Trump Org. Juror in fraud trial tells CNN panel is ‘serious’ and won’t focus on Donald Trump

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New York CNN —

The jury that convicted Donald Trump’s namesake companies last week was serious and tried to focus on the law and not on the former president, one of the jurors said in an interview with CNN.

Jurors found a culture of fraud, at the Trump Organization, but referred to Trump as an unrecognizable Bob Smith at times when discussing the company’s owners’ awareness of crimes related to the charges, said of the jury, who spoke to CNN on the condition. of anonymity.

The jury had a gut feeling about their vote going into deliberations but jurors said they needed to understand the law especially for some jurors who were unsure of some counts. Before reaching a verdict, the jury sent notes requesting a reread jury charge for five of the counts.

There were no holdout jurors with heels dug in for the defense, according to the jury.

The group of 12 got the court’s message: Trump himself was not on trial.

Overall, they felt that Trump and his family likely knew about the fraud schemes but tried to distance themselves from the subject because it was not related to the charges, the jury said.

I think the consensus is that they like most likely, they know something like they don’t know every detail, but like theres some negligence there.

Trump and other family members have not been charged or accused of wrongdoing.

I personally know that Trump was not tried. But actually, the funny thing is, I don’t think most people in this world know that Trump is not on trial, the jury said. But as everyone realized that in the jury because it was planted in our head 20 times.

A Manhattan grand jury found two Trump Organization companies, The Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp pleaded guilty to all charges they faced including multiple counts of criminal tax fraud and falsification of business records connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to -reporting and paying compensation taxes for top executives.

The panel of eight men and four women deliberated for less than 10 hours over two days reaching the verdict on Tuesday afternoon.

Co-workers asked the jury about Trump’s conviction when he returned to work. The jury corrected them, saying they helped convict the companies.

But when asked about Trumps 2024 presidential run, the jury called the prospect terrifying.

Were a long way from here, but its kind of frightening to me that he could be our president again, but who knows, said the jury.

He just puts sketchy people around him, the judge added, echoing other Trump associates like Michael Cohen and Steve Bannon. I just find it very weird.

The jury was not convinced by the defense’s mantra, Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg.

The evidence showed a culture of fraud at the company that could not have been boiled down to the former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg as suggested by the defense, the jury said.

The Trump Org.s internal purge of questionable business practices around the time Trump was elected president particularly struck the jury as a red flag.

I was kind of this seems strange and then it was confirmed when they said in the cleanup of 2017, they don’t do it anymore, said the jury. And so I felt like that was a red flag, like the company was clearly doing something that they shouldn’t be doing so it was really sold to the point that it was a culture of fraud in the company. So how can someone who works for a company with fraud going on from different angles only operate for themselves.

The jury added: There is no doubt that a crime was committed here. And there, they were all over the place on defense with passing blame.

The defense team reflected Trump’s style, the jury said, observing lawyers intimidate witnesses and deflect blame.

We know a crime was committed and they seem remorseful. And that seems to be Donald Trump’s style, you know? the judge told CNN. And it would be better if I could just be a billionaire, whatever he is, and like, hire people to do things for me and commit crime and protect me and get away with it.

The jury especially called defense attorney Michael van der Veens’ closing argument moments disrespectful.

He was like, impersonating like in a destructive way Donald Bender during closing statements. I thought that was disrespectful and I thought it was unnecessary, the judge said.

Overall, the jury thought Trump’s post-verdict comments about the trial were oversimplified.

This trial continued for six weeks. We’ve been through a lot. It’s not just Weisselbergs W-2, you know, there’s a lot of crime, illegal stuff going on there.

Weisselberg pleaded guilty.

The defense team made convincing points, the jury said, but the prosecution’s evidence was overwhelming.

If I had listened to the defense and not the prosecution, yes, I probably would have believed them. But when you go through everything, put it all together, the big picture, looking at the witnesses, like the game on their credibility, the actual physical evidence that I saw, you know, that helps me get conclusion.

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