Days after Donald Trump made history as the first former president to become a convicted felon, after a jury found him guilty in the so-called hush money case in New York, he once again groaned that the trial was unfair – and that jurors didn’t flash him a smile in the courtroom.
Last week, a jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to payments given to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election in exchange for her silence.
Newsmax host Greg Kelly asked Trump whether he “got a sense” of the jurors from their “body language”.
Trump responded, “I knew from their location... it’s a very very liberal, Democrat area. I knew we were in deep trouble.”
“You heard me say long before the verdict that Mother Teresa couldn’t get a fair trial here. I said that, and no, you couldn’t,” the former president and current felon continued, before complaining: “I never saw a glimmer of a smile from the jury.”
The former president reiterated previous prosestations about the blockbuster trial. Despite the trial taking place in his hometown, he whined, “This was a venue that was very unfair. It’s a tiny fraction of the people [who] are Republicans.”
Trump then recited a few other familiar refrains. He claimed that Judge Juan Merchan was “very unfair” and then suggested that the timing of the trial interfered with the upcoming election.
The comments about the jury come despite the fact the former president is still bound by a gag order, barred from discussing members of the jury, witnesses, and others connected to the hush money case. In a letter on Tuesday, his lawyers asked Judge Merchan to lift the gag order.
“The concerns articulated by the government and the Court do not justify continued restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump – who remains the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election – and the American people,” his lawyer wrote.
Still, Trump’s recent moans about the jury are not new.
Even before the trial began, in April, the 2024 GOP candidate and his legal team complained that the jury pool was unable to be impartial due to the deep-blue political demographic of New York City.
After the jury’s verdict was read, Trump insisted that he was a “very innocent man” and falsely asserted that the trial was “rigged”.
Since the landmark verdict, the former president has vowed to appeal the conviction – and even suggested the Supreme Court should intervene.
The criminal trial is just one of four legal battles that Trump is set to face this year, although it might be the only one that sees a result ahead of the November presidential election.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on 11 July.
