Posted on 06/07/2024 5:16:47 PM PDT by grundle
Judge Juan Merchan asked prosecutors and Trump's defense team about a Facebook post that appeared to preview the outcome of the former president's hush money trial.
The New York judge overseeing Donald Trump's hush money trial has asked attorneys in the case about a social media post purporting to preview the former president's guilty verdict.
“Today, the Court became aware of a comment that was posted on the Unified Court System’s public Facebook page and which I now bring to your attention,” Judge Juan Merchan wrote in a letter dated Friday.
“My cousin is a juror and said Trump is getting convicted,” the post stated, according to Merchan's letter. “Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!”
Merchan said that the comment, which was attributed to a user identified as Michael Anderson, was "now labeled as one week old," and was posted in response to a routine notice from the court posted on May 29 about oral arguments unrelated to proceedings in Trump’s case.
When a defendant who has been convicted by a jury but has not yet been sentenced learns of alleged jury misconduct, he can move to set aside the verdict under New York criminal procedure law. If a defendant can prove that jury misconduct “may have affected a substantial right of the defendant,” the remedy is a new trial.
NBC News has not verified the claims made in the comment or the identity of the user who published the post, which has since been deleted. NBC News also hasn't independently confirmed the comment’s existence.
A Trump campaign official said "we're investigating" when asked about Merchan's letter.
Attorneys for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday afternoon, nor did a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney's office.
Trump was convicted last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to reimbursing Cohen for hush money paid to Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign. Trump had pleaded not guilty in the case and denied Daniels’ claims that she had a sexual encounter with him in 2006. Trump’s sentencing in the case is scheduled for July 11.
Citizens from Manhattan, you are an embarrassment. Trump did so much for NYC and this is how you repay him. You are disgraceful.
Oh, I see, a mistrial. That means the sick DA and judge get to try the case all over again tying up our President for what another 2-3 months?
NBC News is no friend of Trump or the truth when it goes against what they are preaching.
Supreme Court not going to help Trump.
It’s unclear whether they hear the case on their own sleepy schedule even.
Democrats are looking for a backdoor way out of this fiasco. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was deliberately planted. Everything seems to be choreographed to fit tgeir narrative.
Second, The NY Supreme Court would not have bothered contacting Merchan without having first verified the relationship of the poster and the juror, AND verifying there was contact between the two before the post.
The verdict will be tossed and I don't see Merchan getting another bite at the apple in time to get a conviction before the election.
How can you seat a jury that can pretend they haven't been tainted by pre-trial publicity?
Judge Merchan and his daughter just raising more money through mistrial or retrial. The added benefit is it will stop the higher court beatdown that was coming and keep the exposure of Merchan’s decision limited.
I would be shocked if that obvious troll post is not an obvious troll post.
A mistral and a new trial mean a long long time to set it up, all the pretrial motions, new discovery, request fir different venue, new judge, etc etc. Would not happen before the election, period.
I would say when the jurist decided to ignore the judge's order, and discussed the case outside of court causing it to be posted on Facebook, that affected a "substantial right" of the DJT.
What’s the problem? I could have posted the outcome the day the trial began. Everyone knew it would be a guilty verdict from this court. Each of us could claim to be a legitimate cousin of all the jurors(although very, very distant).
I think this was planned to give Bragg another three months to tie up Trump in a retrial.
100% it would take many months, if not a year. Not to mention a public flogging in the eyes of the public.
Merchan just has to rule it’s not related and had no effect.
And he will…
Merchan directed a guilty verdict and gave them instructions that it doesn’t matter there was no crime. How is that not jury tampering?
Media will have to spend all weekend talking the down and the prosecution must be livid.
I’m thinking trumps lawyers are already filing motions with Merchan and the appellate court for subpoena and deposition of all jurors.
The floodgates have been opened.
Another show trial would be a waste of time and play into their hands, since wasting campaign time was a main purpose.
Better to go to appeal.
Communists. Judge and jury.
And they will continue to call him a felon who got off on a technicality and Trump will never be able to clear his name if they don’t retry the case. It’s almost a win-win for the left.
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