Again, judges in American courts do not conduct investigations. (Note, too, with regard to the contempt citations: the judge put the onus on the DA to bring accusations that Trump was commenting inappropriately outside of court. The judge isn’t the one to advance those claims).
If the defense wants to investigate, they can do so. This may even include subpoenaing records. It would likely involve interviewing witnesses or asking a private investigator to dig for evidence. But no judge is going to initiate, or conduct, its own research into this issue.
I don’t know that that is always true - in the Darrell Brooks (Christmas Parade) trial - near the end there was an email or reddit post that the Judge ordered the Sherrif’s dept to look into. As you said, the “Judge” doesn’t do the investigation, but that doesn’t mean they can’t cause one to happen.
That’s a fair point. A judge can make a referral to law enforcement.
Undoubtedly, it will be taken seriously, and the police will pursue any leads, but from a legal standpoint, the judge is just a Good Samaritan reporting a crime.
I think the law explicitly says the document must carry a disclaimer that lying on it is a crime.
There could be other laws that apply though if they really want to throw the book at him could be identity theft? As he was assuming the identity of someone he wasn’t. No idea if that would work, but those computer related laws tend to written in a lax way.
All the NY identity theft laws I could find require the person to assume a specific person’s identity and with the intent of getting something out of it. The internet troll claimed to be the cousin of one of a juror. Not only did he not steal the identity of any specific person, he didn’t even specify which juror he was referring to.
A person is guilty of identity theft in the third degree when he or she knowingly and with intent to defraud assumes the identity of another person by presenting himself or herself as that other person, or by acting as that other person or by using personal identifying information of that other person, and thereby…
I don’t think lying about have a familial connection to an unnamed person on a jury will reach the threshold needed to be considered identity theft.
Maybe there’s a law that covers this, but I don’t think it’s identity theft.
My cousin, who’s on the jury, got a bag full of cash and a letter to vote for the prosecution.
… now what? How should my statement impact the proceedings? I have implicated a crime. I anticipate a knock on the door from a judge who will investigate me.
Well, they do, on occasion, hold hearings and question former jurors about claims of misconduct. I’ve seen it myself from time to time. It requires more of a legitimate claim than we have here, but theoretically it could happen.
Actually, it seems that in certain states it would be the job of the judge to investigate juror misconduct (e.g. California). But, in New York, it does seem to be that it would be the defense.
Ya know, I don’t think our poster Eonwe will be getting a knock on the door from ANYONE. EVER.
Or do you think the NYPD investigates every random person who claims something somewhere about this jury is going to be investigated? Not. Going. To Happen. Same as the original shitposter who claimed his cousin told him something. There is no investigations for every bullshit piece of trolling crap that is posted on social media sites.
It should also be noted that when some teen boy is overheard saying to Tiffany, “I was spying on the girls’ changing room.” And then, later, when someone confronts him with the claim and he says, “I was just joking, to scare Tiffany.” Either of those statements might be the true story.
If the latter then, sure, it doesn’t really matter. The guy’s a jackass. So be it.
But it could be the first and the school has an ethical duty to investigate it.
Likewise, Trump’s lawyers have an ethical duty to investigate.
The thing is though that it’s a pretty extraordinary claim. This isn’t claiming you spied on girls changing, which just about anyone with the inclination could probably pull off. This is claiming something extremely unlikely.
Not impossible, sure, but very much improbable and any rational person should treat the claim with an immense amount of skepticism.
