I have been on a Grand Jury. The "Ham Sandwich" meme is crap.

[yellowcanine]

Grand Juries take their task seriously. The DA presents the case, sure, but the GJ is free to question witnesses and they will not indict without clear evidence that a crime was committed. It is their decision, not that of the DA.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. I understand that the rump was offered a chance to appear in rebuttal or send a lawyer

Instead a friendly lawyer showed up to call Cohen a liar.

All on his own, we are asked to believe.

[MrsCoffee]

2. Fucking Pence. I saw him on CNN spewing all of his bullshit.

The ham sandwich comment came after Blitzer called his bullshit about this being a political prosecution. Blitzer said well this wasn't just Bragg, this was 23 other people who felt he should be indicted.... Sputter, Sputter... Ham Sandwich.... He was sickening. Somewhere in there he tried to claim something to the effect that he as vp never did anything wrong and was cleared of doing anything wrong (but hey, this wasn't any attempt to make himself look good for the presidential run we all know he is planning. )

He interrupted my spontaneous laughter outbursts after hearing Trump was indicted and made me gag.

[JohnSJ]

3. That "ham sandwich" crap is mostly pushed by a guilty party's allies, and is an insult to those

who make up a grand jury, and Democracy

[Historic NY]

4. I've testified sometimes multiple times with a both a Federal and County grand jury's and have

been qualified on several occasions as an expert witness. Those sworn juror sometime ask a lot of questions and were always prepared. I had at one time taken a dying declaration w/o having the time to look for paper and wrote it on the front and back of a form pad....its was a lot of scrawls to capture the victim's dying words. They were impressed with the seriousness of my effort to capture every word I could and to confirm who was the suspect. A transcript was prepared, but they were more interested in the notes written in extreme haste and want to examine the pad. At trial, it was admitted, and it led to the manslaughter 1st conviction in addition to other charges.

So you are correct, the only ham sandwich would be for lunch.

[grantcart]

5. Interesting comment

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. What ham sandwich meme?

We don't all watch the same stuff.

[spooky3]

7. Something like "grand jury indictments mean nothing

A grand jury could indict a ham sandwich.”

This is presumably because the defense doesn’t have the opportunity to present their full defense until the trial. The purpose of the GJ is to determine if there is enough evidence to justify going to trial.

Not an attorney—maybe a DU attorney will correct this.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Thank you.

[TomSlick]

10. The old saw is that a prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich.

The idea is that grand juries can be lead to the result the prosecutor wants.

Being the only lawyer in the room is certainly an advantage but I would expect grand jurors to take their responsibilities seriously.

[lame54]

9. Trump's more like head cheese anyway

[former9thward]

11. It is the rarest of occasions that a GJ does not indict when a DA presents a case.

The people on the GJ are good people but they are not lawyers and don't know the law and its technicalities. They don't know related court decisions in the past. They only hear one side of the story -- the prosecutor.