12 jurors picked to decide Trump's fate
Two leave over identification, arrest concerns
NEW YORK • A jury of 12 people was seated Thursday in former president Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York.
At least one of six alternate jurors had been selected before court concluded on Thursday.
The rapid progress propelled the case closer to opening statements and weeks of testimony in a case charging the Republican ex-president with falsifying business records to suppress stories about his sex life in the final days of the 2016 election.
The jury includes a sales professional, a software engineer, an English teacher and multiple lawyers. The case centres on $130,000 Trump's lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Trump faces 34 felony counts. He denies any wrongdoing.
Earlier in the day, two other jurors were dismissed, one after expressing doubt about her ability to be fair following disclosure of details about her identity. Another juror was let go over concerns that some of his answers in court may have been inaccurate.
In other developments, prosecutors asked for Trump to be held in contempt over a series of social media posts this week, and the judge barred reporters from identifying jurors' employers after expressing privacy concerns.
The jury selection process picked up momentum Tuesday with the selection of seven jurors.
But on Thursday, Judge Juan Merchan revealed in court that one of the seven, a cancer nurse, had “conveyed that after sleeping on it overnight she had concerns about her ability to be fair and impartial in this case.”
And though jurors' names are being kept confidential, the woman told the judge and the lawyers that she had doubts after she said aspects of her identity had been made public.
“Yesterday alone I had friends, colleagues and family push things to my phone regarding questioning my identity as a juror,” she said. “I don't believe at this point that I can be fair and unbiased and let the outside influences not affect my decision making in the courtroom.”
A second seated juror was dismissed after prosecutors raised concerns that he may not have been honest in answering a jury selection question by saying that he had never been accused or convicted of a crime.
The IT professional was summoned to court to answer questions after prosecutors said they found an article about a person with the same name who had been arrested in the 1990s for tearing down political posters.
Merchan said opening statements could begin as soon as Monday.