Fifty potential jurors in Trump trial say they couldn’t be impartial
Donald Trump arrived at the Manhattan courtroom yesterday morning for the second day of jury selection in his criminal trial over alleged hushmoney payments to a porn star.
When Trump walked into court around 9.30am, the ex-president winked at a court security officer and took his seat at the defence table. His longtime aide Jason Miller was seated at the back of the courtroom.
On Monday, of the 96 potential jurors who were asked if they would have trouble being impartial, 50 raised their hands and were excused – further evidence of the challenge facing the judge, Juan Merchan, of finding 12 jurors and six alternates who don’t have strong biases either for or against Trump.
The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, brought the case against the former president over payments purportedly aimed at keeping secret his alleged affairs with the adult film star Stormy Daniels and the Playboy model Karen McDougal. Prosecutors said Trump schemed to keep these alleged liaisons hidden from American voters so he would not suffer in the 2016 presidential election.
The trial is unfolding amid a presidential contest in which Trump is all but guaranteed to be the Republican nominee facing Joe Biden in November.
Bragg’s office contends that Trump, whom a grand jury indicted in spring 2023 on 34 counts of falsifying business records, was part of an alleged “catch-and-kill scheme” from August 2015 until December 2017, with his then attorney, Michael Cohen.
Trump’s former consigliere, who in 2018 admitted to federal charges for his involvement in that particular hush-money scheme, wired $130,000 to Daniels’s then attorney less than two weeks before the election. Cohen funnelled these funds via a shell company.
After Trump won the presidential election, he repaid Cohen with a smattering of monthly cheques, initially from the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, which was set up in New York to hold the president’s company’s assets during his presidency.
The company, however, framed the payments as legal expenses which prosecutors say indicate that Trump was liable for making false business records “with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime” – specifically, violating campaign finance laws in an effort to influence the outcome of the US election.
Prosecutors filed a contempt motion yesterday against Trump, arguing he violated Merchan’s gag order against attacking witnesses after he used social media to call Cohen a “disgraced attorney and felon” and Merchan and prosecutors “thugs”. The judge said he would rule on the motion on 24 April.
Several jurors were dismissed on Monday after they said they had strong feelings about the ex-president, and when selection resumed yesterday another prospective juror was excused after citing his Texas upbringing. While he said he did not lean in any particular political direction, “growing up, a bunch of family [and] friends [were] Republicans”, meaning it was “probably going to be hard for me to be impartial”.
“I appreciate your candour,” replied Merchan. “I’m going to have to excuse you at this time.”
Another prospective juror said he’d read three of Trump’s books, prompting a rare smile from Trump.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass later asked prospects who had yet to be dismissed about their impartiality. “This case has nothing to do with your personal politics,” he said. “It’s not a referendum on the Trump presidency or a popularity contest or indication of who you’re going to vote for in November. We don’t care.
“This case is about whether this man broke the law.”
‘It’s not a referendum on the Trump presidency or a popularity contest … We don’t care’
Joshua Steinglass Prosecutor