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Trump’s lawyers claim there was juror “misconduct” during his hush-money trial in New York.
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Details of the charges, which Trump hopes will overturn his conviction, are not being released.
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Prosecutors in Manhattan called the charges “unsworn, unsupported, heresy.”
One day after Donald Trump lost his bid to overturn his hush-money conviction, a battle is raging over juror “misconduct,” according to a recently published series of lawsuits in the case.
The heavily veiled dispute began with a December 3 letter in which the president-elect’s lawyers told New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan that “the jury in this case was far from fair and impartial.”
Nearly two-thirds of the 15-page letter was redacted to protect the jurors’ confidentiality. In the unredacted sections, attorney Todd Blanche — Trump’s pick for deputy attorney general — complained to Merchan of “massive and widespread misconduct” that “violated President Trump’s rights under the Federal Constitution and New York law.”
Details of the alleged misconduct, and even whether one or more jurors are involved, are obscured by large black rectangles.
The letter demands that the alleged misconduct be considered by the judge as evidence in Trump’s unresolved request to overturn the historic conviction in the interest of justice.
The defense followed up their December 3 letter to the judge with two more, dated December 5 and 9. Both asked that the December 3 letter be made public in redacted form, a request that prosecutors opposed, along with New York Attorney General Alvin Bragg.
Prosecutors responded to the allegations of misconduct on December 9, arguing that the claim “consists entirely of unsworn allegations” and is based on “rumor and conjecture.”
As part of the 41-page denial of Trump’s latest attempted dismissal — in which the judge rejected the defense’s presidential immunity claims — Merchan told the parties that he would consider the new juror’s misconduct claims only if they would be formalized in a motion by the defense.
Merchan, like prosecutors, noted that the defense’s claim of misconduct “consists entirely of unsworn allegations.”
“Allegations of juror misconduct must be thoroughly investigated,” he wrote, adding, “However, this court is prohibited from reviewing such claims based on mere hearsay and conjecture.”
Merchan has not indicated when he will rule on Trump’s dismissal claim in the interests of justice, or when he will broach the subject of the sentencing. A lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
Read the original article on Business Insider
