, laura is in the courtroom. she's describing the judge's affect, he was speaking slowly. as you heard inside and i heard inside, he speaks very calmly and slowly and deliberately, even when he was chiding the defense or prosecution in various instances. >> right. i really wish for that reason that at least there was an audio. >> the supreme court audio has been so helpful to us. >> exactly. you can actually simultaneously listen to arguments now. one of the more striking things is hearing judge merchan's voice. at a time when there's so much distrust in our legal system being fomented by donald trump and others, it would be so helpful to hear that. that was the first thing that struck me. laura's reporting in terms of what was going on this morning, which was the reading for about an hour of the jury instructions and the jurors being rapt to attention makes total sense. this is when they find, what is the law, what do they have to find or not find? they are given all these instructions. the reporting is that they were paying very, very close attention to that. as you would expect. >> describe the rapport between the judge and the jurors in this case, in many cases. >> almost all jurors, unless you have a really erratic judge, develop a real bond with the judge. the judge, he or she is looking out for the jurors. paying careful attention to their time, making things move along. as you noted with respect to judge merchan, i am now -- i have a man crush on him. he is such a great judge that it's hard to see the jurors wouldn't have the same impression. you just keep on thinking, if you looked in a dictionary for judicial temperament, that's what you would get. remember, he has had to put up with the defendant who committed ten acts of contcontempt, who threatened not just him but his family. in spite of that, you would not know for a second that that is in any way weighing on him, because it has an impeccably fair trial. >> just a fascinating context here, especially given all of the ruckus on social media and outsidde the courtroom. judge jones, what's the most critical part you saw today? did any side benefit at all from the way the judge described the law here? >> first of all, andrew is precisely correct. i want to comment on that. jurors do cleave to the trial judge, particularly this trial judge who is so even tempered and did an exemplary job with a tough case. andrew couldn't be more correct. as far as the instructions are concerned, i think the instructions on the law itself, broad as they were, giving the jury some room to find these underlying so-called predicate crimes, those are very, very important in the jury's deliberations. unfortunately, in new york, you can't take the instructions to the jury room with you. we did that in the federal system, as your panelists know. that was always helpful to the jury. you have what you have. i do think there's going to be some questions. no juror, lawyer or otherwise, can memorize pages and pages of intricate law. unfortunately, that may slow deliberations. otherwise, i think it's the substantive law, the law of the case as we call it, that is going to be most important in the deliberations. >> there was a slight delay in them starting to deliberate. two of the jurors needed instructions on how to use the laptop, which had the evidence loaded. jeremy, let's talk about that. this brings it home to all of us who have dealt with technology as things have evolved. two jurors who were not that familiar with the laptop. >> funny is not the right word, but i had a trial in brooklyn supreme court where the jury wanted to access things with the computer. what they have to do, meaning the court system in the district attorney's office as well is to make sure and the defense is that that laptop is clean. it's not internet accessible. there's nothing on there other than whatever tool, whatever they need to look at is on that laptop. believe it or not, it took us three or four hours for the court system in the state of new york or the city of new york to get a laptop, clean it up and make sure it was accessible and usable. while there was a delay, it's a really effective tool for a jury to use to synthesize what they need to and then move that ball forward to either an acquittal or conviction. >> another bit of housekeeping. there are six alternates. notable to me that they were not dismissed as the deliberations started. they can't participate in deliberations. are they being kept in case someone gets sick and they could be brought up to speed? is there -- >> again, i will use the term funny. that's what happened in my most recent trial. i lost one and one was substituted. they are critical but not involved in the initial deliberation. they are separate and apart. they also have to be involved in that entirety of the deliberation. they don't just come on at the end and say we have 11 and you are the 12th, what do you want to do? they have to be immersed to ensure the accused has fair due process and that case is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. >> barb, we just got the transcript, as we do on a delayed basis. 55 pages of the judge's instructions that lasted a little more than an hour. a partial verdict is a possibility. let's talk about the first seven counts. they are tied to the two checks that were not signed by donald trump. even if the jury finds him not guilty on those first counts, it could change -- it could all change on count eight. could you break it down for us? >> absolutely. each of these 34 counts has to be looked at individually. it seems quite possible that the jury could find guilt on some counts and not guilt proven on other counts. in some ways, if you are an appellate lawyer, this is a godsend, a gift. it demonstrates the jury did not look at it in an all or nothing fashion but carefully parsed each count in the indictment. for example, it could be that the jury finds as you said the signed checks show guilty and donald trump's direct participation. unsigned, maybe there's a reasonable doubt. same with invoices and ledger entries where it was said he didn't create them himself but caused them to be created. there's certainly evidence on the other documents that he caused them to be executed. you are right, the jury will have to look at each of the individual. from the prosecution's perspective, guilt on any count is success. that brings with it a felony conviction. there's 34 ways to guilty here, guilt on one count is a conviction for the former president. >> judge jones, how much influence will the judge have, especially if the jury comes back with questions at various times? >> i don't think influence would be exactly the correct word. i think it's up to the judge to take the questions, for example, coalesce with the lawyers and find the right way to answer the questions and not to show that he is leaning one way or the other with respect to the answers. it's an art form to do it. there are some questions, as your panelists know, that judges, after coalescing with the attorneys, have to say to the jury, i'm sorry, but i can't answer that for you. it's not an appropriate question. it's out of bounds. i'm going to instruct you to go back to the jury room and continue to deliberate. how