There’s just something very sketchy about this public release of information from Judge Merchan in New York City. Merchan doesn’t have an integrity bone and the comment he is bringing attention toward is innocuous and random. However, Merchan could be trying to get Trump to violate the gag order aspect and talk about jurors; thereby making the sentencing worse.
According to information Merchan is providing the lawyers in the Trump case, a comment was made on the court’s FaceBook page indicating one of the jurors said the Trump guilty verdict was predetermined. [SOURCE] “My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted. Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!”
Why would Judge Merchan want to draw public attention to this?
Either something bigger is being diluted by this story, or perhaps Merchan is using it as a provocation to get Trump to talk about the jury and violate his gag order ahead of sentencing.
Or, perhaps Merchan is looking to create a mistrial to exit the case, or do it over again and extend the gag order. Also, why not include the entire quote from the Facebook Page:
Not sure what’s going on, but something. Something….
.
.
Suspicious Cat remains, well, suspicious.
Can’t retry him after a “guilty” juror verdict. And media can always frame it as a question mark around President Trump. “He was found guilty of 34 felonies by a group of his peers. But he got off because of a FB post”.
I was think this too. Stops trumps appeals and all the bad rulings and facts that show it was all rigged, all while retaining an appearance that the conviction was legitimate. It blames a jury member , not what the judge ruled
This makes sense.
Exactly!
the case can still be reviewed by a higher court
From Breitbart:
Judge Merchan Notifies Trump Attorneys, Prosecution of Social Media Post Giving Away Jury Verdict
…While Merchan added in his letter that the comment was able to be seen on the Facebook page of the New York State Unified Court System, the post appears to have been deleted.
Under New York law, “a defendant can move to vacate a verdict on the basis of juror misconduct if and only if he can prove, by a preponderance of the evidence,” that there was misconduct, and that the misconduct “created a substantial risk of prejudice,” according to NBC News…”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/06/07/judge-merchan-notifies-trump-attorneys-prosecution-of-social-media-post-giving-away-jury-verdict/
It’s in the NYPost, too, although not on the front page. (Cokehead presidential son still getting the headlines.)
Posted on the court’s website? No doubt about harm!
So, Merchan is “setting up” several things:
You can’t “UnRing a Bell”. That was Merchan’s mission. To Ring the Bell. He did that. Now he wants to become the innocent victim
Equals a fat chance.
Ah, jeopardy attached?
Actually, you can. The Judge has not entered ‘Guilty”in the official record, which happens at the Sentencing Hearing. That hearing has not happened yet.
The libs stepped in it bigtime when they convicted Trump and they now realize it. They need to back off and so being the worthless cowards they are, they will blame someone else. The trial in Georgia is in limbo until March and the one in Fla is about to pop. Lethia will soon find a way to squirm out of that trial.. These scumbags are waking up to the fact that their lying, cheating is coming to an end. I look for many of them to jump ship and blame someone else in order to stay out of jail. Karma is looming for these freaks.
If there is a mistrial the GUILTY verdict goes away.
IF, and that’s a big IF, there’s substance to this – this prosecution has to be the dirtiest, lawless, scummiest trial in US history. And they brought it against a former president and [as long as he stays alive] next president of the USA.
It is so shocking to the conscience that I cannot believe I’m writing this based on actual events.
I really, really despise democrats. All of them. There are no innocents. [Your wine auntie is just as guilty. She cheered all day long as she watched our country burn]
Agree. There is NO good Demoncrat, relative, co-worker or even someone that belongs to your church
Sad, but the Truth is that to be a Demonrat is to be evil.
Period.
Occum’s Razor: Daniel was called to the party to translate the handwriting on the wall. It said “you guys are gonzo”. It’s now every man [and women] for themselves.
Trump did not answer Hannity or Dr. Phil in any direct meaningful way regarding their pleas for quarter. Just a smile and banalities.
NCSWIC.
What do you mean when you say “pleas for quarter”? Thanks.
