• Judge in Trump Case issues letter saying juror may have discussed case

    From Rick@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jun 7 23:10:19 2024
    The judge in the Trump case issued a letter today (Friday) to the attorneys
    on both sides stating that on the day before the verdict was read, someone posted a message on Facebook claiming he was related to a juror on the case
    who told him Trump would be found guilty. As quoted on nbcnews.com, the judge's letter stated:

    “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." The letter quoted the Facebook post as stating:

    “My cousin is a juror and said Trump is getting convicted....Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!”

    Obviously, the poster could be lying and not a relative. Or he could legit
    be a relative and was lying about discussing the case with his relative.

    But the post could also be true. The question is what happens now?
    Presumably there will be some kind of investigation, which I presume will involving tracking down the poster (identified as Michael Anderson) to determine whether he is really related to the juror and if the post was accurate. And if the poster is indeed shown to be a relative of the juror,
    I presume the juror would also be questioned. This raises a few
    questions:

    1) Who will do the investigation? Does the judge do this or is up to the attorneys? Do the police get involved?

    2) If the evidence shows the poster is indeed a relative of the juror, and
    if the juror admits to discussing the case with the relative, does the judge declare a mistrial at that point? If the juror admits to being a relative
    but denies talking about the case with his relative, does it just end there?
    Or will the judge perhaps still declare a mistrial because of the appearance
    of impropriety due to the relative's comment?

    3) The judge apparently just learned of the problem today, several days
    after the verdict was read and the jurors released. What would have
    happened if the judge had learned of this in real time while the jury was deliberating? Would they have brought a juror in while deliberating, or
    would the judge have waited until the verdict was announced and then started the investigation right at that time while the jury was still in court?

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