he manages the jury is going to really help the jury in its deliberations, generally. i don't think he will influence the jury. he doesn't want to influence the jury. they are the finders of fact, per se. i expect given his qualifications, his vast experience as a trial judge, he knows exactly what he is doing, he is in the moment and he will handle inquiries from the jury very, very well. >> judge jones, thank you so much. we appreciate it. vaughn hillyard, andrew, jeremy and barbara, you will be checking back a little later in the hour. thanks to all of you for starting us off. israeli forces entering central rafah for the first time after civilians were killed in another stricondemnation. you are watching msnbc. ♪ i'm gonna hold you forever... ♪ ♪ i'll be there... ♪ ♪ you don't... ♪ ♪ you don't have to worry... ♪ slowing my cancer from growing and living longer are two things i want from my metastatic breast cancer treatment. and with kisqali, i can have both. kisqali is a pill that when taken with an aromatase inhibitor helps delay cancer from growing and has been proven to help people live significantly longer across three separate clinical trials. so, i have the confidence to live my life. kisqali can cause lung problems or an abnormal heartbeat, which can lead to death. it can cause serious skin reactions, liver problems, and low white blood cell counts that may result in severe infections. avoid grapefruit during treatment. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including breathing problems, cough, chest pain, a change in your heartbeat, dizziness, yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, tiredness, loss of appetite, abdomen pain, bleeding, bruising, fever, chills, or other symptoms of an infection, a severe or worsening rash, are or plan to become pregnant, or breastfeeding. long live life and long live you. ask your doctor about kisqali today. i am obsessed with olay's retinol body wash. with olay retinol body wash, 95% of women had visibly renewed skin. it makes my skin feel so smooth and moisturized. see the difference with olay. israel's national security advisor said today, he expects military operations in gaza to continue until the end of the year. in an election year, that's a bad timetable for president biden caught between voters who think he has been too supportive of israel in the war and those who disagree and disagree strongly. nbc news learned israel submit submitted a new cease-fire plan. it offers a sustainable calm, not a complete end to the war as hamas had been demanding. yesterday, a strike on a tent encampment near rafah reportedly killed at least 21 people, many of them women and children according to gaza emergency services. the white house is facing questions about whether israel has crossed an unofficial red line after the air strike over the weekend that killed dozens of people in a firestorm at a camp in rafah. >> how many more charred corpses does he have to see? >> we don't want to see a single more innocent life taken. no civilian casualties is the right number of civilian casualties. >> joining me now from tel aviv, raf sanchez. raf, more tragedy in gaza. israel being criticized. the u.s. being criticized. we don't know whether american munitions were used. the fog of war, we don't know what happened yet. >> reporter: here is what we know about that deadly strike on sunday. it happened late sunday night into early monday morning local time. it was at a camp west of rafah. these were displaced people who many of them had fled seven, eight times trying to get away from the fighting. the idf says they were targeting two senior hamas commanders who were meeting in a structure inside of that camp. they say that they used fairly small bombs, bombs with a warhead that weighs 37 pounds. they were deliberately trying to use smaller weapons to minimize civilian casualties. when those bombs exploded, they triggered some secondary explosion. that's what caused that absolute raging inferno that swept through that camp where palestinian families were sleeping in tents made of wood, made of plastic. at least 45 people killed. many of them women and children. the question at this point is what caused that secondary explosion. the israeli military is suggesting it's possible there were hamas weapons in a neighboring structure. that's what exploded. that's what caused the fire. they haven't presented any evidence of that. an israeli official told me it's possible it was a gas tank that people were cooking inside of the tents and one of them went up. just outcome harrowing, tragic, loss of life on an enormous scale. it's reverberating around the world. you saw john kirby, the spokesman for the national security council, facing difficult questions from our colleagues at the white house. struggling to explain, what is president biden's red line at this point given you have israeli forces in the center of rafah and you have loss of life on this scale? >> they are careful not to use the phrase red line, which became toxic during the obama white house, in syria, when the president laid down a red line on nerve gas and then did not enforce it, according to many people in the arab world. raf, let's talk about the new cease-fire proposal from israel as well as -- the security council is meeting right now. the u.s. is very strongly criticizing some of israel's policies, cutting off arab, israeli and palestinian access to banks controlled by israel, access for aid and the like. in any case, we expect pushback against any formal resolution against israel as has been -- it has isolated the u.s. with israel diplomatically. what do we know about the cease-fire proposal. >> reporter: since the last brief cease-fire collapsed in late november, one of the big sticking points is hamas has been saying, whatever cease-fire proposal comes needs to lead to an end to the war. israel is saying, that's not acceptable. israel will fight until it destroys hamas after the 7th of october. what the mediator, the prime minister of qatar, the egyptians have been looking for is some way to bridge what seems like kind of a zero sum gap between the two sides. this latest proposal put forward by israel offers what they are calling a sustainable calm. they are not saying they will end the war. they are saying a sustainable calm. we don't know exactly what that would look like in practice. one possibility is that israel moves from what it cams the high intensity phase of the war, air strikes, lots of armored units inside gaza, and moves to something more surgical, something that looks more like the occupied west bank so israel could say the war continues but perhaps the level of violence wouldn't be as severe as it is in gaza right now. >> raf, thank you very much. appreciate it. crunch time. how 12 jurors who have spent seven weeks in this historic trial in new york city will work together now to decide on those 34 felony charges. millions of people around the world really, but certainly millions in america are awaiting the verdict. 45 minutes into deliberations. they got a slow start because of some laptop orientation. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. hell reports." this is msnbc. 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