6 jurors picked in Trump hush-money trial
NEW YORK — The first six jurors for Donald Trump's hush money trial were chosen Tuesday after lawyers grilled members of the jury pool about their social media posts, political views and personal lives to decide whether they can sit in fair judgment of the former president.
The court began filling out the jury of 12 people, along with six alternates, who will decide whether to convict Trump of charges accusing him of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Possible jurors were quizzed for hours about their views on Trump and other issues, and eight were excused after saying they could not be impartial or because they had other commitments. Several people said they believed they could decide the case fairly, no matter their feelings about Trump or his policies as president.
The methodical process — which could take several more days or even weeks — highlights the unprecedented challenge of finding people who can fairly judge the polarizing defendant, who has cast himself as the victim of political persecution as he vies to reclaim the White House.
The trial, which began Monday, puts Trump's legal problems at the center of his closely contested race against President Joe Biden. It's the first of Trump's four criminal cases to go to trial, and it may be the only one to reach a verdict before voters decide in November whether to elect the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Trump looked on in the courtroom as his lawyers challenged one person for a social media post she made after his 2020 election loss. Trump at one point spoke loudly and gestured while the judge was questioning the wouldbe juror, causing the judge to admonish the former president.
“I don't know what he was uttering, but it was audible and he was gesturing. And he was speaking in the direction of the juror,” Judge Juan Merchan said. “I won't tolerate that. I will not tolerate any jurors being intimidated in this courtroom.”
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass took Trump's notoriety head-on, telling would-be jurors that attorneys were not looking for people who had been “living under a rock for the past eight years.” They just needed to keep an open mind.
“This case has nothing to do with your personal politics … it's not a referendum on the Trump presidency or a popularity contest or who you're going to vote for in November. We don't care. This case is about whether this man broke the law,” he said.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged effort to keep salacious — and, he says, bogus — stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign.
Before entering the courtroom, Trump stopped briefly to address a TV camera in the hallway, repeating his claim that the judge is biased against him and the case is politically motivated.
“This is a trial that should have never been brought,” Trump said.
More than half of the 96 people in the first panel of potential jurors brought into the courtroom Monday were excused after telling the judge they could not be fair and impartial, and several others were dismissed for other reasons that were not disclosed.