Legal experts are doubtful a letter sent to defense and prosecution attorneys in Donald Trump’s now-concluded New York criminal trial will ultimately turn his guilty verdict into a “mistrial.”
Friday afternoon Judge Juan Merchan notified both parties of a comment posted to the New York Unified Court System’s Facebook page apparently one day before the jury handed the ex-president a guilty verdict.
“My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted,” it begins, adding emojis here and at the end. “Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!”
Professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance posted a screenshot of the Facebook post.
Judge Merchan’s letter makes no claims about the validity of the Facebook poster’s claim that they are related to a juror, merely that the post was made.
That poster allegedly has in their Facebook bio, “a professional sh*tposter.”
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Meanwhile, Vance says Judge Merchan “is smart to advise the parties & hold a hearing on the record to resolve this. If it’s someone posting with no basis for it as it appears, the record will be clear (his bio says ‘professional s***poster’) & if there’s something to it, good to get it out & do justice.”
“Why does a clear record matter?” she continues. “Because Trump will raise this on appeal to argue for reversal. Now, both sides have notice of this issue & there’s an opportunity to get all of the details & facts out so that if there is nothing to this, it won’t affect the appeal.”
But that did not stop Donald Trump’s MAGA provocateurs and influencers from insisting the trial’s verdict would be changed to “mistrial.”
MSNBC legal contributor Katie Phang reports an account that appears to be the same as the one mentioned in Merchan’s letter made a similar post ten days before the verdict:
“Sort of astonishing to see the knee-jerk reaction for a ‘mistrial’ on this issue before any facts are actually known,” noted Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney. “It appears to be a silly troll. I’m a bit surprised Merchan didn’t have any of that info in his letter, knowing how it would be digested in some circles.”
Minutes later Cheney, pointing to his own report at Politico, wrote on social media, “It looks increasingly likely to be a hoax/troll.”
Professor of law Ryan Goodman, a former DOD special counsel, pointed to Katie Phang’s post identifying a similar post and remarked: “A bullsh*t poster indeed.”
Attorney George Conway had a more sarcastic response to the poster’s validity.
See the social media posts above or at this link.
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