After a slow start to the jury selection process on Monday, the first seven jurors have been seated on Tuesday in former President Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial underway in a Lower Manhattan courthouse. The selection process is anticipated to continue for several days as hundreds of New Yorkers are narrowed down to 12 jurors and six alternates. As of Tuesday afternoon, the initial group of 96 potential jurors had been reduced to 24 after a day of proceedings.
In the first round of jury selection, over half of the nearly 100 prospective jurors were swiftly excused as they expressed their inability to be fair or impartial in a trial of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to alleged hush money payments made to a pornographic actress, Stormy Daniels, amid his 2016 bid for the presidency.
The jurors’ names are anonymous, but the panel so far includes an oncology nurse, an IT consultant, a teacher, a salesman, a civil litigator, and a software engineer. The seven jurors selected thus far were sworn in and told to return to court on Monday.
Aside from the motion by District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office to hold Trump in contempt and to impose sanctions alleging violations of a gag order presiding Judge Juan Marchan imposed, the trial saw its first sparks of fireworks on Tuesday when Trump was admonished by the judge.
Outside of the presence of the jurors, Judge Merchan told Trump and his lawyer, Todd Blanche:
I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom. I want to make this crystal clear.
The judge told Blanche that Trump was “audibly” saying something in the direction of the juror while she was “12 feet away from your client.” Judge Merchan said he didn’t know what Trump had been saying, but asserted that he’d been “muttering” and “gesturing” at the juror, directing Blanche to talk to his client about his behavior. Blanche then whispered into Trump’s ear.
While some jurors were excused after admitting to their own bias, including one man who said he was from Texas and grew up around Republicans, the seven seated jurors were selected after Blanche complained that some potential jurors weren’t as fair-minded and impartial as they represented themselves to be.
Pointing to social media posts, Blanche told Judge Merchan:
There’s a number of the jurors that we have social media posts for that are very much contrary.
He noted one potential juror had posted a video from the day where Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election. In the video, the woman says:
I have to get in the car and spread the honking cheers. There’s an actual dance party on 96th Street.
Trump’s lawyers contended the video would have been referring to an anti-Trump rally. The woman had denied taking part in any rally or campaign events during her initial round of questioning. Called in for individual questioning, she said it was a “celebratory moment” in the city and that she could be impartial.
After scolding Trump for his behavior towards her, Judge Merchan said that he found her “credible” and refused to strike her for cause. Trump’s attorneys then used one of their peremptory challenges to remove her from the case. Trump’s legal team has used six of his 10 peremptory challenges, as has the district attorney’s office.
Another potential juror was removed by the judge after Trump’s attorneys resurfaced old tweets from 2017, where the man wrote in one tweet:
Good news!! Trump lost his court battle on his unlawful travel ban!!! Get him out and lock him up.
One of the individuals who successfully passed the initial round of questioning was a man working in the software industry. This prospective juror mentioned that he used to follow Trump on Twitter during his presidency and had also read two of his books, including “The Art of the Deal.” The revelation caused Trump to smile bigly, and nod with acknowledgment.
The court doesn’t convene on Wednesdays, so the proceedings will resume on Thursday. Additionally, there is an anticipated break for Passover, which begins next week.
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