Congresswoman Maxine Waters denied on Monday interfering in the trial of Derek Chauvin as the jury retired, claiming that the judge overseeing the former policeman’s case said her provocative words ‘don’t matter’ – despite his condemning her actions in court as ‘abhorrent’.
Waters, a Democrat representing California, sparked outrage by travelling to Minneapolis on Saturday and urging protesters to ‘get more confrontational’ if Chauvin was acquitted.
Her remarks, on the eve of the jury retiring to consider its verdict, were widely condemned and may, it emerged on Monday, have handed Chauvin’s defense grounds for appeal and the turning over of any guilty verdict.
Yet Waters, 82, defiantly insisted on Monday afternoon that she stood by her words.
‘The judge says my words don’t matter,’ she told CNN.
When pressed on the judge stating that her remarks could be grounds for appeal, she replied: ‘Oh no, no they didn’t.’
She insisted she was entirely justified in her call to action, saying: ‘The whole Civil Rights movement is confrontational.’
Earlier on Monday Waters’ comments were seized upon by Chauvin’s legal team, and criticized by the judge.
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Source: Daily Mail
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