'Bad stuff happens': Judge Merchan faces hanging threats linked to Trump misinformation

ALSO READ: Top FBI agent who tracked MN assassin switched to probe ICE victims: 'Americans less safe'

'Bad stuff happens': Judge Merchan faces hanging threats linked to Trump misinformation
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan in 2011.. - Marc A. Hermann/New York Daily News/TNS

New York Justice Juan Merchan reportedly received death threats after misinformation about the hush money trial was spread by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

NBC News reported multiple conservative news organizations had repeated a false suggestion that the jury verdict did not have to be unanimous in Trump's case.

One Fox News analyst sent a viral message on social media, saying the judge "told the jury that they do not need unanimity to convict" Trump.

"That's not true," NBC's Ryan J. Reilly wrote. "[J]urors have to agree unanimously that Trump committed a crime by engaging in a criminal conspiracy to falsify records with the intent to commit one or more other crimes in order to convict him."

However, jurors were given three options as to what the underlying crime could be.

ALSO READ: Five questions you must ask yourself before voting in November

NBC noted that one Gab user responded to the false claims by writing," [It's] time to find out where that judge lives and protest as the left calls it."

"I hear bad stuff happens to judges in their driveways," another user wrote.

A Telegram user suggested a "military tribunal" for the judge.

"[A]nd on the official Telegram channel of Steve Bannon's WarRoom, a user said Merchan 'and all involved' should be hanged," Reilly reported. Another pro-Trump forum also called for Merchan's hanging.

"Merchan wants to be the merchant of death to sell more rope, except he could easily be selling the rope that hangs him," the user said.

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Steve Bannon warns of 'nuclear winter' as GOP scheme backfires on party

MAGA influencer Steve Bannon complained that Republicans were facing a "nuclear winter" in their redistricting battle to gain seats against Democrats in the midterms.

During a Monday interview with right-wing host John Frederick, Bannon noted that Virginia was set to redistrict 10 to one in favor of Democrats.

"Nuclear winters come to Virginia as we warn people [Gov. Abigail Spanberger] is on a roll," the War Room host said. "She's going to jam through this 10 to one House situation. Maryland's going to go 80."

"We're going to talk about the redistricting movement across the country. At best, we could come up plus three or plus four on the Republican side if everything comes together," he continued. "We're going to have Mark Mitchell on in a couple of minutes. And of course, Mark and Richard Barris, who are two of the best MAGA pollsters, have gone to a dark place about what they think."

A redistricting push was started by the Republicans in Texas as a way to redraw the state in favor of the GOP. But a move to do the same in Indiana failed, and now some blue states are adopting the same tactic.

"I know on Capitol Hill, there's a lot of people in the House, a lot of people in the Senate are throwing in the towel already. The only thing that matters is the MAGA base and where their heads are at right now."

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Trump mops up flood of right-wing tears

Nick Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.

Behavior expert warns of hidden agenda behind Trump Super Bowl rage

Donald Trump's rant against the Super Bowl halftime show is more about pulling attention back to him than anything else, an analyst has claimed.

The president made his feelings on the show known with a Truth Social rant mocking performer Bad Bunny and the reception he received. Behavioral and confidence expert Shelly Dar told The Mirror US that Trump's response to the Super Bowl halftime show continues a familiar pattern for him.

She said, "Trump isn’t simply saying, ‘I didn’t like it.'" Instead, "he’s saying, ‘This does not belong.’ That’s an important shift. The language jumps very fast from personal taste to national injury — an affront, a slap in the face, something framed as dangerous for children.

"Preference is turned into danger so authority can step in. Once something is framed as a threat to values, to children, to the nation itself, it stops being subjective. It becomes something that needs to be controlled.

"It’s rigid, controlling, moralizing. He positions himself as the judge of what counts as American, acceptable, worthy. There’s no curiosity about what the show was celebrating, no engagement with its cultural meaning. It’s simply dismissed."

In his post, Trump ranted that "nobody understands a word" of the performance and that it was one of the "worst ever" performances the Super Bowl had ever hosted.

Dar believes this is projection from Trump rather than fact. She said, "That comment isn’t really about comprehension, it's more of an exclusion signal. It redraws who America is for, and then claims to speak for everyone. That’s not a critique. That’s boundary policing. It’s saying — this culture, this language, these people are outside the definition of ‘us.'

"He pre-emptively discredits any opposing response. This isn’t about taste, it's about who gets visibility. Who defines culture. And who decides what America is allowed to look like."

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