A prosecutor told jurors in closing arguments that there was overwhelming evidence that the organizers of the "We build the wall" campaign were trying to raise millions of dollars for a wall.
Robert Sobelman, an assistant U.S. Attorney, urged the Manhattan federal court jury to convict Timothy Shea of fraud and conspiracy charges.
After John Meringolo told the jury that an acquittal was the only fair verdict, the prosecutor delivered a rebuttal.
The jury deliberated for a short time on Tuesday. Their work will resume Wednesday morning.
Donald Trump pardoned Steve Bannon as he left office last year, even though he was once a defendants in the case. Two other defendants are awaiting sentencing.
In his closing, Meringolo said that there were multiple ways that jurors could conclude that there was reasonable doubt.
There are two sides to every story.
Meringolo insisted that Ranch Property Management was not a shell company the government claimed it was. He said that prosecutors were wrong to say his client didn't work.
It was not a shell company. He said that Tim worked.
The motives of Winning Energy's owner, who has a cartoon superhero image of Trump in his cans, were attacked by Sobelman and Nicolas Roos in the earlier closing argument.
The fund raised over $25 million from thousands of donors after it was created in late 2018.
Sobelman said that no one donates to a nonprofit thinking that it is going to lend money to an energy drink company.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars that did not go to a stretch of several miles of wall that resulted from the fundraising effort were stolen from the organization.
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