Judge Merchan Flags Online Post Claiming Inappropriate Jury Discussion of Trump Hush-Money Trial

The judge in the Trump hush-money case notified the prosecutor and the former president’s legal team Friday of a social-media post from an individual who suggested that a juror inappropriately discussed the details of the trial with him, but the authenticity of the post was not clear.

“My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted,” the user wrote on the New York court system’s Facebook page, Judge Merchan said. “Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!” the user added.

The juror’s relative, named Michael Anderson, left the comment on May 29, the day the jury began deliberations in the trial and a day before Trump’s historic felony conviction, the judge said. Jurors are prohibited from discussing or communicating about trials they are serving on with anyone.

Also on May 29, the purported cousin of the juror left a second comment that lauded Alvin Bragg’s prosecution and “hard (work) against the MAGA crazies,” noting again that a guilty verdict was a likely outcome, the Hill reported.

“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,” Merchan wrote in a letter to Trump attorney Todd Blanche and New York District Attorney Joshua Steinglass. “The posting, entitled ‘The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, will hear oral arguments this morning at 1o’ . . .”

Some new Friday commenters on the post claimed that Anderson is an internet provocateur of sorts, a self-proclaimed “professional sh**poster,” as the user self-identified in a Friday post, the Hill found.

Anderson defined the practice as creating posts of “aggressively, ironically and trollishly poor quality.”

“Sh**posts are generally intentionally designed to derail discussions or cause the biggest reaction with the least effort,” he wrote.

Other commenters angrily reacted to the deletion of Anderson’s post, calling the family member he possibly implicated in a crime a “rogue juror.” One person argued that the violation of the jury rule to keep the trial details secret could be grounds for a mistrial.

A Manhattan jury last week convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a sexual affair by paying off porn star Stormy Daniels, making the presumptive Republican nominee the first former U.S. president to be found guilty of a crime.

“I’m honored in a way,” he said during a press conference inside Trump Tower after the decision came down. “It’s not that it’s pleasant. It’s very bad for family, it’s very bad for friends and businesses. But I’m honored to be involved in it because somebody has to do it. And I might as well keep going and be the one.”