Facebook Comment, Later Debunked, Prompts Calls for a Mistrial for Donald Trump

Less than two weeks after a Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records, Judge Juan Merchan sent a letter to attorneys for both the prosecution and defense, highlighting the existence of a Facebook comment that purported to reveal the jury’s verdict before it was officially announced. Jurors were instructed not to reveal the case’s verdict to anyone in advance, but it is unknown whether Merchan sent the letter only out of an abundance of caution or if the court had serious concerns about the verdict being leaked.

“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,” Merchan wrote. The letter identified a comment—posted a day before Trump’s May 30 guilty verdict—from someone who claimed their cousin was a juror and had already told him the jury’s decision: that Trump would be convicted.