WE THE JURY
Slice of NYC set to weigh the trial vs. Trump
A 12-person jury was finalized in former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan hush-money trial Thursday — following a tumultuous day that saw two previously selected jurors get booted.
Trump, 77, didn’t comment on the chosen panel that’ll decide his fate as he left court, but did again slam the trial as a “scam” while flipping through clippings of news articles and editorials from various outlets that he said were critical of the case.
“The whole world is watching this hoax,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said.
The lightning-fast progress in the case came after two of the seven jurors who’d been picked earlier this week were dismissed by midday — only for seven more to be selected in 15 minutes following hours of whittling down by Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors.
The new jurors added Thursday afternoon included a retired wealth manager from Lebanon who does yoga every morning, a speech therapist from the Upper East Side and a Murray Hill man who works at an eyewear company.
During the jury selection process, Trump came face-to-face with dozens of New Yorkers, including a 34-year law enforcement veteran who has season tickets to the New York Rangers, still uses a flip phone and loves his hometown tabloids.
“The only publications I read are the Daily News and The Post,” the potential juror proudly said, notably leaving a popular Times Square-based broadsheet newspaper off his list.
A wide smile beamed across Trump’s face as the man thanked him for fixing Wollman Rink at Central Park.
“As a wannabe hockey player, I still thank him for fixing that Wollman Rink that nobody couldn’t fix,” said the prospective juror — who was later dismissed at the request of prosecutors.
Sounding off
Two prospective female jurors sounded off on Trump, with one saying he “seems selfish” and that “I don’t like his persona.” That woman ended up on the jury after saying she didn’t actually know Trump and that she could decide the case based on facts.
The five people chosen on Tuesday who remained, rounding out the panel of 12, included a corporate lawyer living in Chelsea who enjoys hiking and running and a lifelong Harlem resident who works as a city teacher and said she likes that Trump “speaks his mind.”
The foreperson is an unmarried man who works in sales, lives in West Harlem and is originally from Ireland.
One of the six alternate jurors was also chosen on Thursday.
The first two jurors chosen Thursday replaced the two people let go earlier in the day: an oncology nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering, who said she couldn’t be “fair and unbiased,” and a 40-year-old Puerto Rican man who prosecutors suggested may have lied about whether he’d previously been arrested.
Trump will be back in court on Friday for his lawyers and prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to finish picking the last five alternates.
The trial is slated to kick off with opening statements on Monday and is expected to last for roughly six weeks.