Judge Flags Facebook Post Claiming Early Knowledge Of Trump Verdict
Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan informed Trump’s legal team that someone on Facebook claiming to be the cousin of one of the jurors might have had advanced knowledge of the verdict before it was announced on May 30.
In a letter to Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass, Merchan said that the court was “aware of a comment” on the Facebook page for the Unified Court System in which someone revealed the jury’s guilty verdict against Trump a day before the verdict was announced.
“Today, the Court became aware of a comment that was posted on the Unified Court System’s public Facebook page and which I now bring to your attention,” Merchan wrote in the letter.
According to the judge, a Facebook user with the name Michael Anderson commented that “My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted.”
“Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!” the user reportedly added.
👀 Justice MERCHAN has notified the parties in Trump's case that a stray comment was posted on the NY court system's Facebook page on May 29, a day before Trump's conviction. pic.twitter.com/EszX3HClLN
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) June 7, 2024
Merchan further wrote, “The comment, now labeled as one week old, responded to a routine UCS notice, posted on May 29, 2024, regarding oral arguments in the Fourth Department of the Appellate Division unrelated to this proceeding.”
The post, which Merchan said could be seen on the Facebook page of the New York State Unified Court System, seems to have been deleted.
According to the Hill, the user made a second comment on May 29 that also praised the “hard (work) against the MAGA crazies.”
In that post, the user also suggested that their cousin was a juror and was planning to convict the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records on May 30 after the jury began deliberations on May 29.
The post on Facebook might question the verdict, as jurors were instructed not to discuss the facts of the case with anyone once the trial had begun. A breach of that agreement could serve as grounds to vacate the jury’s verdict under New York law.
It is unclear what steps the Trump team would take with the new information, as the Facebook user later said that he is “a professional sh**poster,” which supposedly refer to people who make posts “generally intentionally designed to derail discussions or cause the biggest reaction with the least effort.”
Trump has already vowed to appeal the conviction.
