Trump’s lawyers allege juror misconduct tainted his porn star hush money verdict
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US President-elect Donald Trump (centre) at his criminal trial in Manhattan, the US, on May 2.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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NEW YORK – US President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers alleged his conviction on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star
In a filing dated Dec 3 and made public on Dec 17, his lawyers said Justice Juan Merchan should keep the misconduct allegation in mind while considering a separate motion to dismiss the charges.
Jurors in the trial were anonymous. Justice Merchan said in a court filing on Dec 16 that making the misconduct allegations public without redactions could place them at risk.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which brought the charges, said the defence’s “vague” allegations fell short of the standard that would require a hearing to investigate them.
In a letter dated Dec 5 and also made public on Dec 17, the prosecutors said Trump was seeking to inject “unsworn, untested, and at least partially inaccurate allegations into the public domain”.
The case stemmed from a US$130,000 (S$175,000) payment that Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. The payment was for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had a decade earlier with Trump, who denies it.
The Manhattan jury in May found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the payment. It was the first time a US president – former or sitting – had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offence.
After Trump defeated Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris in the Nov 5 presidential election, defence lawyers urged Justice Merchan to overturn the conviction on the basis that having the case loom over Trump after he begins his second White House term on Jan 20 would disrupt his ability to govern.
“The court should not avert its eyes to the complete lack of fundamental fairness to president Trump throughout these proceedings,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
Mr Bragg’s office has said measures short of overturning the conviction, such as guaranteeing that Trump will not face prison time, would assuage his concerns.
Trump on Dec 16 lost yet another bid to dismiss the case when Justice Merchan rejected his argument that the Supreme Court’s July ruling recognising immunity from prosecution for a president’s official acts meant the verdict could not stand.
The judge sided with the prosecutors, who argued that the conduct at issue in the hush money case was personal in nature. REUTERS