Merchan sent the jury home a few days before the holiday weekend and did not sequester them. Clearly Merchan was inviting opportunities for the jury to take in unauthorized influence from the general public and to leak details of the trial to the general public.
Mistrial is my bet. How do you sentence the leading presidential candidate without the appearance of bias. This was they can still say that Trump is a felon, and only walks free due to a misdemeanor.
Too late for a mistrial. The judge would set aside or vacate the verdict.
or only free due to a technicality.
My first inclination was they want a miss trial, and back out of for now, as it is backfiring big time.
Exactly. They don’t want to testify to congress or an investigation into the judge.
Interestingly just checked this is headline news on both Fox and Daily Mail
But not a word on ABC NBC or CBS News.. (on line)
And nothing in Swedish newspapers either. They are usually very quick reporting any anti-Trump news published by CNN or ABC.
My tentative interpretation: This is not a trap but a way for the judge to get out in front of story he either fears or knows will blow this case to smithereens.
They are still planning the Dialogue
Now on NBC News:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/judge-trumps-hush-money-case-raises-questions-social-media-post-appear-rcna156128
So what have they done about it in a week?
Investigated the commenter to see if he really did have a cousin on the jury, and if the cousin really did leak or the commenter was just showing off.
How do we know this?
We don’t yet. The Appellate Division and Merchan aren’t letting on what any investigation might have uncovered. The commenter referred to the juror cousin as “her,” which narrows is slightly. No doubt the lawyers are looking at Ancestor.com for all the Michael Anderson (in NY) family trees.
Wanted to repeat how much I appreciate your comments.
None of that should be necessary. You simply ask Anderson who is your cousin–if you fail to answer you will be charged with obstruction/whatever. Probably already done.
Snit like this is why I LOVE sitting on my little branch at “The Treehouse”! At 63 I still get to learn a lot of things I had no clue about! Thanks all!
I would place money on the old “the dog caught the mail truck, now what?” problem.
The problem of course being Trump raising almost half a billion dollars IN A WEEK, and now the judge is going to face sunlight in the appeals process possibly at the Federal level due to clear attempts by a Democrat judge, Democrat DA, Biden-administration senior counsel, and a Democrat jury selected from a 95% Democrat district to interfere in the election.
Sure, the dog caught the mail truck, but now he’s trying to figure out how to escape without dying.
And now they have to sentence Trump, which will bring EVEN MORE sunlight. And sunlight in a Federal court is not something Merchan can allow because he’s committed provable Federal crimes. They also have to do this before the GOP convention which is going to turn Trump into Nelson Mandela and raise another half-billion.
This conviction has gone dark in the media. The few reports are about Trump’s polling lead being steady or growing. They have screwed themselves.
So, I would bet on mistrial forcing a re-do allowing them to keep Trump gagged and off the campaign trail. That avoids sunlight shining in from Federal courts.
This also feels a bit like that GA judge telling Trump to appeal the Fani Willis ruling. He caught the tiger by the tail, and looked for a way out.
I wouldn’t discount the idea that he released it to give the appearance of sunlight, but didn’t release everything because that would be too much sunlight. The Page/Strzok texts are an example of this. The Feds released just enough to appear to be coming clean…without actually coming clean. I’m certain there are far worse texts we will never be allowed to see. They then proceeded with the Russia fraud.
But this feels like “CYA” and an attempt to wriggle out of a PR disaster of epic proportions.
This
(YOU ARE HERE)
For those with a Machiavellian bent, as the Regime schemers do, especially at this high stakes level, one always provides escape routes in case the scheme goes awry as this one has done.
For instance, they may have “encouraged” one of their useful idiots to post this comment on a site where it wouldn’t be “discovered” unless they needed it to be discovered so they’d have a face saving way out in case their “Trumps a Convicted Felon” who’s still gagged and soon to be imprisoned didn’t turn out to be the win they’d counted on.
Notice that Judge Merchan did not make this public until AFTER the Regime had enough time to assess reactions to and consequences of the Regime Media hyped guilty verdict via polling data and fund raising.
