Jury selection in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York City has resumed after a break on Wednesday.
Several jurors have already been selected from the 96-person jury, and Thursday’s schedule will largely focus on questioning a second group of similarly sized potential jurors to ensure they are fair and impartial regarding Mr. Trump. I’ll have to see if I can do it.
As with the previous group, the process got off to a slow start. When asked collectively if they thought it could not be fair or impartial, 48 people raised their hands to be fired, slightly fewer than the more than 50 who were exempted on Monday. The remaining nine were excused for various undisclosed issues.
The judge said he hoped to select 12 jurors and alternates by the end of Friday.
The proceedings began with one of the seven jurors already chosen and sworn in telling the judge he was concerned he wouldn’t be able to be impartial. The juror, who is a nurse, had a change of heart after her friends, her co-workers and family asked if she was a juror in the case, she said. She was removed from the jury after she told the judge that she did not believe it was possible to “keep outside influences from influencing me in a courtroom.”
After the dismissal, Judge Juan Melchán reprimanded media outlets that reported some details about the jurors’ appearance and where they worked, and ordered them not to report answers about potential jurors’ current or previous locations. Ta.
Because of such publicity, the judge said, “we simply lost” qualified jurors in the case.
The judge had previously ordered jurors to be anonymous due to safety concerns, but on Thursday said it would “defeat the purpose of an anonymous jury” if people were easily identified.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said they currently have questions about another juror who was sworn in. The person said in the questionnaire that neither he nor his family had been charged with a crime, but Joshua Steinglass of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said that a person with the same name had been arrested for tearing down political posters in the 1990s. , it was discovered that he was also involved in a corruption investigation.
The judge said he would question the jury once they returned to court.
The prosecutor’s office also accused Trump of continuing to violate a gag order that prohibits him from bashing potential jurors or witnesses in a series of posts on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Chris Conroy, for the Crown Prosecution Service, told the judge: “Since you signed the last order we filed on Monday, the defendant has breached the order seven more times,” adding: “This is ridiculous. “It has to stop,” he added.
President Trump’s lawyer Emil Bove said some of the posts were responses to accusations by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, while others simply reposted articles from other people or news outlets. Bove argued that it was not prohibited by the gag order.
A judge has scheduled a hearing on Tuesday on prosecutors’ contempt charges against President Trump.
After discussions with lawyers, the judge ordered 96 new potential jurors to be brought into the courtroom. When Mr. Trump and his lawyers were introduced to the judge, Mr. Trump remained seated, but his lawyers stood. The former president kept his eyes closed as Marchand explained the incident to the assembled crowd.
Mr. Trump’s prosecutors and lawyers used six of 10 peremptory challenges on Tuesday, so there will be fewer opportunities to remove potential jurors in the future.
Either side can raise unlimited objections in good cause, but it is up to the judge to decide whether to grant those objections and strike the jury. Marchan on Tuesday dismissed two jurors for cause, one of whom had posted a message on Facebook saying “lock up” about Trump, but denied several other objections.
President Trump on Wednesday lamented the challenges he faces.
“When I was choosing the judges, I thought STRIKES was supposed to be “unlimited”? “Then we were intentionally given the second-worst venue in the country and we were told there were only 10 people, which wasn’t enough,” he said, before denouncing the incident as “election interference.” wrote on social media platform Truth Social.
Under New York state law, defendants charged with low-level felonies, like President Trump, are only allowed 10 peremptory strikes.
After a scheduled holiday Wednesday, fireworks were set off in a Manhattan courtroom and Marchan posted a Facebook post apparently congratulating Joe Biden on his victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. He scolded Trump for appearing to address one of the potential jurors being questioned about the post.
“I will not tolerate that. I will not intimidate jurors in this courtroom. I want to make that clear,” Marchan said.
Ultimately, seven jurors were sworn in on Tuesday. They include a nurse, two lawyers, one teacher, one IT consultant, one teacher, and one software engineer.
The jury foreperson (who usually leads and steers the jury and serves as its publicist) is a married man who lives in West Harlem and works in sales. He told Marchan that he reads the New York Times and watches Fox News and MSNBC.
President Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, but has maintained his innocence. If he is convicted, he could face up to four years in prison.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office tried to hide money President Trump paid to former lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse a $130,000 payment he made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels in the final stages of the 2016 presidential campaign. Alleges that he falsified business records. Daniels claims she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006. Trump denied sleeping with Daniels, but admitted he paid Cohen back.
Prosecutors also said that American Media Inc. had accused Karen McDougal, a model and actor who appeared in Playboy magazine and claimed that Trump had an affair with her for nine months before he was elected president, of having an affair. He claims he paid him $150,000 in exchange for his agreement not to do so. Speak out about your alleged sexual relationship. ”
President Trump also denied having a sexual relationship with McDougal.
