Clarity & accuracy, the bane of Trumpanzees everyw
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Posted On: 05/30/2024 1:51:00 PM
Clarity & accuracy, the bane of Trumpanzees everywhere and all of the time.
False right-wing reports about Trump trial jury instructions fuel threats against judge
Source: NBC News
May 30, 2024, 12:37 PM EDT
WASHINGTON — False reports about the jury instructions in former President Donald Trump's hush money trial have been spreading across right-wing media, leading to threats against the judge overseeing the case. Several conservative news personalities, including some affiliated with Fox News, falsely claimed that Judge Juan Merchan, as one Fox News anchor put it in a viral post on X, "told the jury that they do not need unanimity to convict" Trump.
That's not true. Merchan instructed the jury on Wednesday that they "must conclude unanimously that a defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means," adding that they "need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were."
That means that jurors have to agree unanimously that Trump committed a crime by engaging in a criminal conspiracy to falsify records with the intent to commit one or more other crimes in order to convict him. But jurors can choose from three options about what those other crimes were: violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act; the falsification of other business records; or the violation of tax laws. Those "unlawful means" aren't charges themselves and would not result in separate convictions, so jurors do not have to unanimously agree on them.
The jury instruction was complex and nuanced and some right-wing accounts ran with false reports. In response to inaccurate reporting that Trump could be convicted without unanimous agreement that he committed a crime, one user on Gab, a site popular with far-right extremists, said Wednesday it was "time to find out where that judge lives and protest as the left calls it." Another user posted: "I hear bad stuff happens to judges in their driveways." On Telegram, one user called for "a military tribunal" for Merchan and on the official Telegram channel of Steve Bannon’s WarRoom, a user said Merchan “and all involved” should be hanged.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump...rcna154678
False right-wing reports about Trump trial jury instructions fuel threats against judge
Source: NBC News
May 30, 2024, 12:37 PM EDT
WASHINGTON — False reports about the jury instructions in former President Donald Trump's hush money trial have been spreading across right-wing media, leading to threats against the judge overseeing the case. Several conservative news personalities, including some affiliated with Fox News, falsely claimed that Judge Juan Merchan, as one Fox News anchor put it in a viral post on X, "told the jury that they do not need unanimity to convict" Trump.
That's not true. Merchan instructed the jury on Wednesday that they "must conclude unanimously that a defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means," adding that they "need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were."
That means that jurors have to agree unanimously that Trump committed a crime by engaging in a criminal conspiracy to falsify records with the intent to commit one or more other crimes in order to convict him. But jurors can choose from three options about what those other crimes were: violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act; the falsification of other business records; or the violation of tax laws. Those "unlawful means" aren't charges themselves and would not result in separate convictions, so jurors do not have to unanimously agree on them.
The jury instruction was complex and nuanced and some right-wing accounts ran with false reports. In response to inaccurate reporting that Trump could be convicted without unanimous agreement that he committed a crime, one user on Gab, a site popular with far-right extremists, said Wednesday it was "time to find out where that judge lives and protest as the left calls it." Another user posted: "I hear bad stuff happens to judges in their driveways." On Telegram, one user called for "a military tribunal" for Merchan and on the official Telegram channel of Steve Bannon’s WarRoom, a user said Merchan “and all involved” should be hanged.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump...rcna154678
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