Since there are just 150 more days left please make each day a MAGA victory FOCUSED day.
No mercy. No brakes. Help Make Elections Great Again.
The most accurate assessment to make is the one which involves the most amount of lying. They are always lying and lie so much they’ve lost the ability to know when they’re lying.
The Judge wouldn’t have released this if they hadn’t already done some confirmation, such as asking the jurors if they have a cousin named Michael Anderson. It’s pretty easy to track down “Michael Anderson” as well these days.
The maximum lie is the trial itself. They may try to use this as what I call “the fallback lie”. Government people use this a lot to cover up a much bigger and more serious lie.
The jurors were not to discuss the trial with anyone until they were released as jurors. They clearly violated that if this statement is true.
It is possible that the comment was noticed last week, and deleted, but the Appellate Division had to take it seriously and check into this Michael Anderson, and whether he really did have inside knowledge or was a troll (or was a troll who had a cousin who was on the jury, but the cousin was not leaking).
While this was going on, someone in the Appellate Division may have tipped off a reporter as to the investigation, so Merchan was told by the Appellate Division to go public to control the narrative.
Good observation.
If the judge declares a mistrial… wait for it…
Bragg gets to start over and drag Trump back into court for another 12 weeks
That’s some fd up s#!t
Too late for a mistrial. The judge would set aside or vacate the verdict. Difference in terminology mostly.
My guess would be they’re stalling now, awaiting lawfare’s next brainstorm.
Yes, just like when the judge needed a break right before Costello testified. So he could get his instructions to create a scene by overruling every defense objection quickly and then clear the courtroom if anyone has a problem with it.
All they do is think about how to get Trump. Surely they have other things to do.
Suspicious Cat makes debut on Zerohedge!
Mistrial? Trump ‘Hush Money’ Judge Suggests Juror May Have Had Predetermined Guilty Verdict
“…Suspicious Cat remains, well, suspicious…”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/mistrial-trump-hush-money-judge-suggests-juror-may-have-had-predetermined-guilty-verdict
I bet all 12 jurisrs predetermined guilty. Oi’m just surprised that only one was stupid enough to talk about it.
Probably, nearly all of them talked about it. They’re undoubtedly 12 sleazy people or they’d done the right thing and acquitted him.
Well my friend, never forget they are democrats! Stupid people don’t know they’re stupid. So no surprise there to me.
Or, perhaps Merchan is looking to create a mistrial to exit the case, or do it over again and extend the gag order.
——————————————————————————————————————————————-
The gag order is the least of the issues. A second trial would mean PDJT would have to be in New York every day, unable to be out campaigning. Since the other lawfare cases aren’t going anywhere, this is the only way to keep PT in check AND continue to remind the low info public that he’s a scoundrel. Added benefit—takes the spotlight off of the Cadaver-in-Chief’s horrible record.
Hmmm. Another bogus trial. Another bogus verdict. Another half Billion Dollars raised!!!
I think the public outcry would be too great.
How do we know that they aren’t past caring given what they’ve done already. I wish you are right but. . .
To be past caring means they had to care in the first place. They don’t. And never did. All they ever cared about was “getting Trump” I’ll never get tired of winning. And in so many ways.
With everything going on they’re scared more than ever. Trump is now campaigning in California! He’s tied in Virginia. And he’s raising boat loads of money! Really big boatloads. Meanwhile Biden poops his pants in France and looks lost. They’re scheming out the best case scenario for them to stop their sinking ship.
They call us “nazi’s” Yet they are now at the point their hero hitler was just before the Battle of the Bulge. They will try something really stupid (if that’s possible that they can be any more stupid) and they will totally implode. Just like their hero did!
Remember the day the verdict was announced, and there was a mixup about the verdict, then a few minutes later a reversal.
Did someone forget their lines in the script? Something very strange happened.
My instantaneous reaction was this will lead to mistrial and then a black hole.
This kangaroo spectical has been much to good for DJT to go on.
TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS IN ONE WEEK
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
$400,000,000 in one week!
https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-trump-announces-his-campaign-received-400-million-post-conviction
Four hundred mill……..In one week, you say? Pffffft, that aint nuttin’ pal. Over in Biden’s camp some generous donor just bought Ol’ Joe an ice cream. Now that’s showin’ support!! /
Possibly a case of diaper wipes too.
Danke schön!
I stand corrected! It is hard to keep up LOL
That’s really amazing. What bothers me is all the strings that come from those GloboCorp. Monies, from slugs that wouldn’t have urinated on President Trump if he were on fire last sElection.
Bada bing!
It does not matter what the enemy says about us, or Trump. They will never change. You and I all know Trump is not guilty of the fabricated crimes. I am not going to waste time thinking about what “they” think. We waste too much time on “them”.
If this is some kind of spoof, so be it. It gives another issue to attach to the appeal process. I don’t see much more for merchan to try.
Things are bad. So? Prepare, be wise, keep living the best life. Blessings.
Ditto, God bless GNanny.
LOL The “juror” may have predetermined the verdict? Who in this kangaroo trial who wasn’t on the defense team HADN’T predetermined the verdict, including the so-called Judge??
There seems to be a screen save at
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4242947/posts
Merchan is obligated to inform counsel once it’s brought to his attention. And it would be malpractice not to move for a mistrial. And should it be granted Merchan’s court retains jurisdiction and the gag order would remain in place, although it’s certainly possible the case could be assigned to another judge. Don’t rule out the possibility NY’s powers that be have finally reached the point of embarrassment.
If Merchan sets aside or vacates the verdict (the likely form of order), the DA would have to notify the court if he intended to re-try Trump. The judge doesn’t decide that.
So do the Dems just want to dump this whole thing, given it’s brought in boatloads of money for Trump and a rise in the polls for Trump?
Deciding not to re-try ends the whole case and Merchan’s jurisdiction.
Until there is an indication of whether there actually would be a re-trial, I hope Trump would violate the gag order with impunity.
Hoax.
This is the Friday breaking news after all the computer elites endorse TRUMP. Plan B
And Biden might have been planning to back out of the debate by saying he would not appear on stage with a convicted felon… Plan B for him, too.
How about six months to investigate this!
Getting phone, text and email records takes months but first you need to identify:
A: Cellphone Carriers
B: Phone numbers
C: Internet providers
D: Email providers
E: Email addresses
…and most people have more than one cellphone number and multiple email address not to mention work phone and email!
Unless your a Dem 3-letter operative, just go to the database and make a quick unauthorized query…..
Depraved minions of the devil.
A mistrial, retry to keep Trump off the campaign trail again,
restrict him again to NY’s five boroughs
with a GAG order?
This judge knows already if this is legitimate.
It’s easy to find out who is who out there.
As we speak Hunter’s jurors are home for the weekend getting calls from black leaders on what to do and to make the verdict not so obvious it is fixed. They are the OJ jury all over again. Thats why I don’t follow any of it cause it’s an aquiuttal or hung jury 99.9 sure and they will make it look like they anguished over it. We need a better system for change of venue or justice is dead….
Michael Anderson referred to his cousin as a “her” (OK, in NY, that can mean identifies as…), so it narrowed it down a bit. Presumably Facebook doesn’t allow fake usernames, so Michael Anderson is likely his real name. And posting it on an official court website? He really wanted to get the word out. Incredibly stupid regardless of whether he trolling or not.
Suspicious Cat wonders why…
This suspicious cat thinks Merchan knows this is BS but put it out there to show he is “fair” before sentencing President Trump to three months in Rikers to be served immediately even if there is an appeal….
They cheat, so they don’t care about any firestorm.
To me, he’s trying to extricate himself from his painted corner.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/06/judge_merchan_may_need_to_rethink_his_obvious_desire_to_imprison_trump.html
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-dem-dean-phillips-biden-calls-gov-hochul-pardon-trump-good-country
A DemonRat worried about the “good of the country” don’t you know. I suspect he’s worried about the good of the DemonRat Party.
