Donald Trump's lawyers allege juror misconduct in hush money case

NEW YORK (AP) Lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump are raising a new lawsuit in their fight to overturn his hush money conviction, alleging the historic verdict was tainted by juror misconduct.

But prosecutors say the allegations in a defense filing released Tuesday are unsworn and unsubstantiated hearsay and part of a last-ditch effort to undermine public confidence in the case.

Trump's lawyers argued in a letter to Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan that they had evidence of serious juror misconduct during the trial.

Details of the allegations have been redacted and hidden from public view.

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports that Donald Trump's lawyers are alleging juror misconduct in their latest bid to get his hush money conviction thrown out.

The defense letter, dated Dec. 3, was added to the public court docket Tuesday along with two partially redacted responses from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the hush money case, dated Dec. 5 and December 9.

Partisan political motivations have infected almost every aspect of this witch hunt, including the jury room, said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung.

He accused Bragg and Merchan of allowing their own personal political biases to fuel this charade and said they should be ashamed of their inaction in refusing to investigate this serious matter and allowing this serious misconduct to occur.

It is clear that there is more information that should be revealed regarding the malpractice, and those who have knowledge of this information should come forward and do what is right, Cheung said, calling on the judge to immediately dismiss the case. 'affair.

The development comes as Merchan weighs a pending defense request to drop the case in light of his impending return to the White House.

In their written responses, Manhattan prosecutors argued that Trump's lawyers were trying to obfuscate the verdict by laying out their claims in a letter to the judge rather than in a formal motion to dismiss the case. Prosecutors also questioned the defense's resistance to Merchan holding a court hearing where his jurors' allegations of misconduct could be further examined.

Trump's lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, argued in their letter that such a hearing would involve a thorough, lengthy and invasive investigation and would harm the president-elect's transition into office. Prosecutors wrote that by objecting to a hearing, the defense was trying to force Merchan to accept his unverified and unsworn allegations as true.

Merchan said in a separate letter Monday that he ordered the redactions both to preserve the integrity of the case and to ensure the safety of jurors, whose names were kept confidential. Three of the seven pages of letters were completely covered in black ink.

Blanche and Boves' letter consists entirely of unsworn allegations, Merchan wrote.

Allowing them to be filed publicly without redaction would only serve to undermine the integrity of these proceedings while simultaneously endangering the safety of jurors, he wrote.

Allegations of juror misconduct should be fully investigated, Merchan wrote. However, this Court is prohibited from adjudicating such claims on the basis of mere hearsay and conjecture.

Trump has been fighting for months to overturn his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a secret $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels to silence her claim that they had had sex a decade earlier, which he denies. The payment was made shortly before the 2016 elections.

On Monday, Merchan rejected Trump's request to dismiss the case on grounds of presidential immunity, ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court's July 1 ruling granting the former president broad protection from prosecution did not require to reverse the case.

Trump's immunity claim was just one of several efforts by him and his lawyers to get his conviction overturned and the case dismissed.

After Trump won last month's election, Merchan indefinitely postponed his sentencing in late November so both sides could suggest next steps. Trump's lawyers argued that any action other than immediate impeachment would undermine the transfer of power and cause unconstitutional disruption of the presidency.

Prosecutors, seeking to preserve the verdict, offered several alternatives.

They included: freezing the case until Trump leaves office in 2029; agree that any future sentence will not include prison time; or handle the case as some courts do when a defendant dies.

In the latter scenario, borrowed from what some states do in such a case, the case would be closed by noting that Trump was found guilty but not sentenced and his appeal was not resolved because he took office. Trump's lawyers called the concept absurd. They also opposed other suggestions.

Trump, a Republican, takes office on January 20. He is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted felon to be elected to office.

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