Trump's Attorney Alina Habba Worried That the Jury Will be Swayed Over the Memorial Day Weekend

Alina Habba, the former president Donald Trump's attorney, issued a warning over the Memorial Day weekend, saying that liberal friends and family would infect the New York jurors in his hush-money case with "Trump Derangement Syndrome." As per The Daily Mail, Habba chastised Judge Juan Merchan for not putting the jurors in a hotel for what would have been the last weekend of the six-week trial.  “They should have been sequestered, because, in my opinion, these jurors are handling something that is completely unprecedented and unwarranted in America,” Habba said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures. She continued, “And for them to be able to be out and about on a holiday weekend with friends and families who have opinions, who are watching the news, TVs in the background at the pool party, I have serious concerns. If they’re left-wing and they’re watching MSDNC, as my client calls it, [MSNBC] or CNN, they’re not going to get fair news.” 

Habba expressed concern saying, "I have worries about them going back to whatever friends might have, Trump derangement syndrome, forgetting all sense of reality and coming back and sitting in that box and saying, you know what, I've got to do, you know, take one for the DNC. I want the law to be fact because if we can get that, we will win. We will not just get a hung jury. We will get an acquittal."

After three days of back-and-forth between the prosecution and defense attorneys, the twelve jurors were sworn in on April 22. Among the seven males and five women are a software engineer, an investment banker, a corporate lawyer, and a teacher.

As per The Hill, the jurors are set to decide whether to find Trump guilty on 34 criminal counts; if they reach a unanimous verdict on any one of the counts, the case will be deemed a mistrial. The jury was discharged until this coming Tuesday when closing arguments are scheduled to start, after Trump's defense rested their case without putting the former president to the stand. Following the conclusion of both sides, Judge Merchan—who has battled with Trump's defense team on multiple occasions and slapped several gagging orders on the former president—will give his instructions to the jury. The instructions are the most important aspect of the trial, according to Habba, since they act as the jury's "road map."

"Judge Merchan is severely conflicted," Habba claimed. "At this point, I have zero confidence that this person, who shouldn't be sitting on the bench right now, will give jury instructions in an appropriate manner without any persuasion towards the prosecution. The last resort for this prosecution is this judge." The Fox host responded,  "I want to tell you what, there's a silver lining in this, Alina," Sean Duffy said.

"I don't want a juror on Thursday or Friday going into Memorial Day weekend to go, you know what? I got a party going on. I want to end this case early. I think it could bode well for President Trump, for those people on the jury who understand the law and the facts to fight for him and fight for justice."