Trump rips into hush money trial judge amid countdown to jury deliberations
With closing arguments looming, former President Donald Trump took time out of his Memorial Day weekend to blast the judge who presided over his hush money trial in a rant on Truth Social.
The former president trotted out familiar attack lines against Judge Juan Merchan, whom he has regularly accused of being biased against him.
“The reason the Radical, highly Conflicted Judge Juan Merchan had to come up with three FAKE options for the jury to choose from, without requiring them to be unanimous, which is completely UNAMERICAN AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL, is because the Corrupt, Soros backed D.A., Alvin Bragg, couldn’t come close to proving that any crime was committed,” he said.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg slapped Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, tying those charges to three other alleged crimes: violating the Federal Election Campaign Act, election conspiracy by “unlawful means” and tax fraud. The jury does not need to be unanimous in determining which other crimes Mr Trump committed. They simply have to agree that he falsified business records with the intent to conceal one of those three crimes.
Attorneys on both sides of Mr Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan rested their case last week. Judge Merchan will give the jury instructions this week and deliberations could begin as early as May 29. In their closing remarks, prosecutors will have to explain the crimes at the heart of the scandal, arguing that Mr Trump also violated federal election law when he violated a state election-conspiracy law by falsifying business records in a hush money scheme to silence Stormy Daniels over their alleged affair.
The attorneys for Mr Trump have said that Mr Trump did not commit fraud, but rather, the money paid to his former attorney Michael Cohen was reimbursed and paid pursuant to retainers.
Mr Trump faces conviction, acquittal or a hung jury since New York law requires a unanimous jury to convict him of a crime. Mr Trump has insisted he has committed no crime.
“THERE WAS NO CRIME. Legal Expense paid to a lawyer was marked, by a bookkeeper using a dropdown menu in a computer program, as Legal Expense paid to a lawyer. WHAT ELSE COULD YOU CALL IT? There is NO CASE, just a Democrat Persecutor controlled by Crooked Joe Biden’s White House, a Democrat Judge, and a biased venue. This is nothing but an Election Interfering Witch Hunt, and the American People know it! MAGA2024,” Trump declared just minutes before Memorial Day.
