Donald Trump Falsely Claims Judge Juan Merchan 'Is Not Requiring a Unanimous Vote' From Jurors in Hush Money Trial

Donald Trump appeared to falsely claim that Judge Juan Merchan informed the jury they did not need to reach a unanimous decision in the ongoing hush money trial in order to find the former POTUS guilty.

On Wednesday, May 29, the jury began deliberations on whether the controversial ex-prez was guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business documents connected to a payment made to Stormy Daniels back in 2016.

"IT IS RIDICULOUS, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AND UNAMERICAN that the highly Conflicted, Radical Left Judge is not requiring a unanimous decision on the fake charges against me brought by Soros backed D.A. Alvin Bragg," Trump ranted via Truth Social on Wednesday, May 29. "A THIRD WORLD ELECTION INTERFERENCE HOAX!"

However, Judge Merchan specifically told the jurors that the guilty or not guilty findings on each count must be unanimous, per CNN.

"That is, each and every juror must agree to it," the judge said in court.

"When you deliberate, you should to do with a view toward reaching an agreement," he told the jurors. "If that can be done without surrendering individual judgement."

The news outlet also reported that the instructions required the 12 jurors — five women and seven men — must find "beyond a reasonable doubt first that he solicited, requested, commanded, importuned or intentionally aided that person to engage in that conduct, and second, that he did so with the state of mind required with the commission of the offense."

Merchan further clarified that to be found guilty, a person must have had the "intent to defraud," to commit a separate crime or to "conceal" a crime.

Per the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, it is required that the jury vote unanimously in both federal and state courts in order to convict a criminal defendant.

Still, Trump's allegations sparked rumors on social media that Judge Merchan was blatantly breaking the law by allowing only some of the jurors to agree on certain crimes.

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Fox News co-anchor John Roberts repeated the allegations that the judge supposedly instructed the jury, saying: "[If] four could agree on one crime, four on a different one, and the other four on another," then he would treat it as a "unanimous verdict" in a post on social media.

"It is more nuanced than that. All 12 need unanimity that Trump committed a crime. But the underlying unlawful means is a smorgasbord they can pick from - and they don't all need to agree on what it was," he added on X later on.

However, this has not been confirmed and reports of courtroom comments from major outlets have stated the opposite.