'Nonsense': Former deputy AG demolishes Chauvin attorney's last-ditch attempt to use Maxine Waters to throw out the trial
On CNN Monday, former federal prosecutor and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Elliot Williams tore into Derek Chauvin's defense attorney Eric Nelson for trying to argue the calls to protest a not guilty verdict by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) are grounds for a mistrial — something Judge Peter Cahill promptly rejected.
"What did you make of how that came up at the very end after the jury already began deliberations?" asked anchor Wolf Blitzer.
"Look, Wolf, come on," said Williams. "This story has been front page news for the greater part of a year. Movie stars, members of Congress, presidents of the United States have commented on this trial. The idea that one member of Congress's statement a few days before the jury starts deliberating is somehow going to prejudice the jury is nonsense. The law presumes that jurors can take in and internalize the instructions from the court, and the court has instructed the jurors I guess twice at the beginning and at the end, number one not to watch the news, and number two anything they see to set aside, and they were picked on account of their ability to do so."
"Some of this, I think, to be candid, is about Maxine Waters, but at the end of the day, one famous person making a comment that's incompatible with the trial just doesn't throw the verdict," said Williamsn. "Now, the defense attorney has to make that objection now in order to be able to make it again on appeal if Chauvin is convicted, so some of that is just basic lawyering, but this — this is not grounds for a mistrial."
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