Judge In Trump Hush Money Case Sends Cryptic Letter About Facebook Comment
In a brief letter sent Friday, New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan informed attorneys for former President Donald Trump about a potentially problematic Facebook comment made by someone who claimed to be a cousin of one of the jurors in his hush money trial.
The comment, on the New York court system’s Facebook page, made it seem as if one of the jurors had spoken about the trial to her cousin — in clear violation of Merchan’s orders not to discuss the case until the verdict was read.
“My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted. Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!” the comment said, according to the judge’s letter.
Merchan said it had been posted one week ago; he did not give the precise date.
HuffPost was unable to find the comment quoted by the judge. However, a similar comment was posted by someone with the same name on May 29, the day before the jury returned its historic guilty verdict on 34 counts of falsification of business documents in the first degree.
“My cousin is a juror on Trumps criminal case and they’re going to convict him tomorrow according to her,” the comment read, on an unrelated post from the New York State Unified Court System.
The commenter’s profile claims he is a “professional shit poster.”
In a Friday post seemingly addressing the attention he suddenly received, the commenter wrote, “Take it easy… I’m a professional shitposter,” with a laughing emoji.
He continued: “Definition: In Internet culture, shitposting or trashposting is the act of using an online forum or social media page to post content that is of ‘aggressively, ironically, and trollishly poor quality’. Shitposts are generally intentionally designed to derail discussions or cause the biggest reaction with the least effort. It may even sometimes be orchestrated as part of a co-ordinated flame war to render a website unusable by its regular visitors.”
Trump’s jury consisted of 12 New Yorkers, with six alternates.
“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 to Trump attorney Todd Blanche. Prosecuting attorneys were also copied on the letter.
Merchan did not say whether he had reason to believe the comment was actually made by a juror’s relative, or what, if anything, he planned to do about it.
Trump’s team could use the comment to argue the jury’s verdict should be thrown out. Sentencing is currently scheduled July 11.
Read the letter below.
