Judge refuses to loosen anonymous jury rules in Trump case
Apr 10, 2023 19:05:37 GMT -5
birdgal and nkat like this
Post by tnthomas on Apr 10, 2023 19:05:37 GMT -5
Judge refuses to loosen anonymous jury rules in Trump case citing his recent attacks
Judges appear to be paying attention to Donald Trump's behavior in other cases, tweeted Law&Crime reporter Adam Klasfeld, who saw a recent refusal of the federal court to hear one of Trump's appeals.
In March, Senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the jurors in the defamation suit with E. Jean Carroll would be anonymous, saying that Trump's track record of attacking people public motivated the decision.
“Mr. Trump’s quite recent reaction to what he perceived as an imminent threat of indictment by a grand jury sitting virtually next door to this Court was to encourage ‘protest’ and to urge people to ‘take our country back,'” Kaplan wrote, according to Law&Crime. “That reaction reportedly has been perceived by some as incitement to violence. And it bears mention that Mr. Trump repeatedly has attacked courts, judges, various law enforcement officials, and other public officials, and even individual jurors in other matters.”
The court cannot "ignore the significant risk that jurors selected to serve in this case will be affected by concern that they could be targeted for unwanted media attention, outside pressure, and retaliation and harassment from persons unhappy with any verdict that might be returned," Kaplan continued.
Trump's lawyers appealed the case to a federal judge who refused to hear it because the judge appeared to agree with the assessment.
"The likelihood of such difficulties since the Court made those findings only has increased. That is so in view of Mr. Trump's public statements, characterized by the media as attacks against the New York State judge presiding over the recently filed New York State criminal case against Mr. Trump and the threats reportedly then made, presumably by Mr. Trump's supporters, against that judge and members of his family," the judge explained. It was therefore denied by the federal appeal.
In March, Senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the jurors in the defamation suit with E. Jean Carroll would be anonymous, saying that Trump's track record of attacking people public motivated the decision.
“Mr. Trump’s quite recent reaction to what he perceived as an imminent threat of indictment by a grand jury sitting virtually next door to this Court was to encourage ‘protest’ and to urge people to ‘take our country back,'” Kaplan wrote, according to Law&Crime. “That reaction reportedly has been perceived by some as incitement to violence. And it bears mention that Mr. Trump repeatedly has attacked courts, judges, various law enforcement officials, and other public officials, and even individual jurors in other matters.”
The court cannot "ignore the significant risk that jurors selected to serve in this case will be affected by concern that they could be targeted for unwanted media attention, outside pressure, and retaliation and harassment from persons unhappy with any verdict that might be returned," Kaplan continued.
Trump's lawyers appealed the case to a federal judge who refused to hear it because the judge appeared to agree with the assessment.
"The likelihood of such difficulties since the Court made those findings only has increased. That is so in view of Mr. Trump's public statements, characterized by the media as attacks against the New York State judge presiding over the recently filed New York State criminal case against Mr. Trump and the threats reportedly then made, presumably by Mr. Trump's supporters, against that judge and members of his family," the judge explained. It was therefore denied by the federal appeal.
