'This is a felony': Internet fumes as Clay Travis calls on Trump supporters to infiltrate hush money trial jury and 'refuse to convict'

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Hard-right political commentator Clay Travis called on former President Donald Trump's supporters in New York City to take the ongoing hush-money trial into their hands and change the outcome, Mediaite reported.

Explicitly expressing his allegiance to the GOP presumptive nominee in an X post on Monday, April 15, the Outkick founder said turning the case in Trump's favor would be the "most patriotic thing" an ally can do.

"If you're a Trump supporter in New York City who is a part of the jury pool, do everything you can to get seated on the jury and then refuse to convict as a matter of principle, dooming the case via hung jury. It's the most patriotic thing you could possibly do," Travis wrote.

The hush money trial began at the Manhattan Supreme Court on April 15, making Trump the first former president in US history to go to a criminal trial.

Clay Travis calls hush money trial a 'political hit job'

Later appearing on Fox News in an interview with Jesse Watters, which he shared on X, Travis defended his tweet, stating he believed in the innocence of Trump and accused the case of being a "bogus case" brought forward by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

"I do not believe that he is likely to get a fair jury in New York City based on voting records, and by the way, I would encourage if you're going to strike anybody from the jury pool, anybody wearing a mask should be gone immediately because they ain't going to be Trump fans like as a general rule, but you're not going to get too well," the far-right commentator said.

The host further asked him whether he believed there would be stealth jurors in the 12-person panel. "This is a political hit job, right? Everybody on the planet understands this is a political hit job. So the idea that you're gonna find jurors anywhere who have made absolutely no preconditions and haven't analyzed this, they've done everything they can to try to get Trump," Travis responded.

He then argued a jury of 150 million voters should judge Trump instead of the 12 people in New York City.

On the first day of the trial, Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, failed to select any impartial panel of jurors who would decide whether the ex-president was guilty of the 34 counts of criminal charges for allegedly falsifying business records shortly before the 2016 presidential election to pay hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to not speak about his affair with her.

The criminal case, the first of his four indictments to go to trial, is expected to last around eight weeks.

Internet slams Clay Travis

Travis faced intense online backlash for calling Trump supporters in The Big Apple to infiltrate the jury.

One user wrote, "This is a felony." Another remarked, "This is terrible advice. For a lot of reasons."

"Right. Never mind that Trump's guilty as sin. Just do your part in aiding and abetting the cover-up. That's patriotic," a third user added. Meanwhile, a fourth response read, "This is patriotic like breaking into the Capitol and assaulting police officers is patriotic."

An individual argued, "Clay is arguably conspiring to commit jury tampering here by encouraging someone to deliberately engage in jury nullification. Not a wise move by Clay."

"Encouraging people to do this toes the line with encouraging a crime and is, at best, extremely, supremely unethical," another chimed in.

A remark read, "There is not even a shred of dignity or integrity left in some of these MAGA supporters," and another added, "Jury tampering is a punishable but that doesn’t stop maga morons. Cheat, lie, and repeat. When one’s critical thinking skills never matured, it’s all they have."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.