This is not about presidency, hush money trial jurors told
Donald Trump’s criminal trial on charges stemming from hush money paid to an adult film porn star is not a referendum on his presidency, a prosecutor told prospective jurors.
“This case is really not about whether you like Donald Trump. This case is about the rule of law and whether Donald Trump broke it,” the Manhattan Assistant District Attorney, Joshua Steinglass, told the 18 prospective jurors who remained of an initial pool of 96 yesterday.
Jury selection for the former president’s trial began on Monday. He faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
Ms Daniels, now 45, said she had a sexual encounter with Mr Trump about a decade beforehand.
Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies an encounter took place. The Republican presidential candidate has called the case, brought by the Democratic Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, a partisan witch-hunt meant to interfere with his campaign to unseat Joe Biden in the 5 November election.
The proceedings so far have underscored the challenges of choosing a jury of 12 residents of heavily Democratic Manhattan who can try the case fairly and impartially.
Roughly half of the 96 potential jurors summoned on Monday were dismissed after saying they could not impartially judge the polarising businessman turned politician.
Six more were excused yesterday. They said they had scheduling conflicts, concerns about balancing juror service with their jobs, or had thought further overnight and come to the conclusion that they could not be fair.
One excused juror said many of his family, friends and colleagues in finance were Republicans.
“Being in the finance and accounting world, a lot of people tend to intellectually slant Republican,” said the juror, who grew up in Texas.
“Even though I feel like I can be impartial, there might be some implicit bias surrounding that.”
The jurors allowed to stay on for now after answering questions yesterday included an asset manager at Lazard who is from Mexico and a corporate lawyer from Oregon who reads The New York Times.
After prospective jurors gave basic biographical information in the questionnaire, Mr Steinglass had 30 minutes to ask follow-up questions. Mr Trump’s lawyers will have the chance to question them later.