As the jury heard testimony and began deliberations in the Manhattan criminal trial of former President Donald Trump over accusations that he covered up a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election, users on TikTok have been falsely suggesting he has already been found not guilty.
On May 29, the jury began deliberations for Trump's first criminal trial, wrapping the first day of deliberations without a verdict.
Media Matters has now identified numerous TikTok videos falsely suggesting that a verdict was already reached, with the videos earning millions of combined views and hundreds of thousands of combined likes.
The TikTok videos, which have been posted over the course of the trial and include one example that has earned over 2.2 million views alone, called it “breaking news” and claimed “the jury has spoken,” “let freedom ring,” and “Trump is found not guilty” while “Michael Cohen found guilty.” Additionally, Media Matters found that TikTok's autofilled search suggestion on one of the videos directed users to search for “trump not guilty today.”