The report that the juror leaked Trump’s deliberations appears to be a hoax

On Friday, Judge Merchan sent a letter to all parties about a social media post claiming a juror leaked that a Trump cousin would be convicted. More evidence has surfaced that makes the post look like a hoax.

Read: The Republican Presumptive Nominee for President is A Convicted Felon

Judge Merchan sent a letter to all parties in the case after the New York Court System Facebook page flagged a post stating:

“My cousin is a juror and says Trump will be convicted,” the user wrote in a week-old comment, the judge said. “Thanks folks for all your hard work!!!!â€

This post caused a bit of a stir among the legal eagles on social media, but there was a problem.

When people started digging, it became clear that the poster was an internet troll.

MSNBC’s Katie Phang pointed out that the post was made ten days before the verdict, or nine days before the jury ever got the case:

Assuming this is the same ‘Michael Anderson’, I don’t think the post is genuine. It also looks like it was taken on May 20th. Trump’s verdict did not come until ten days later, on May 30.

Furthermore, the poster’s FB profile says: “a professional shit poster”. 🤷🠻†â€ï¸ pic.twitter.com/YmnVbl6omM

– Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) June 7, 2024

This nonsense will undoubtedly be used by Donald Trump to claim that the trial was rigged, which was probably the point of the poster.

Instead of riots in the streets or anything else Trump has promised, we have internet trolls trying to discredit the process.

It’s understandable that Judge Merchan would want to err on the side of caution, given the historical nature of the case and the appeals process that will surely follow, but shouldn’t someone have done some research and asked some questions before the judge notified all parties?

Things like this happen every minute of every hour of every day on social media. Paying attention to hoaxes will only cause more problems, but before Trump can even say it, it appears the post about the juror wasn’t real.

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