The New York judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money trial has asked attorneys in the case about a social media post purporting to preview the former president’s guilty verdict.
“Today, the Court became aware of a comment that was posted on the Unified Court System’s public Facebook page and which I now bring to your attention,” Judge Juan Merchan wrote in a letter dated Friday.
“My cousin is a juror and said Trump is getting convicted,” the post stated, according to Merchan’s letter. “Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!”
Merchan said that the comment, which was attributed to a user identified as Michael Anderson, was “now labeled as one week old,” and was posted in response to a routine notice from the court posted on May 29 about oral arguments unrelated to proceedings in Trump’s case.
NBC News has not verified the claims made in the comment or the identity of the user who published the post, which has since been deleted.
A Trump campaign official said “we’re investigating” when asked about Merchan’s letter.
Under New York criminal law, a defendant can move to vacate a verdict on the basis of juror misconduct if and only if he can prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the misconduct not only occurred but created a substantial risk of prejudice.
Attorneys for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday afternoon, nor did a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Trump was convicted last month on 34 counts of falsifying business records tied 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.
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