Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley said Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” that former President Donald Trump’s New York trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to payments to porn star Stormy Daniel has had many “reversible errors” for an appeal.
Turley said, “I think that of those options, an acquittal is fast moving outside the realm of possibility. I think it’s just extremely unlikely. I think the choice between a hung jury and outright conviction. I still think that this is such a weak case one has to give a nod to the hung jury. But, if there is a conviction, and that would not necessarily surprise many of us, no, I don’t think that this could make it through an appeal before the election. You can’t just leap over the New York appellate system, try to get to the Supreme Court. There are many in my view reversible errors here. I think they are very serious. I think Merchan is not going to be able to correct all of them in these instructions. Every indication is that so far is that these instructions will greatly favor the prosecution.”
He added, “There was a huge disadvantage in this system of having the defense go first. For most of us who don’t practice here, it’s almost unthinkable because it means the defense can’t respond to some of these really sweeping statements, in my view, improper statements being made by the prosecutors. They also have an advantage by going long today. They may try to run this towards 8:00, which means if the drop dead time is 7:00. The last thing this jury will hear before instructions will be an hour of their closing argument. That is ideal for the prosecutors.”
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