Nailed it.
Before suspicions gets too suspicious, I believe THIS IS REQUIRED UNDER THE LAW!!! It still doesn’t mean Merchan is not and always will be a piece of 💩!!! 😝
Since when did Merchan care about “required under the law?”
Because something like this could get him OUSTED from the bench if he doesn’t comply with the proper protocol!!!
Retired Magistrate here: The jury has already rendered a verdict so this comment by a relative of the juror would not result in a mistrial. However, it could result in President Trump’s conviction being set aside. This does not mean the conviction would be expunged from President Trump’s record; it would still be on his record with a note that it was set aside.
At this point in time it doesn’t matter whether this was a hoax or not; the Judge has put it out there so now there is a question is everyone’s mind whether the statement is true or not and if the jury had already made up their minds even before deliberating.
In my opinion, this is what Judge Merchan wants; i.e., to get out of the Lawfare convoluted case but still have President Trump with felon attached to his name.
This does not mean the conviction would be expunged from President Trump’s record; it would still be on his record with a note that it was set aside.
Philadelphia lawyer here. Setting aside or vacating a verdict effectively means “no conviction,” i.e., his concealed carry license couldn’t be revoked, for example. If he has no conviction, he’s not a convicted felon.
Even if the conviction were reversed on appeal, the lower court docket would always have the conviction – unless the record was expunged (good luck with that with someone like Trump). The appellate court would relinquish jurisdiction and send the case (and pleadings file) back to the trial court clerk, who would note the ruling, and mark the dockets closed. Then the pleadings file could be sent to storage.
Dockets are just about forever. There are probably old docket books in a NYC courthouse attic somewhere going back decades, or they’ve been scanned in to save space.
The lower court docket would have the appellate ruling noted, but the conviction would still be docketed as an earlier entry.
All depends on NY law.
I appreciate your posts!
Nice to see a post from you. : )
From my experience, (none of it in NY), a person isn’t considered ‘convicted’ until a Final Judgement of Conviction is filed with the clerk and that doesn’t happen until AFTER sentencing and the case is consummated. . . . in other words, no sentencing, no conviction, NOT a felon.
my feeling was that the questions and clarifications from the jury was merely play acting. They came to their verdict too quickly afterwards.
The longer they deliberate, the more free meals they get. Go into the evening, and they get a free supper. Go past noon, and they get a free lunch.
And they are paid for jury duty by the day.
Yeah, I’ve been scrolling, hoping to see a comment by you, Marcia.
There are lots of opinions and guessing going on, so your expert opinion is really appreciated!
I’m recalling how many folks, including me, thought it a bit odd that Merchan would decide to give the jury that long Memorial Day weekend break prior to deliberations even before closing arguments were concluded, opening the door to all sorts of potential rigging / tampering issues during the interim. … hmmmmm.
If they can ID this poster and he is the cousin, it’s over – mistrial – with little chance of getting it back on the calendar before the election, given all the other unresolved stuff that is happening as far as appeals etc.
If this case was mistried wouldn’t all the potential appeals on other matters need to be exhausted before this farce is rescheduled …?
Anybody?
Having said that, I’m with suspicious cat et. al. who smell a third party hoax.
I don’t see any advantage the Lawfare scum-buckets would derive from doing this. The notion that they’re doing this to extend the gag order thinking it’s going to keep Trump from saying what needs to be said on the campaign trail is as dumb as it is desperate.
May Merchan burn painfully in hell. Kindest thing I could say about him.
And then theres this…. Hmmm….
https://100percentfedup.com/breaking-judge-merchan-edited-tainted-jury-facebook-post/
I don’t have a twitter/X account and can’t read replies. I would so like to read replies to this one. Especially from the commies.
