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NICE NICKNAME: Here’s how jurors in the Trump Org. trial referred to its owner

NICE NICKNAME: Here’s how jurors in the Trump Org. trial referred to its owner

TRUMP NICKNAME: Here's how jurors in the Trump Org. trial referred to its owner

Jurors in the trial of the former President’s Trump Organization got creative to insure impartiality when listening to evidence and testimony — going so far as to give the former President a nickname when deliberating after the six-week trial.

According to an unnamed juror, they referred to the former president as “Joe Smith,” to refrain from letting any personal feelings they may have for Trump cloud their decision in the deliberations.

“I constantly fought my knee-jerk belief that of course, anything with the name Trump on it is crooked,” the anonymous juror said, according to The Daily Beast. “I shocked myself in mid-November when I realized that I wasn’t sure I could find the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation guilty.”

Apparently, they could.

On December 7th, the Manhattan jury found the former president’s companies guilty of all charges related to the city’s criminal tax fraud case.

Attorney General Alvin Bragg alleged Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. falsified and manipulated their business records in a 15-year scheme to evade paying taxes.

Prosecutors successfully proved that both organizations engaged in mass fraud and deception – avoiding millions in taxes that were eventually passed on to the hard-working people of New York.

“The Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation got away with a scheme that awarded high-level executives with lavish perks and compensation while intentionally concealing the benefits from the taxing authorities to avoid paying taxes,” Bragg said after the verdict, CNN reported.

The jurors weren’t happy that Trump wasn’t paying the taxes he should have paid.

“Do you want the potholes fixed sooner?” a juror said. “That’s where this money comes from,” they told  The Daily Beast.

“And the total Medicare tax they dodged was maybe $25,000. We were supposed to consider it a pittance for any of us. I want my Medicare funded,” another anonymous juror said.

Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg testified in the New York case. He confirmed that he received off-the-books compensation to avoid tax liability. Private school tuition for family members and a luxury Manhattan apartment were just the tip of the iceberg.

Reminded by the presiding judge that Donald Trump himself wasn’t on trial, the jurors adhered to the guidelines set forth to separate the ex-president from his organizations in relation to any biases they might have.

After a juror randomly referred to Trump as “Joe Smith,” it stuck – the rest of the deliberators followed suit.

Each of the nine counts was judged on its own merit. The jurors examined, and debated, each charge individually. Despite the defense lawyers’ best attempts to gaslight the court, the jurors weren’t buying Trump’s claims that Weisselberg was a rogue actor.

Trump attorney Michan van der Veen rubbed the panel the wrong way with his attempts to discredit the convicted CFO with the phrase, “Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg. ”

Johnnie Cochran, van der Veen is not.

The juror also called the defense lawyer’s mocking of Mazar’s accountant Donald Bender’s speech impediment in his arguments, “small-minded and unnecessary”

“Michael van der Veen did nothing to help himself by imitating Donald Bender’s voice and speech impediment … impugning his manhood because he spoke with a high voice. People really, really didn’t like that,” one juror told The Daily Beast.

To his client’s detriment, it appears the attorney mistakenly confused the courtroom with a MAGA rally, where fans of the disgraced ex-President relish mocking and cruelty.

According to the judge, the criminal acts of Weisselberg didn’t have to be undertaken on behalf of his employer – but the jury ultimately determined they certainly did.

They found that the former book cooker didn’t act solely on his own behalf as the defense wanted them to believe, but that his actions also benefited the Trump Organization by lowering their tax liability and accountability.

By compensating its employees with fancy cars, expensive housing, and tuition, Trump Org. was able to dodge accounting for taxes that would be much higher.

“Everybody was disgusted to some degree that they were making good salaries and yet they still had to get more,” according to the juror.

It appears the jury took the judge’s instructions to heart – basing their decision on the evidence and not personal feelings.

Upholding their duty, they listened to the evidence, separating the truth from the gaslighting, and ultimately came to the only logical verdict of guilty.

Now it’s time to do “Joe Smith.”

Original reporting by Jose Pagliery at The Daily Beast

Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick

Ty Ross
News journalist for Occupy Democrats.

© 2022 Occupy Democrats. All Rights Reserved.

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