As Donald Trump's historic hush money trial draws to a close and the jury begins its deliberations, the embattled ex-president's defense is pinning all their hopes on one juror, RadarOnline.com has learned.
While The Bulwark reports that most of the jury refused to even look look at Trump as they entered the Manhattan courtroom day after day to hear testimony, one juror was said to make "friendly eye contact" whenever they passed the defense table.
"There are eight people on that jury who definitely hate Trump. If there’s one person who doesn’t, it’s [this] juror,” one court attendee told the outlet.
Other sources observed that the the juror occasionally appeared to nod along with the defense, smiled when Trump's attorney Todd Blanche appeared to trip up Michael Cohen on the stand, and reacted favorably to Trump surrogates like Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Gaetz joining him in court.
“Whenever our allies or elected officials are in the courtroom, [the juror] sort of gets animated,” one insider claimed. “When [Sen. J.D. Vance] came to court, that[juror’s] face lit up. It wasn’t the only time.”
Trump's allies aren't the only ones who have taken notice, either. “There’s one juror that people are worried about and I share the worry,” Harry Litman, a Democrat and former deputy attorney general, wrote on X on Tuesday. "Can’t identify her or him per judge’s orders but seems less engaged and slightly irritable."
But what, if anything does a little eye contact and an occasional smile actually mean? Are they really "signals to the defense" or just good old fashioned politeness? It's hard to say. "You just never know what people are thinking or what they’re gonna do," another Trump insider said. “Yeah, the [juror] looks friendly. But maybe [the juror is] just doing that to fuck with us before they vote to convict.”
“They’re hoping for a single juror to give them a mistrial and they’re looking at tea leaves like ‘Are jurors making eye contact?’ as evidence that gives them hope. But no one knows,” added Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor and NYC-based criminal defense attorney. “Even if an oracle sometimes got it right, at the end of the day, they’re just looking at bird guts.”
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Trump's camp has "all but abandoned hope of acquittal" and has begun preparing for the possibility of a conviction, per The Bulwark. His campaign has allegedly even discussed selling jail-orange shirts, because "orange after all is the new black." But if even a single juror cannot come to the same conclusion as the 11 others, the former prez will get a hung jury — and a mistrial.
"What would a conviction do? We have no idea, but so far so good," one Trump adviser said, adding that a hung jury would would be "a win for us. If they can’t get a conviction in Manhattan, what’s that say about the case? ... Alvin Bragg can charge again, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it."