Judge Merlan notified counsel in former President Donald Trump’s case that a hearing would be today at 10:00 a.m. ET regarding a comment made on Facebook a day before the Trump verdict was read.
Trump was convicted by a New York Jury on 34 felony counts, making him the first former President of the United States to be convicted of a crime. However, a comment made on the Uniform Court System’s public Facebook page, from someone claiming to be a cousin of one of the jurors, had the following comment on it before the jury’s conviction:
“My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted (emoji) Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!! (emoji).”
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That comment was quoted in a letter from Judge Juan Merchan to the prosecution and Trump’s attorneys, but the post in question is no longer on that Facebook page, and its authenticity cannot be verified now.
It is unclear whether the person is related to one of the jurors or not, but the name listed in the letter from the judge was “Michael Anderson.”
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) posted the following on X, suggesting there could be a mistrial in the case:
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An attorney The D.C. Beat spoke with said a mistrial could be declared. He told us,
“A post-trial motion for a mistrial, which would set aside the verdict, would be the remedy.”
Citation – Direct Communication with DCB.
Some users online disagreed that there should be a mistrial. One person wrote on X,
“Trump and his mouthpieces spoke and posted trash throughout the trial. But some unknown nobody posts an obscure Facebook post and suddenly it’s a mistrial.
MAGA logic.”
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The jury was not sequestered during the trial. However, jurors can be sequestered during a trial to prevent influence from the media, family, friends, and others, but the decision to sequester or not is up to the judge.
The hearing took place at the 4th Department of the Appellate Division.
Below are images of the letter from Merchan to counsel.
