Closing arguments in the trial of former President Donald Trump in New York City, where he is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, have concluded and Judge Juan Merchan has given the jury their instructions. The instructions were given verbally and jurors won't receive printed copies, although they can ask questions.
According to legal experts, Merchan's standards for a conviction are abnormal and do not require jurors to reach a unanimous decision on the charges. Further, jurors don't have to determine what crime was committed.
"Judge Merchan has ruled that the jury does not have to agree on what that crime is. The jury could split into three groups of four on which of the three crimes were being concealed and Merchan will still treat it as a unanimous verdict," George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley, who has been inside the courtroom, writes. "The jury has been given little substantive information on these crimes, and Merchan has denied a legal expert who could have shown that there was no federal election violation. This case should have been dismissed for lack of evidence or a cognizable crime."
...The fraud instruction alone is so generalized that it would seem to encompass any claim that the defendant sought to influence the election through his actions. Merchan has done little to tailor standard instructions for this novel and frankly troubling case...
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 28, 2024
...So four can find a state election violation, four can find a federal election violations and four can find tax violations and it will still be treated as a unanimous verdict.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 28, 2024
The notion that Merchan's jury instructions could somehow fail to specifically instruct jurors about the second substantive "in furtherance of" crime—and its underlying statute, including the requisite mens rea/intent, etc.—is absolutely batshit insane.
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) May 28, 2024
This is wrong-jury must be unanimous on every element (it can’t be 4 believe one predicate and 8 believe another); judge is wrong pic.twitter.com/E74nbBEmKR
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) May 25, 2024
This is insanity.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) May 29, 2024
I’ve tried many jury trials in my day. You give jurors paper instructions every time.
How are 12 jurors supposed to remember the elements necessary for each of the 34 felony counts?
This is an illicit, witch-hunt prosecution. https://t.co/KwoxH655xY
Otherwise the instructions have been "standard."