Georgetown Law professor Jonathan Turley added to the anxieties of former President Donald Trump’s supporters who don’t believe he’ll get a fair trial in a Manhattan courtroom during an interview on Fox News Monday as jury selection began in the ‘hush money’ case.
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Turley said he believes potential jurors who may have an ax to grind with the former president or just simply do not like him will lie about being ‘impartial’ just to get on the panel.
“Well, the more cases against Trump, the less justice we receive as a people. You know, the opponents of Trump would have been far better off with just one case, the Mar-a-Lago case. That’s based on real law, real precedent, and one can disagree with the interpretations. But it’s not a reach in the sense of this case,” Turley began.
“This case is creating something—it’s creating a criminal code just for Trump. You know, you have a misdemeanor whose time has expired, the statute of limitations ran out, and it was revived in this rather curious way. He’s effectively arguing that Trump was filing false business records through his counsel to hide a federal crime. But it isn’t a federal crime; this wasn’t a campaign contribution.
Cicero once said, “The more laws, the less justice.”
NY judges and lawyers appear eager to prove that the same is true for cases. Today Donald Trump's criminal trial begins and it may prove a greater indictment for the NY court system than the defendant. https://t.co/09Puuat0cz— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 15, 2024
“None of that appears to matter. And that’s why a lot of us are looking at this and recoiling. This is not how the law is supposed to be. New Yorkers appear to like it this way. They elected James, who ran on bagging Trump for anything, didn’t even mention what. And they now are lionizing this district attorney for putting together what many consider to be an absurd indictment,” Turley continued (video below)
He then made his observations about potential jurors wanting to be on the case so they can vote to convict a former president they don’t like.
“The problem is that courts don’t feel comfortable asking who did you vote for, and so they are working around the edges to try to show bias. The most important thing here is to try to isolate the worst of the jurors; those are jurors who just desperately want to be on this jury; many people will want to be and are prepared to lie to do so,” he predicted.
“What the defense counsel has is not their veracity on these forms but their names. Even though we won’t see them, defense counsel can look at social media and see if they are lying,” he continued.
“What is troubling is that in a couple of past Trump cases, they found out after the conviction or after the trial that jurors had lied about their past political involvements. The judges refuse to toss out the verdict,” he added. “So you have to try to stick that landing up front to show that bias. Also, keep in mind you only get ten strikes as a defense counsel, but you can have unlimited strikes for bias. As you bring forth evidence of bias, it is a freebie where you can try to remove some of these jurors.”
WATCH:
Jonathan Turley on why Trump's Manhattan trial WON'T be fair: "The most important thing here is to try to isolate the worst of the jurors, those are jurors who just desperately want to be on this jury, many people will want to be and are prepared to lie to do so." pic.twitter.com/NbkRac8GaX
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) April 15, 2024