NEW YORK -- Former President Donald Trump has been making history these past few months, running a third straight presidential campaign while under multiple criminal indictments. His legal fate is now in the hands of a jury in New York, where he's charged with falsifying business records to disguise alleged a hush money payment to an adult film actress. The payment, prosecutors say, was designed to hide an alleged sexual encounter from voters shortly before the 2016 election.
The trial has fueled speculation over how politically damaging a conviction would be, with a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll finding that a fifth of Trump's supporters said they would either reconsider their support (16%) or withdraw it (4%) if that happened. But as the jury deliberates, Republican strategists told ABC News that the other side of the coin -- an acquittal or hung jury -- could offer the presumptive GOP nominee a chance for vindication and a political boost. "If this jury is hung or doesn't convict him, it is a huge shot in the arm to him.
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I just think it gives him fresh wind under his wings, a breath of fresh air and he gets to undo the shackles and go out there and rail against this two-tiered system of justice," said veteran GOP strategist Dave Carney. "It would give him a whole new talking point, and I think he would feel the burden lifted. I think it would make him a better candidate.
" Testimony at the New York trial was sometimes dominated by sordid details of Trump's purported encoun.
