.-') _ .-') _
( OO ) ) ( OO ) )
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | )
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--'
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Jury selection in the Trump trial resumes Thursday: What to know
By Kara Scannell and Lauren del Valle, CNN
Updated:
6:47 AM EDT, Thu April 18, 2024
Source: CNN
Jury selection in the first-ever criminal trial of a former US
president has moved briskly, with the judge suggesting opening
statements could begin Monday.
, after just a day and a half of jury selection, seven people from
Manhattan were selected to judge the evidence in the New York case
against former President Donald Trump.
Thursday, attorneys will pick up with a pool of nearly 100 jurors and
begin questioning them until they seat a total of 12 jurors and as many
as six alternates.
Four men and three women have been selected so far as jurors for the
case. They include two attorneys, an oncology nurse, a software
engineer, a schoolteacher who said she likes that Trump speaks his
mind, and a grandfather who said he finds Trump fascinating and
mysterious. The foreman is originally from Ireland and works in sales.
Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to coverup
payments made to bury an allegation of an affair with adult film star
Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied
the affair and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Each side’s strategy for picking jurors has become clear.
Prosecutors have pressed jurors about whether they would be able to
follow the judge’s instructions and if they could set aside any
preconceived notions they might have about some witnesses with
“baggage,” including a tabloid publisher, an adult film star, and a
former lawyer (Michael Cohen) who has pleaded guilty.
They also asked jurors if they would be able to distinguish between
believability and likability when evaluating their testimony.
Trump’s attorneys strove to understand the jurors’ opinions on the
former president and whether they could truly set that aside. They also
dug deep into social media history and uncovered posts, some several
years old and others more recent, that led the judge to dismiss two
potential jurors for cause.
In the roughly 10 hours that court was in session earlier this week,
Trump occasionally closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. At
other times he tapped his attorney Todd Blanche on the shoulder to
whisper in his ear or passed a note to him. In one moment they appeared
to smile. While the attorneys questioned jurors seated in the jury box
Trump turned his chair to face them as they answered questions. He met
at least one juror’s eye as she walked in the courtroom, according to
one potential juror who was dismissed.
In all, seven jurors were selected from a batch of 96, more than half
of whom said they couldn’t be fair or impartial.
Jury selection process
Thursday morning, a new panel of 96 jurors, already sworn in, will
return to the courtroom. The judge will ask two broad questions:
whether any juror feels they can’t be fair or impartial, and whether
they are unable to serve on the trial for another reason. The trial is
expected to last at least six weeks.
The remaining jurors will then answer 42 questions on a questionnaire.
Prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers get 30 minutes each to ask the first
18 jurors more specific questions, after which they will conduct
strikes.
Both sides were given 10 peremptory strikes that they could use to
excuse jurors. Trump and prosecutors used six on Tuesday, leaving them
each with four strikes remaining.
Wednesday morning, Trump complained about the process on social media
claiming he believed he had an unlimited number of strikes.
However, the number of strikes each party has is determined by law, and
Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the trial, informed the parties
of the number of strikes during a pre-trial conference earlier this
year, which Trump attended.
On Tuesday, Trump , who uncharacteristically raised his voice when he
observed that the former president was muttering and gesturing toward
the direction of one juror being questioned.
The judge stopped the proceeding and said he wanted to put that on the
record, and then spoke to Trump’s attorney, saying, “I won’t
tolerate that. I will not have any jurors intimidated in this
courtroom. I want to make that crystal clear.”
DIR <- back to index