Predictions Vary Widely as Verdict Looms in Trump Trial

NEW YORK—As lawyers in the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump prepare to deliver their summations on Tuesday, and the jury makes ready to begin deliberating as soon as the middle of the week, speculation runs high as to whether proceedings will end in an acquittal, a guilty verdict, or a hung jury.

If President Trump is convicted, evidentiary concerns and Justice Juan Merchan’s conduct are likely to raise substantive issues for the defense to pursue at the appellate level, according to one legal expert. But other judicial experts disagree, saying it is premature to try to assess the trial’s fairness.

Throughout the trial, Justice Merchan has consistently sustained prosecutors’ objections to defense lawyers’ questions, and has made concessions to the government while denying a bulk of defense motions, said Marc Clauson, a professor of law and constitutional theory at Cedarville University in Ohio who has studied the proceedings closely from their beginning.

In addition, the judge’s words and actions during a highly tense moment in the courtroom this week—as defense witness Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor, testified—renders the judge vulnerable to the very charges of unseemliness he leveled at Mr. Costello, Mr. Clauson believes. Moreover, the failure of the government to set forth a clear legal case for its indictment of President Trump will raise due process issues at the appellate level, he added.

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