Chauvin Prosecutors Hired Marketing Firm to Influence Americans’ Thinking About the Trial

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State prosecutors in the trial against Derek Chauvin hired a strategic communications firm to help them influence Americans’ thinking about the case.

The plan: Finsbury Glover Hering, a firm that is well connected in Washington, D.C., has been working closely with the prosecution for most of the past year, Axios reported on Thursday.

  • The firm has provided “media monitoring and analysis” despite “operating without pay and so under-the-radar that most of its own staff had no idea,” according to the report.

Neal Katyal, the massive legal team’s special prosecutor, told Axios he brought on Finsbury Glover Hering as part of his strategy to win not just the high-profile trial — but also an anticipated appeal and the support of the public.

  • “We needed to understand what people would be thinking about after the trial was over,” said Katyal, a former acting U.S. solicitor general in the Obama administration, who has worked on the case for free.
  • “To win the trial is one thing. To win it in the eyes of the American people in the long term is a different thing.”

Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted on Tuesday of all three charges brought against him following his fatal arrest of George Floyd.

What exactly did Finsbury Glover Hering do?

  • Per Axios: “It was their job to boil down for the prosecution the trends they could observe through publicly available information: Who were the key influencers? Were any errors in media coverage becoming part of the narrative? How was the public consuming what was happening in the courtroom and how did the jury appear to be responding?”
  • Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a prominent Democrat who has overseen Chauvin’s prosecution, told Axios the firm was “a completely integral and invaluable part of the team” and “essential to helping us understand the broader conversation around the case” and “the world around us.”
  • Finsbury Glover Hering declined to comment for the report.

Huh: In Katyal’s telling, the prosecutors’ partnership with Finsbury Glover Hering aimed to manage public perception rather than to sway to the partially sequestered jurors.

Still, the Axios report may irk conservative commentators like Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who have worried aloud that political and media forces are denying Chauvin his right to a fair trial.

  • Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison when he is sentenced in the coming weeks.
  • The presumptive sentence for second-degree murder, the most serious charge, is 12.5 years, but the state has asked for a higher sentence due to “aggravating factors.”
  • Three other former Minneapolis police officers who took in Floyd’s arrest have been charged with aiding and abetting his crimes.
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