The New York judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush-money trial has asked lawyers in the case about a social media post that previews the former president’s guilty verdict.
“Today the Court became aware of a comment posted on the Unified Court System’s public Facebook page that I now bring to your attention,” Judge Juan Merchan wrote in a letter dated Friday.
“My cousin is a juror and said Trump will be convicted,” the post said, according to Merchan’s letter. “Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!”
Merchan said the comment, which was attributed to a user identified as Michael Anderson, was “now labeled as a week old” and was posted in response to a routine court announcement posted on May 29 about oral arguments that did not were related to the proceedings in Trump’s case.
If a defendant convicted by a jury but not yet sentenced becomes aware of alleged jury misconduct, he may overturn the verdict under New York criminal law. If a defendant can prove that jury misconduct “may have affected a substantial right of the defendant,” the remedy is a new trial.
NBC News has not verified the claims in the comment or the identity of the user who published the post, which has since been deleted. NBC News has also not independently confirmed the existence of the comment.
A Trump campaign official said “we are investigating” when asked about Merchan’s letter.
Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon, nor did a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Trump was convicted last month of 34 counts of falsifying company records related to reimbursing Cohen for hush money paid to Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign. Trump had pleaded not guilty in the case and denied Daniels’ claims that she had a sexual encounter with him in 2006. Trump’s sentencing in the case is scheduled for July 11.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
