The jury in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York began its deliberations on Wednesday and those deliberations are expected to continue on Thursday, if not longer, until a unanimous verdict is reached or they determine they are at an impasse.

After the jury deliberations were paused Wednesday evening, Trump addressed reporters outside the courtroom and called upon presiding Judge Juan Merchan to summarily dismiss the case before a verdict so that he could "save his reputation," Fox News reported.

The former president decried the entire legal charade as a "disgrace" and, earlier in the day, lamented how the judicial system was "rigged" and politically weaponized against him.

"This thing ought to be ended immediately"

Court proceedings and jury deliberations were paused Wednesday after the jurors sent a couple of notes to Judge Merchan requesting clarification and a re-reading of his instructions and certain portions of testimony from two witnesses.

Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, former President Trump said, "The confusion is nobody knows what the crime is because there's no crime. Nobody knows what the crime is. The D.A. didn't name the crime of the moment. They don't know what the crime is."

"That's what the problem is. It's a disgrace. This thing ought to be ended immediately. The judge ought to end it and save his reputation," he added in urging Merchan to dismiss the entire case.

"Mother Teresa could not beat these charges"

Earlier in the day, as the jury began its deliberations, former President Trump told reporters, "The judge, who, as you know, is very conflicted and corrupt. Because of the confliction, very, very corrupt. Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. These charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged."

"The whole country is a mess, between the borders and fake elections, and you have a trial like this where the judge is so conflicted, he can't breathe. He's got to do his job," he continued. "It's a disgrace. And I mean that, Mother Teresa could not beat those charges. But we'll see. We'll see how we do."

Jurors asked to rehear portions of testimony, judge's instructions

Newsweek reported that the jury sent two separate notes to Judge Merchan on Wednesday afternoon with several different requests, the first being to rehear certain portions of testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker as well as from the prosecution's star witness, Trump's disgraced ex-personal attorney Michael Cohen.

From Pecker, the jury wanted to rehear his testimony about a particular phone call with Trump, his decision to not purchase the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal's story about an alleged affair, and a 2015 meeting with Trump in Trump Tower to discuss their 2016 election cycle strategy. The jurors also wanted to rehear Cohen's testimony about that Trump Tower meeting.

In a second note about an hour later, the jury also asked to rehear the judge's instructions for their deliberations that had initially been read to them by Merchan earlier that morning.

Jurors excused for day to grant attorneys time to meet requests for testimony rehearing

The Associated Press, in a series of updates, reported that the jury's request to rehear portions of testimony sparked a time-consuming process as prosecutors and defense attorneys scrambled to review transcripts and highlight relevant portions, not all of which they agreed upon.

Eventually, given the time it was taking the attorneys to gather everything together and reach an agreement on what should be shared with the jury, Judge Merchan excused the jurors for the remainder of the day and informed everybody that the proceedings would pick back up again Thursday morning.