OPINION:
Having served on three Manhattan juries, I would not be surprised if the 12 men and women hearing New York v. Donald J. Trump acquit him of all charges.
In two civil actions and one criminal case, my fellow jurors were serious, professional, and movingly civic-minded. A quiet, solemn patriotism infused our deliberations. Several jurors said that we should respect the justice system because we might need it to respect us someday.
My first case was a medical malpractice lawsuit involving a botched abortion. We empathized with a woman wounded by her doctors, but her lawyer did not prove negligence.
So we sent the plaintiff home without a penny.
Next, we deliberated intensely for almost three days before concluding that a Harlem drug counselor never demonstrated his claim of defamation of character against his employers. My sympathetic pleas went unheeded, and he left empty-handed.
Finally, in her closing argument, a criminal prosecutor displayed a CD-ROM of a police dispatcher’s “be on the lookout” announcement after an armed robbery. When we asked the judge to play that recording, he told us that it was not in evidence.
Disgusted by this prosecutorial deception, we instantly and angrily acquitted the defendants. Minutes later, as foreman, I proudly announced our verdict in court.
These three cases confirm that Manhattan juries are sober and perfectly capable of fairness.
This is good news for former President Donald Trump.
A jury of levelheaded Manhattanites would appreciate these facts that verify the profound vacuity and fundamental unfairness of District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Mr. Trump:
An April 25, 2023, a Justice Department memorandum of understanding with the Federal Election Commission leaves Mr. Bragg powerless to prosecute this matter. Nowhere does this federal rule grant local prosecutors authority to enforce federal election laws. Thus, Mr. Bragg’s case is a shack built atop a cloud of helium.
Mr. Bragg indicted Mr. Trump on April 4, 2023, four months after the statute of limitations expired on the corresponding Class E felonies.
Mr. Bragg skirted the statute of limitations by arguing that Mr. Trump falsified business records to commit a second violation. After two weeks of this trial, that second crime remains a mystery.
Prosecutors described a “catch-and-kill scheme” through which the National Enquirer bought the rights to stories that might embarrass Mr. Trump and then buried them. Rather than a plot to influence the 2020 election, the Enquirer routinely caught and killed stories about Mr. Trump and other newsmakers. More importantly, “catch and kill” might be dodgy, but it is not illegal.
Former nude thespian Stormy Daniels signed a nondisclosure agreement promising quietude about consensual sex that Mr. Trump and, at various times, Ms. Daniels herself denies ever sharing. NDAs are perfectly legal.
Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former attorney, paid Ms. Daniels to clam up about her alleged intimacy with Mr. Trump. Again, sex or no sex, it is legal to pay people to ignore journalists.
Mr. Trump’s checks allegedly reimbursed Mr. Cohen for payments to Ms. Daniels. It is perfectly legal for a client to repay his attorney funds advanced in a lawful transaction.
Mr. Bragg claims that Mr. Trump should have paid for this private matter with campaign cash. That would have been illegal. Instead, Mr. Trump legally used his own money.
Mr. Trump faces 34 counts of alleged falsification of business records because his bookkeepers posted ledger entries for checks to Mr. Cohen as “legal expenses.” Would Mr. Bragg prefer false descriptions like “plumbing supplies” or “marble tiles”? Mr. Trump faces prison for reporting legal expenses as “legal expenses,” which is legal.
With 48% of registered voters telling Reuters-Ipsos last month that Mr. Trump’s Kafkaesque cases are “excessive and politically motivated” (41% disagree), even a Manhattan jury could scrap Mr. Bragg’s contraption.
If just one juror agrees, this case will end with a hung jury.
And if “lurid but legal” reflects the opinions of 12 of my fellow Manhattanites — who tend to be tough but fair — then former President Donald Trump will be acquitted on all 34 charges and go back where he belongs: the campaign trail.
• Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor.
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