All you need to do is substitute nitter.poast.org for twitter.com or x.com
so
https://x.com/CynicalPublius/status/1799063069487992923
becomes
https://nitter.poast.org/CynicalPublius/status/1799063069487992923
You can now read the comments
BUT on my computer I cant get the audio
so I click on the post on nitter that has audio and then report in a new window and substitute x.com again
Wise words in the last sentence. Important that we imagine and anticipate the Democrats doing unimaginable things between now and Trump’s inauguration day.
Zuckerborg to the rescue!
I suspect they know this case would get reversed on appeal…..and it might be better to declare a mistrial while at the same time still being able to slander that a jury of his peers found him guilty.
But….do we even know if this guy is really the cousin of a jurist? Or just a hoaxer?
I would almost prefer juror misconduct to a reversal on appeal. The Dems would use the “reversed on a technicality! He’s still guilty!” no matter the basis for reversal.
But a trial with a corrupt juror? What else was going on in the jury room? Supports Trump’s kangaroo court claim.
This is pure speculation on my part. Is it possible that Donald Trump’s appeal is thought to be on a fast track to the US Supreme Court. And so Judge Merchan’s action in announcing the possibility that a juror might have been tainted is, somehow, one means of slowing down the appeal process by adding in a confounding factor which a lower court is obligated to consider before the appeal can make its way to SCOTUS?
I don’t think Trump’s team has filed any appeals yet. They would go to the NY Supreme Court-Appellate Division first. Then the Court of Appeals (actually the highest NY court). Then to SCOTUS.
They could try jumping over the Appellate Division and going to NYCA, or jumping over NY courts and going to SCOTUS.
Any appeal to the NYCA or SCOTUS would be by petition, and those courts could choose to accept or deny the expedited appeal
Brett L. Tolman
@tolmanbrett
If true, it is an automatic granting of a Judgement Notwithstanding the Verdict or JNOV which would set aside the jury conviction. It would also be the end of the case bc Double Jeopardy has attached.
Cont…
https://x.com/tolmanbrett/status/1799200236415709389
But another lawyer has a different opinion….
This solves all of the lefts problems.. They have the talking point of convicted felon even if the case gets tossed they will still run with it. The case goes away. They will place the case on the docket after the election in a different venue. The case doesn’t need to get tossed on appeal so no actual reprimand pointing out how big if a kangaroo court it was. The federal courts don’t have to step in. There will be no sentencing….this is the perfect answer to the mess the left stepped into. It just makes the whole thing disappear like it never happened as far as the legal system is concerned. The left retains their talking point. Their base is okay because they know he will be guilty next time…..and it blunts Trump’s fundraising and growing support.
https://x.com/unseen1_unseen/status/1799211452198199762
This is all by design to declare a mistrial, and retry Trump in which Merchan will keep the previous gag order in effect and the media and the potato in the office get to keep calling Trump a convicted felon and when they railroad him a second time, they will treat the second trial like an appeal and claim he was convicted a second time.
According to the post 2 up from this one…Double Jeopardy has attached…so this would be it. Quoted post is from a former US Attorney, so I assume he knows what he’s talking about. Of course, assuming they can show this post is legit and not some troll…
This is a setup. It is the regime’s roadmap out of the mess they made when the threw Trump into the briar patch.
He’s raised 300 million dollars since the verdict. People are wearing “I’m Voting For the Outlaw” t-shirts. Voting for Trump has become what the cool, edgy kids do.
They blew it, they know it. This is how they get out of it without admitting their error.
The guy who posted this a raving nutjob and has had his account disabled. He’s claiming it was a “shitpost” intended to rile up Maga and the media.
I will not invest in this until all parties have spoken on it.
😁
THIS.
This was their backup plan all along…
I can’t help but think this might just be intended to delegitimize one of our most important Constitutional rights:
trial by jury. While not perfect, (especially when corrupt judges preside) they provide a crucial check on government power.
I served on a criminal jury decades ago and the judge expounded on the importance of jury trials very powerfully. I was deeply impressed.
He treated jurors with great respect. However, he was so tough on lawyers they would charge their clients extra if he was the judge.