By Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in his New York hush money trial may be thrown out sooner than expected.
On Friday evening, it was revealed that a Facebook post from a relative of a juror had made its way to the page of the New York court system that revealed what the verdict was going to be, a big no-no, which revealed that the jury had discussed the case without people outside of the trial.
The post has since been deleted.
Fox News obtained the letter from liberal Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the case, which was shared with Trump defense attorneys and Manhattan prosecutors laying out the discovery.
“‘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. In the comment, the user, ‘Michael Anderson,’ states:
“’My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted! Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!’”
The comment was posted on May 29 “regarding oral arguments in the Fourth Department of the Appellate Division unrelated to this proceeding.”
The post came a day before Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Jurors were under strict orders from the judge not to discuss the case with anyone while the trial was ongoing.
Republicans jumped on the notice, pointing to it as more evidence that the case was a sham from the beginning.
GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia wrote in a post to X, noted Newsweek, in response to Newsmax’s report on Merchan’s letter: “The fix was in from the beginning.”
“If true, this is even further proof President Trump never had a chance of being innocent,” she added. “It was a sham trial from the beginning and the ‘guilty’ verdict came down from the Deep State and ‘the Big Guy.'”
Utah Senator Mike Lee also reacted to reports, calling it “Mistrial fodder.”
Some experts believe that the jury instructions presented by Judge Merchan could lead to a mistrial in the case, as well.
“In U.S. criminal law, a jury needs to unanimously find a defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But, one expert argues the judge’s jury instructions were not clear and could be grounds for appeal.
‘Although you must conclude unanimously that the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were,’ Judge Juan Merchan told the jury.
Randy Zelin, a Cornell University Law professor, told ABC News.
‘It is equally a bedrock principle of our system of justice, that a defendant’s guilt must be proven beyond reasonable doubt by a unanimous jury, and for the judge to essentially permit the jurors to disagree over what this other crime was … [and] still convict the defendant — that flies in the face of everything that this country was built on,’ Zelin said.
Other experts say a similar Sixth Amendment argument Trump’s attorneys could make is that they didn’t have notice of the three different theories of the unlawful means Trump intended to commit in violation of New York election law, which prosecutors told the jury in closing arguments.”
Merchan appeared to purposely schedule the former president’s sentencing just days before the Republican National Convention, which means that if he decides to jail Trump he will disrupt the biggest event of the campaign season for Republicans, a major benefit to Biden.
Republicans have vowed to host the convention at Rikers Island if necessary.
Trump has denounced the trial as a “disgrace,” and has insisted that he’s an “innocent man.”
After Trump is sentenced, he can appeal his conviction to a New York appellate court and potentially to the state’s highest court. His lawyers have already been preparing for these appeals by raising objections to the charges and trial rulings.
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