The judge in the Chauvin trial stated Monday that inflammatory remarks by Representative Maxine Waters could lead to the trial being “overturned” on appeal. Waters had called for demonstrators to “get more confrontational” and protest in the streets if no guilty verdict was reached in the case.
Waters delivered the comments over the weekend ahead of closing arguments in the high-profile case against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who’s been charged with the murder of George Floyd. Chauvin faces three criminal counts, including second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
The defense in the Chauvin case raised an objection that Waters’s comments could be prejudicial to the jury and grounds for a mistrial. In response to the defense attorney’s argument, Judge Peter Cahill said, “I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned.”
“We have U.S. representatives threatening acts of violence in relation to this specific case, it’s mind boggling,” defense attorney Eric Nelson said to Cahill.
