Jury selection enters pivotal stretch as Trump’s hush money trial resumes
Lawyers still need to pick 11 more jurors to serve on the panel that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former US president.
Jury selection in Donald Trump ’s hush money case encountered new setbacks Thursday as a previously seated juror was excused after backtracking on whether she felt she could be impartial and fair. The status of a second sworn-in juror was also in limbo over concerns that some of his previous answers to questions were not accurate.
Lawyers still need to pick 12 more jurors to serve on the panel that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former US president.
Prosecutors on Thursday also asked Judge Juan M Merchan to sanction Mr Trump over seven more social media posts they say violate a gag order that bans Mr Trump from attacking witnesses.
The prosecution on Monday sought a 3,000 dollar (£2,600) fine against Mr Trump over three Truth Social posts.
Earlier, one of the seven jurors who had been picked, an oncology nurse, said upon further consideration that she was no longer confident she could be impartial.
Although the jurors’ names are being kept confidential, the woman said her family members and friends questioned her about being a juror.
She was then excused, leaving six on the panel so far, including a software engineer, an information technology professional, a sales professional, an English teacher and two lawyers.
After dismissing the juror, Judge Juan Merchan ordered journalists in court not to report prospective jurors’ answers to questions about their current and former employers.
Mr Steinglass also disclosed that a relative of the man may have been involved in a non-prosecution agreement in the 1990s with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Mr Trump’s case.
Judge Merchan had instructed the man to come to court on Thursday morning to answer questions and verify whether the people involved were him or his relative.
Mr Merchan noted the juror’s apparent “reluctance to come in” and asked both sides if they’d consent to having him removed without further inquiry.
Mr Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche declined, saying he wanted to first hear what the man had to say.
Under questioning earlier this week, the man had said he hadn’t been convicted of a crime.
After dismissing the juror, Judge Juan Merchan ordered journalists in court not to report prospective jurors’ answers to questions about their current and former employers.
He said that “as evidenced by what’s happened already, it’s become a problem.” The answers also will be redacted from court transcripts.
Dozens of prospective jurors were dismissed both days after saying they could not be impartial or had other commitments that would conflict with the trial, which is expected to last several weeks.
Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories he feared could damage his 2016 campaign.
Mr Trump says none of these supposed sexual encounters occurred.
The case is the first of Mr Trump’s four indictments to reach trial.
The seating of the Manhattan jury will be a seminal moment in the case, setting the stage for a trial that will place the former president’s legal jeopardy at the heart of the campaign against Democrat Joe Biden and feature potentially unflattering testimony about Mr Trump’s private life in the years before he became president.
The process of picking a jury is a critical phase of any criminal trial but especially so when the defendant is a former president and the presumptive Republican nominee.
The social media posts at issue were made by Mr Trump after Monday when prosecutors first sought a 3,000 dollar (£2,400) fine for Mr Trump for three Truth Social posts they said violated the order.
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy said several of the posts involved an article that referred to Mr Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen as a “serial perjurer”, and one from Wednesday that repeated a claim by a Fox News host that liberal activists were lying to get on the jury.
Mr Trump’s lawyer Emil Bove said Mr Cohen “has been attacking President Trump in public statements,” and Mr Trump was just replying.
The judge had already scheduled a hearing for next week on the prosecution’s request for contempt sanctions over Mr Trump’s posts.