Trump Won’t Get To Tell The Jury His Case Is A Political Hit Job*

Not directly, anyway, but he’ll try.

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

Jack Smith asks the judge to shut down Trump’s anticipated attempts at jury nullification.

Both inside and outside the courtroom, Trump and his counsel have politicized his $250 million civil business fraud trial as a hit job by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump also claimed it was “very unfair” that Judge Engoron and not a jury is hearing his case. It is Judge Engoron — not a jury — who will resolve all factual disputes and make factual findings based on his interpretation of the evidence presented over ten weeks, including testimony from 40 witnesses. (Trump’s lawyers failed to request a jury under the rules. Given the types of remedies the New York Attorney General sought, Trump’s right to a jury was not clear. Failure to make a timely request waived his right even to argue that he was entitled to a jury.)

Presumably, as an experienced jurist, Judge Engoron will sift through and disregard the political rhetoric and grandstanding in resolving the factual disputes supported only by properly admitted evidence.

Watercolor, Richard J Van Wagoner, Courtesy of Van Wagoner Family Trust**