Newsmax host Lidia Curanaj and guest attorney Mehek Cooke sounded off on a Facebook comment made by a person who claimed, in the post, to be a cousin of a juror on the Trump trial and that the verdict would be a guilty verdict. That poster has also claimed to be a “professional shitposter,” leading some to believe the comment was fake and meant only to stir people up.
As background, Judge Juan Merchan, the judge who presided over the case, alerted the defense team on Friday, June 7, of a comment posted on the court’s public Facebook page in which a commenter said that a family member was a juror in the Trump trial and that the verdict would be guilty. As the post occurred before the verdict, it needs to be investigated to determine if there was juror misconduct, which would mean the case ends in a mistrial.
In the letter, Judge Merchan wrote, “Today, the Court became aware of a comment that was posted on the Unified Court System’s public Facebook page and which I now bnng 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!!!!’”
Curanaj, commenting on the post, said, “Apparently a juror alerted a relative, his cousin, about the verdict a day before the verdict was delivered.” She continued, “And then that cousin of the juror posted on Facebook that Trump was going to be found guilty. It’s unclear as to how this could possibly impact the ongoing legal proceedings. Judge Juan Merchan notified Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche. What do you think about this? Is this a big deal?”
Cooke first took the opportunity to sound off on the Trump trial generally, saying that it was “rigged” from the start to the end. He told the Newsmax host, “Lidia, this is a huge deal. I’ve been saying this from the beginning. This was a rigged trial from the beginning and now we’re going to see it was rigged all the way to the end.”
Continuing, Cooke argued that more investigation is needed to determine if the post was real or fake, but that he sees there as being some initial evidence that points to it being real. Namely, he argued that Judge Merchan would not have taken the post seriously enough to send a letter to Trump’s team if the post didn’t look like something more than a fake post.
He told her, “We need more information about this juror to make sure that there is a relationship or if this was just some random troll on the internet. I would tend to believe this is not random. There is a relationship. That judge would not have sent notice to Todd Blanche, former President Trump’s attorney, if there wasn’t more evidence or something that was troubling.”
Continuing, he argued that the judge should declare a mistrial immediately because of the post, saying, “This needs to be a mistrial immediately. This judge is now going to be on the hook and every single person is going to be watching because we know in jury instructions you’re supposed to be very particular about the evidence that you’re talking about and that stays within the jury room.”
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