The judge, Juan Merchan, who is seen as corrupt and biased, has declined to make the jury instructions public after a dispute between Bragg’s prosecutors and Trump’s attorneys in a recent conference.
The content of the jury instructions could significantly impact the outcome of the case.
Mark Levin expressed concern earlier this week that Judge Merchan’s jury instructions may be extremely detrimental.
Juan Merchan will go down in history as one of the most appallingly dishonest and disgraceful judges ever. It is now clear why he was assigned the Bragg case. The fix was in long before the trial began. And he’s not done. The jury instructions will be horrendously poisonous.…
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) May 21, 2024
Judge Merchan however sided with Bragg’s prosecutors and ruled the jury does NOT need to unanimously agree on the “predicate” crime Trump committed.
“In other words: If some jurors believe that Trump falsified business documents solely to cover up a tax crime, while others believe that he falsified business documents solely to cover up an election crime, the jury can still convict Trump on the felony-level falsifying-documents charges, despite disagreeing on the predicate crimes.” Politico’s Josh Gerstein wrote.
In April 2023, Alvin Bragg brought 34 felony charges against Trump for his involvement in ‘hush payments’ to Stormy Daniels.
These payments, made through Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, were intended to silence Daniels about her alleged affair with Trump and prevent the story from being published in the National Enquirer.
According to Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina, the payments were not recorded as tax deductions and were not reported to the FEC through internal business records.
Bragg did not specify the exact charges against Trump in the indictment. He is expected to outline three potential charges during closing arguments: a tax offense and violations of either state or federal election laws.
The judge’s ruling made it easier for Trump to be convicted, as jurors are not required to unanimously agree on which specific crime he committed.
Far-left Politico reported:
To find Trump guilty of felony-level falsification of business documents, the jury must unanimously find that Trump falsified the documents in order to commit or conceal a separate crime. But the jurors do not all have to agree on what that separate crime was, Justice Juan Merchan ruled.
Trump’s defense argued that, to issue a felony-level conviction, all jurors should be required to agree on the “predicate” crime.
Prosecutors initially laid out four possible predicate crimes, one of which the judge ruled out before trial. The remaining possibilities are a tax crime and violations of state or federal election law.
Defense lawyer Emil Bove argued that jurors should have to agree on a single predicate offense. But prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said the law doesn’t require that.
“The importance of the case is not a basis for deviating from the standard application of the law,” Colangelo said. “There’s no reason to rewrite the law for this case.”
Merchan agreed with the prosecution and said he won’t impose the requirement the defense requested.
The jurors received their instructions on Thursday and will be susceptible to external influence over the holiday weekend as they are not sequestered.
Following the Memorial Day holiday weekend, closing arguments for Alvin Bragg’s ‘hush money’ case against Trump will commence next week.
typical democrat
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This fucking “country” is done. Scum like that should be hanging from trees not judging us
FUCK democrats. They just want to destroy America. These traitors will be sentenced to death for their abhorrent decisions.
UNFUCKINGCONSTITUTIONAL!
I want to see that Communist Judge Assassinated on live T.V.
Where’s the chicken shit Republicans on this.?
Where’s the Supreme Court on this.?
Where’s the Protesters on this Unconstitutional Bullshit.?
They allow Murderers, Thieves and Child Molesters go free.!
Fuc* All of you Communist Anti-American Criminal Bastards.!!
I’m with you 100%, FUCK these muthrkrs. saw their heads off
How corrupt can he be?
Stinking liberal corrupt punk. Liberals are destroying the justice system. They corrupt everything they touch. Shame on people that support such behavior.
When this all started, the legal minds said that Trump could not get an honest trial or judgement in New Your, especially NYC. And those legal minds are correct. If the guilty verdit is over turned, nothing will happen to the Democraps that persecuted Trump through the legal system, starting with the top of the Democrap party.
It’s time to put the Trump sex life trivia behind us. Who cares about Donald Trump’s sex life? Perhaps it is nothing more than a diversion so that we won’t watch what the appointed president is doing to us and our country. Forget about Trump and clean up the biden mess. Wake up Congress – Our elected representatives! Where are you? Get back to work for the American people who you are suppose to represent .
My god, this means that being charged with multiple crimes…lets say 12 of them: IF only one juror per crime thought that there was guilt, the guilt will be adjudicated as long as the crimes stem from similar acts.
Hey, judge, when you are tried for your crimes on the bench we will remember this ruling and make sure it is applied properly.
Also, I think that the NY Supreme Court will disagree as well as SCOTUS. You are treading on your career, on the people and on this nation and its laws.