There's Been Another Twist in Trump's New York Case

Townhall ^ | 06/07/2024 | Spencer Brown

[SeekAndFind]

Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York City, notified the 45th president's defense attorney and a Manhattan prosecutor that there's been another twist — a potentially significant one — following the May 30 verdict finding Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.

In a letter dated June 7, Judge Merchan writes to Trump attorney Todd Blanche and ADA Joshua Steinglass (emphasis added):

Dear Counsel:

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. In the comment, the user, "Michael Anderson," states:

"My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted...Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!"

The comment, now labeled as one week old, responded to a routine UCS notice, posted on May 29, 2024, regarding oral arguments in the Fourth Department of the Appellate Division unrelated to this proceeding. The posting, entitled "The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, will hear oral arguments this morning at 10," and the comment are both viewable at https://www.facebook.com/NewYorkCourts/.

At this time it remains unknown whether the individual who posted the comment throwing a new wrench in the case is, in fact, related to a juror hearing the case or had received such information about the verdict if they were. But if such a relationship and disclosure exists — dated to the day proceeding the guilty verdict — this case just got even more interesting. It could also jeopardize D.A. Alvin Bragg's entire case against the former president. 

If this is legit, it should wipe out Trump’s conviction.
Judge Juan Merchan has alerted Trump’s attorneys to a Facebook post by a supposed cousin of a Trump juror who spilled the beans that he had inside info that Trump was about to be convicted
"My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted. Thank you folks for all your hard work!”


pic.twitter.com/Tjj6F4x6XV— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) June 7, 2024

Trump was scheduled to appear for sentencing on July 11 before the discovery of the Facebook comment portending to show a juror discussing details of the case and the jury's deliberations with an outside party. 

This is a developing story and may be updated. 

[SeekAndFind]

More here:

Mistrial? Trump 'Hush Money' Judge Suggests Juror May Have Had Predetermined Guilty Verdict

[G Larry]

First, The NY Supreme Court informed Merchan of the finding, this wasn't Merchan fessing up.

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?

[Kharis13]

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.

Oh how I hope you're right, G Larry. All of the other cases have blown up in the libs faces, and I'd like to see this one do the same.

[lee martell]

Hope so. I can’t wait to see the liberal heads exploding as they “uncelebrate” our justice system.

[Dacula]

This is being brought up now so that the gag order stays in place.

[cpdiii]

If the verdict is not tossed judge Merchan has two choices in sentencing. He can sentence Trump to jail or not. Merchan will select which is most harmful to Trump. The real hell of it is, if he puts Trump in jail it may be the final verdict that elects Donald Trump. Merchan has no good choices.

Merchan and this trial will go down in history as the prime example of judicial misconduct to be studied long after he is gone if our nation survives as a constitutional republic of justice. It may not.

[OakOak]

It is Merchan that would have to declare a mistrial.

Everyone knows how that goes.

Merchan will also be the arbiter of if the website is valid and whether it had any impact.

This isn’t going to change anything unless Merchan goes even further and uses it to push out sentencing, or tactically hurt Trump in some way.

Remember that Supreme Court “Investigation” of the leak? How’d that go?

Merchan investigating his Court, good luck with that.

[Flaming Conservative]

The LORD works in mysterious ways...

[JohnEBoy]

At a minimum, all the hokum (even by Biden) about how Trump had a fair trial by a jury of his “peers” has been shot down. Anyone of us is entitled to come-back to the liberal sneerers and say how was this a fair, impartial trial when the verdict was decided ahead of time and chattered about with friends and relatives?

And just because we are now aware of a simple statement pre-celebration of a guilty verdict, likely doesn’t mean a whole lot more was said by this juror or jurors to a whole lot more other people.

[JohnEBoy]

I wasn’t clear in my prior post. What I meant was...
Just because we are now aware of one juror speaking to one relative, doesn’t preclude the possibility of one or more jurors having spoken to more people.

[JerseyDvl]

This is first class BS in a legal system defined by Gestapo tactics.
Lawfare against a candidate for president is the most dangerous thing to ever happen to “democracy”.
Keep those sympathy votes coming.

[skr]

Do you have a link to your post about the judge being notified by the NY Supreme Court? I haven’t been able to find anything yet. Everything seems based on a FB poster claiming to be a relative. Claiming doesn’t mean verified, so it’s possible that we shouldn’t get too exhilarated yet, unless you have a source.

[woodpusher]

First, The NY Supreme Court informed Merchan of the finding, this wasn't Merchan fessing up.

Judge Merchan is one of the judges at one of the New York Supreme Courts which, in New York, are trial courts at the bottom rung of the judicial hierarchy.

The appellate court directly over Merchan is the First Department in Manhattan which has jurisdiction over the counties of New York (borough of Manhattan) and the Bronx.

This came to Judge Merchan from the Fourth Department, upstate in Rochester.

[factmart]

He will declare a mistrial and a new trial will start next week. 2 more months of Donald in court.

[Rdct29]

It only takes one juror to cause a mistrial. They are instructed not to talk to anyone about the case for a reason.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

IMHO Marchan has been given the word that he'll get slagged on appeal, which will help Trump and degrade Democrats lawfare practices even more. Better to invalidate the whole Bragg affair and hope the voters don't remember in November.

[WildHighlander57]

skr wrote:

“
Do you have a link to your post about the judge being notified by the NY Supreme Court? I haven’t been able to find anything yet. Everything seems based on a FB poster claiming to be a relative. Claiming doesn’t mean verified, so it’s possible that we shouldn’t get too exhilarated yet, unless you have a source.
“

I’ve got the same question.

[Fido969]

I think the judge was just following protocol, and this will turn out to be a troll.

[SMARTY]

Maybe the jurors’ banking records ought to be made public 😉

That would clarify a LOT