Lawyers select 12 jurors to serve in Trump hush-money case
US prosecutors and the defence attorneys for former President Donald Trump have finally selected
the 12 jurors and one alternate in the so-called “hush money” case, reported from the courtroom in New York.
Jury selection began on the first day of Trump’s trial on Monday and continued until Thursday evening,
with the parties in the case still having to select and swear in the remaining five alternates.
On Thursday, the parties agreed on selecting as jurors a retired wealth manager, a speech therapist, a retail employee, and a physical therapist, among others.
The only alternate juror selected so far is an analyst for an asset management company, the report said.
The court will spend the fourth day of the trial on Friday selecting the other five alternate jurors.
On Monday, Trump arrived at court to face his first day of trial in the case involving alleged hush money he paid via his attorney Michael
Cohen to pornography actress Stormy Daniels and other persons from August 2015 to December 2017.
Last year, Trump pleaded not guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money.
Earlier in the day, Merchan dismissed a juror who said she felt intimidated that some personal information was made public.
The judge also excused another juror after prosecutors said he may not have disclosed prior brushes with the law.
Trump’s outsized public presence created unique problems during the jury selection process, which started on Monday.
Roughly half of the first 196 jurors screened in heavily Democratic Manhattan were dismissed after saying
they could not assess the evidence impartially.
A conviction would not bar him from taking office.
In New York, Trump is accused of covering up a $130,000 payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence before
the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says they had a decade earlier.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg
and denies any such encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in 2018 and served prison time for making those payments,
and Trump’s lawyers are expected to attack his credibility as a witness.
“Some of the witnesses have what you might consider to be some baggage,” prosecutor Joshua Stein Glass told potential jurors,
adding that several have publicly denied some of the alleged conduct they will hear about in this case.
Merchan has taken steps to shield jurors in the case from harassment, saying they will remain anonymous except to Trump,
his lawyers and prosecutors.
On Thursday, he said he would prohibit news outlets from reporting on aspects of potential jurors’ employment.
Trump’s willingness to criticize those involved in the case, combined with the widespread public interest in it,
could put jurors’ safety at risk, said Michigan State University law professor Barbara O’Brien.
“These are just people showing up doing their civic duty,” she said.
“They’re not voluntarily injecting themselves into a public conversation.”
Prosecutors say Trump has violated Merchan’s gag order seven times since they flagged three potential violations on Monday,
and have asked the judge to impose fines or other penalties.
On Thursday, prosecutor Christopher Conroy pointed to posts saying undercover liberal activists had been lying to the judge to try to get on the jury.
One of Trump’s lawyers, Emil Bove, said those posts “do not establish any willful violations” of the gag order.
How Trump’s trial will work -Lawyers select 12 jurors
Former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial is expected to take six to eight weeks from start to finish.
This trial, related to a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016, is the first of four ongoing criminal cases
that are expected to head to trial for the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee.
A jury that will decide Trump’s fate begins to take shape
There are two Donald Trump criminal trials now taking place.
There’s the one in a Manhattan courtroom, where a judge, attorneys for both sides
and prospective jurors are making strenuous efforts to lay the foundation of a fair trial to which the ex-president and
every other citizen is entitled.
And there’s the imaginary trial that exists in Trump’s rhetoric, led by “heartless thugs” and a “very conflicted judge” who is “rushing the trial”
that the presumptive GOP nominee claims is a “Biden-inspired witch-hunt.”
In court on Tuesday, Trump made eye contact with potential jurors and was admonished by Judge Juan Merchan for muttering while one was questioned.
But the surprisingly snappy pace of the process confounded initial expectations that putting on trial possibly the most famous man on Earth would be a laborious and prolonged process.
While there were occasional moments of levity in the court and reminders that Trump’s status makes him a defendant like none other, conversations that members of the jury pool had with the judge and defence lawyers and prosecutors hinted at the gravity of what will unfold in the coming weeks.
