Alina Habba, a lawyer for former President Trump, suggested that the secret trial jury should have been sequestered over Memorial Day weekend to avoid outside influence before this week’s closing arguments.
“They should have been sequestered, because in my opinion, these jurors are dealing with something that is completely unprecedented and unjustified in America,” Habba said Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“And for them to be able to go out on a holiday weekend with friends and family who have opinions, who are watching the news, TVs in the background at the pool party, I have serious concerns. wing and they are watching MSDNC, as my client calls it, [MSNBC] or CNN, they won’t get fair news.”
New York’s 12 jurors will be tasked this week with weighing whether to convict Trump on 34 criminal charges, all of which must reach the same ruling or else the case will end in a mistrial.
The former president is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to reimbursements to then-fixer Michael Cohen after he paid adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 to keep quiet about an alleged affair. He has pleaded not guilty and has repeatedly denied the affair with Daniels.
Trump’s defense rested its case last Tuesday without calling the former president to the stand, and jurors were dismissed until next Tuesday, when closing statements are scheduled to begin. Jury deliberations will take place shortly after.
Judge Juan Merchan said closing arguments would not be held until next Tuesday due to some “problems,” although he did not explain what they might be.
Habba argued that the holiday weekend will allow jurors to talk to their friends who may have “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” an informal term used by Trump allies to refer to criticism of the former president.
“I worry about them going back to any friends who might have Trump Derangement Syndrome, forgetting all sense of reality, and going back and sitting in that box and saying, you know what, I have to get one for the [Democratic National Committee],” said Habba. “I do not want it. I want the law [be] fact, because if we achieve that, we will win, we will not only have a hung jury, we will obtain an acquittal. So let’s see.”
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