As the jurors enter the second day of deliberations in the criminal hush money trial of former President Donald Trump, the internet is focused on one person—Juror No. 2.
Little information about the 12 individual members of the jury has been released to protect their identities, aside from their job, where in New York they live, and their news habits.
The latter of which is why so much focus has been drawn to Juror No. 2, who, according to a widely-shared New York Times graphic, gets his news from X and Truth Social.
But reports that the juror reads Truth Social—the social media platform launched by Trump, where he has voraciously attacked the trial's credibility—are misleading.
According to court transcripts, the juror says he follows "Truth Social posts from Trump on Twitter"—not that he himself is active on the platform.
"I do follow Michael Cohen, Mueller She Wrote, and some more," he added, noting he has a breadth of news coverage.
Mueller She Wrote—a liberal political commentary podcast—on Wednesday corrected CNN for reporting that he followed Trump directly on Truth Social.
"Per the transcript, he said he sees what Trump says on truth social via Twitter," the account noted.
While that may sound like a liberal diet, Trump's critics are nevertheless concerned by those news habits. Other jurors also said they read conservative sources such a Fox News and the Daily Mail, but people online are convinced the Juror No. 2 will prove the deciding factor in refusing to convict Trump.
"The Republic’s fate rests on juror 2," one person wrote on X, in a now-viral post that has been viewed more than 550,000 times.
The Republic’s fate rests on juror 2. pic.twitter.com/8zHuhfIDMy
— RAMZPAUL (@ramzpaul) May 29, 2024
"Juror 2 will save him," concluded someone else.
"Juror nr. 2 might be a problem," wrote another left-wing account.
But it's not just the left that is talking about Juror No. 2.
"Looks like juror number 2 is our guy haha," wrote one conservative X user on Wednesday.
"Hopefully he is an articulate and persuasive individual who is redpilling the rest of the jury," replied someone else.
Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the hush money case, instructed jurors that they must all agree the former president falsified business documents to cover up a crime.
However, Merchan said, the jurors do not need to unanimously agree on the crime that was being covered up—a remark that drew immense backlash from conservatives.
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