Donald Trump’s hush money trial judge flags a Facebook post alleging juror predicted guilty verdict before sentencing
Donald Trump’s hush money trial judge, Juan Merchan, informed the prosecutors and the former president’s lawyers on Friday about a fresh discovery of a post.
That stated that they uncovered a personnel affiliated to the New York court system’s Facebook page, personating as the cousin of a juror. The post goes like this, “My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted,” according to the judge. The user added, “Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!”
Deleted post alleging juror misconduct adds twist to Trump hush money trial
The post is no longer visible on Facebook, suggesting they have been deleted, raising the possibility of a prank or a counterfeit. Efforts to locate the post through various social media revealed that it probably originated from the account of someone who seems obsessed with stalking down the New York court system’s social media handles.
Free from any such constraints, Merchan decided to upset several apples in the legalistic constitutionalist cart by sending lawyers a brief letter on Friday afternoon. Thanks to this, some commentators on the radical right were quick to cite Merchan’s alert in a bid to prove that Trump’s conviction in the hush money case was somehow tainted.
Most jurors could not speak to anyone about the case, as the judge specifically told everyone that they were not allowed to discuss it while the trial was still ongoing.
However, Merchan allowed Trump’s lead defence lawyer, Todd Blanche, on Friday to attend a pre-sentence interview with the officer of probation Trump agreed to join before the scheduled sentencing on July 11.
The Facebook post is ‘unrelated to this proceeding’
Merchan’s letter noted that the post appeared in reply to a May 29 notice regarding oral arguments in a New York appeals court “unrelated to this proceeding.”
The jury in Trump’s trial took a total of 3 days, from May 28 to May 30, before reaching their verdict that Trump was guilty on all the 34 counts he was answerable for. An investigation by the House Oversight Committee showed that Trump coordinated a hush-money payoff to porn actress Stormy Daniels during the final days of the 2016 election campaign.
Again, it is not clearly stated here whether it was the user’s comment on post on May 29 or just any subsequent post within a few days. Another question that still remains unanswered is whether other officers of the court have acted in verifying the content of the post or whether Merchan unilaterally disclosed it by virtue of policy albeit without any further work to back up the substance of the post.
At present, there is no other notice on the New York court system’s Facebook that is labeled as an “oral argument notice” for May 29 that is of the type described by the judge, however, there is an oral argument notice that is of this type and dated May 20.