The jury selection in former President Donald Trump's Manhattan trial raises questions about whether a conviction would come based on the evidence or the jurors would make their choice based on other issues, former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said Sunday on Newsmax.
"There's a lot of rules about picking a jury and it's more art than science, but you do not put lawyers on a jury," Whitaker told Newsmax's "Sunday Agenda," referring to two lawyers who are serving as jurors in Trump's business records case.
He added that allowing lawyers, as well as some of the others who were picked, "shows you how difficult picking this jury was.
"I hope that these lawyers will bring some sanity," said Whitaker, noting that "one fact" about the trial, is that District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged Trump with falsifying business records to affect the 2016 election, but the dates are wrong.
"The altered business records happened in 2017 after the president was already elected," said Whitaker. "It just falls apart. We could go through so many other examples of how weak this case is both on the law and the facts."
That could also mean the jury would be convicting Trump based on his policies and effectiveness as president, "not because he did something wrong legally."
Further, the case hinges on testimony from witnesses like Michael Cohen, the former Trump attorney who spent time in prison, and adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose former attorney Michael Avenatti has offered to discredit if he's allowed to testify.
Whitaker said the charges against Trump are designed to keep him off the campaign trail and in court for weeks at a time so he can't speak to the American public.
"President Trump has every right under the First Amendment, and probably even more so than most to speak his mind and be able to convince folks to vote for him in November," he said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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