Mistrial? New York judge tells Trump defense team, prosecutors juror may have tipped off guilty verdict ahead of time

MANHATTAN, NY- Mistrial? Could very well be the case. 

The New York Post and multiple news outlets are reporting that Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan may actually have some legal ethics after all. On Friday, he contacted prosecutors and President Donald Trump’s legal team to advise them of a Facebook user claiming to be a cousin of a juror in Trump’s so-called “hush money” case suggesting he had advance knowledge of the guilty verdict against the former president. 

“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 a letter to Trump attorney Todd Blanche and the Manhattan District Attorney’s OFfice. 

“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 yard work!!!” Merchan wrote. 

That comment was posted in a response to a May 29 post on the New York court system’s Facebook page that was unrelated to President Trump’s trial. 

Merchan said the comment was labeled by Facebook as being “one week old.” 

The Post reached out to the New York State Office of Court Administration and spokesman Al Baker told the outlet that “As appropriate, the Court informed the parties once it learned of this online content.” 

The Post reached out to Trump’s legal team and the Manhattan DA’s office for comment, however neither responded. 

The Post attempted to locate the comment in question, however it appears to have been deleted from Facebook. 

In his Facebook profile, Anderson described himself as a “Transabled & a professional shit poster." 

If it is determined that one of the jurors had indeed discussed the case with others outside of the other jurors, it could be grounds for a mistrial. 

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for only ten hours before convicting the former president of 34 charges of falsifying business records. The trial was marked by a number of legally tenuous decisions by Merchan, who refused to allow a legal expert to testify in Trump’s defense and who upheld every objection raised by the prosecution, while denying an overwhelming majority of defense objections.

Many legal experts also questioned Merchan’s allowing of seemingly unrelated testimony by prosecution witnesses into the case which had little if anything to do with the charges the former president faced. 

Post Millenial reports that Trump's legal team had argued on numerous occasions for a mistrial, but were denied by Merchan. Jurors were not sequestered, however were told by Merchan not to watch news regarding the trial, nor discuss it with anyone. If any of those guidelines were violated, it could indicate juror misconduct and be grounds for a mistrial. 

Merchan told jurors that he didn't have an opinion on the case, and told them not to "speculate about matters related to sentencing." 

"If there is a guilty verdict, it will be my responsibility to impose sentence. He told them any testimony that was "stricken from the record" must be disregarded, and told them to be objective and not to allow their verdict to "rest on speculation or bias." 

Sentencing in the case is scheduled for July and it is a given that the former president will appeal whatever judgment Merchan hands down, that is if a mistrial is not declared in the case. If that happens, it would be up to the Manhattan DAs office to decide whether to retry President Trump.