'Made me chuckle': Expert laughs as Trump argues 'pretrial publicity' should end trial
April 01, 2024
Former President Donald Trump demanded that his soon-to-start hush money trial be postponed indefinitely Monday, claiming he can't get a fair trial because of "pre-trial publicity."
The motion left experts laughing.
Trump has spent the past year using his trials to promote himself and claim that he is a victim. In fact, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner noted Monday that Trump himself posted 77 messages, many of the 'railing" against his trials, on Sunday alone.
"The pretrial publicity surrounding Donald Trump, will never subside until all four of Donald Trump's criminal prosecutions, two federal and two state, have concluded," said Kirschner on MSNBC.
He also noted that Trump's team claimed as part of the motion that it had polled 400 people in New York asking whether Trump is guilty — and they found they think he was. His team claims that shows pre-trial publicity has poisoned a potential jury pool.
"I looked at the motion he just filed, and frankly, as a former career prosecutor, it made me chuckle because, among other things, they said, well, we went out and surveyed 400 New York residents, and those people, 'wrongfully believe Donald Trump is guilty of the crimes with which he's been charged,'" Kirschner read.
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"My assessment ... based only on public reporting, and the prosecutors know much more than we do, is that Donald Trump is actually guilty of the crimes for which he's been indicted, and here's the thing, there is no presumption of innocence hanging in the air. The presumption of innocence is a trial presumption."
He explained that the judge instructs the jury to bypass its own presumed judgments and opinions and follow the laws.
Judge Juan Merchan will likely dismiss Trump's motion, Kirschner anticipates.
The trial is expected to begin jury selection on April 15.
See the conversation in the video below or at the link here.
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