Prosecutors and defense lawyers begin to seat jurors for Trump trial
NEW YORK
An Upper East Side investment banker, a highschool teacher who likes to sew, a Mexico-born man who listens to podcasts about gay issues, a Harlem woman from a family of police officers and a bookseller who believes “no one is above the law.”
These were just some of the hundreds of New Yorkers who on Tuesday reported to a lower Manhattan courtroom for jury duty in the first criminal prosecution of a former American president. Depending on their politics, media diets and views on Donald Trump, any one could join the group of 12 citizens who will sit in judgment of him.
Not until midafternoon Tuesday did Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors select the first six jurors for the case, which centers on allegations that the former president falsified documents to cover up a sex scandal involving an adult-film actor. Dozens were dismissed after saying they could not be fair, underscoring the towering task of trying a former president in a city where he is deeply unpopular.
The lawyers reached the heart of the selection process early in the afternoon, when they began bringing individual people from the jury pool back into the courtroom to question them alone as they debated who should be dismissed. But that process was quickly interrupted when the judge, Juan Merchan, scolded Trump for muttering and gesturing while one of the potential jurors was being interviewed.
“I won’t tolerate that,” the judge said, raising his voice once the potential juror had left the room. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom.”
The pool of possible jurors came from an initial group of 96, more than half of whom were dismissed immediately Monday after indicating that they could not fairly reach a decision. Others returned Tuesday, only to change their minds after taking a night to think about it. “I don’t think I can be as impartial and unbiased as I hoped I could be,” one admitted. Another claimed to have recognized an “unconscious bias” against the former president.
Trump, who faces 34 felony counts and might take the witness stand in his own defense, has denied all wrongdoing. But during the 2016 presidential campaign, prosecutors say, Trump directed his fixer, Michael Cohen, to pay hush money to the actor, Stormy Daniels. And while serving as president, he had his company falsify records to hide his reimbursement of Cohen.
Prosecutors say it was part of a pattern for Trump: Faced with stories that could have doomed his campaign, he concealed them to influence the election. If the jury convicts him, he faces up to four years behind bars.
Tuesday’s batch of potential jurors mirrored their city of 8.4 million, the most populous in the nation: They were diverse, opinionated, hard to pigeonhole.
Trump, the former reality television star turned polarizing president, is once again the presumptive Republican nominee. And in this landmark case, the first of Trump’s four indictments to move to trial, the possible jurors are carrying a burden of history that appeared to agonize some of them.
Some acknowledged they could not be fair. The investment banker said he was just too busy to give up the next two months of his life.
Others embraced the moment, and even sought to persuade both the defense and prosecution that they could be fair.
Jury selection is pivotal. Legal experts say the case might well be won or lost by each side’s choices.