All 12 jurors selected for Trump trial after two dismissals

A full jury of 12 people has been seated in the criminal case against Donald Trump, bringing the first criminal trial of a former president a significant step closer to beginning.

At least one of six alternate jurors had been selected before court concluded yesterday. The development came after two jurors were removed, underscoring the difficulty of choosing a jury in one of the most high-stakes cases in US history.

Trump arrived at the Manhattan criminal court for the third day of his hush-money trial and a continuation of the tricky process of jury selection. The identities of the jurors who will judge Trump will remain anonymous in the case out of security concerns.

A woman known only as Juror Two had appeared briefly before the judge, Juan Merchan, to say that she no longer believed she could be unbiased in the case.

Since being selected on Tuesday, she had received a flurry of text messages from friends and family that led her to believe she had been identified. The judge excused her.

Her dismissal came as reporters have been hanging on every detail they can glean about the 12 jurors who will determine Trump’s criminal fate. Fox News’s Jesse Watters also did a segment on Tuesday that directly attacked the jurors, including Juror Two.

“I’m not so sure about Juror No 2,” Watters said on his show on Tuesday. Trump also reposted a quote from Watters on his Truth Social platform suggesting liberal activists were trying to get on the jury.

The dismissal prompted Merchan to rebuke reporters covering the case for revealing too much about the physical descriptions of jurors. Earlier this week he admonished Trump against intimidating jurors.

A second juror, known as Juror Four, was excused after prosecutors expressed concerns that he may not have been truthful on his jury questionnaire about his criminal history.

The juror appeared in court yesterday for two lengthy conversations with Merchan and lawyers for both sides. Merchan sealed the conversation, saying it was personal, and then excused the juror.

Prosecutors also accused Trump of violating a gag order seven additional times. They have already filed a previous request to sanction him for breaking the order and a hearing on the issue is scheduled for next week.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of the alleged effort to keep the scandalous stories – which he says are not true – from emerging during his 2016 presidential run.