How the outcome of former President Trump’s criminal trial is entwined with the nation’s future

Twelve jurors are on deck and former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial is racing toward its climax. The trial is inextricably intertwined with the nation’s future and the former president’s bid to reclaim the White House. The panel of jurors has to decide if the prosecution missed anything in the case and if the defense was effective in poking holes in testimony from the star witness Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer. For the jury to convict Trump, the prosecution needs to prove that he knew he falsified the records and that he did it for political gain. But even then there are questions about whether the jury needs to be unanimous on what “predicate” crime he committed.