NEW YORK (AP) — Jury selection in Donald Trump ’s hush money case encountered new setbacks Thursday as a previously seated juror was excused after backtracking on whether she felt she could be impartial and fair. The status of a second sworn-in juror was also called into question after he failed to report to court to address the accuracy of some of his previous answers to questions.
Seven jurors were sworn in on Tuesday, but with the excusal of at least one of those people, lawyers now need to pick 12 others to serve on the panel that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former U.S. president.
Prosecutors on Thursday also asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to sanction Trump over seven more social media posts they say violate a gag order that bars Trump from attacking witnesses. They had asked on Monday that Trump be held in contempt and fined over three other posts.
A second group of 96 prospective jurors were brought into court mid-morning to begin the questioning phase of jury selection.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign.
The allegations focus on payoffs to two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump years earlier, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged Trump had out of wedlock. Trump says none of these supposed sexual encounters occurred.
The case is the first of Trump's four indictments to reach trial.
Currently:
— Jury selection process follows a familiar pattern with an unpredictable outcome
— Trump lawyers say Stormy Daniels refused subpoena outside a Brooklyn bar
— After 7 jurors were seated in Trump's trial on Tuesday, he trekked to a New York bodega to campaign
— Only 1 in 3 US adults think Trump acted illegally in New York hush money case, AP-NORC poll shows
— Trump trial: Why can’t Americans see or hear what is happening inside the courtroom?
Here's the latest:
Fifty-seven out of the second round of 96 potential jurors in Donald Trump's hush money trial have been excused after saying they can’t serve.
Some 48 people indicated Thursday morning that they could not serve fairly and impartially. An additional nine said they couldn’t serve for some other reason, which they were not asked to state.
The second wave of potential jurors in Donald Trump's criminal trial is now in court to begin the questioning phase of jury selection.
As with the first big group, the judge will explain the basics of jury service along with the case, then ask for a show of hands from any panelists who don’t believe they can serve fairly and impartially. After, he’ll ask for a similar indication from any who don’t believe they can serve for another reason.
More than half of the 96 potential jurors in the first group were dismissed after they said they couldn’t be fair and impartial.
The status of a second juror seated for Donald Trump’s hush money trial was in limbo Thursday after he failed to report to court to address concerns that some of his answers in court may not have been accurate.
Prosecutors found an article from the 1990s about a man with the same name as the juror being arrested for tearing down political advertisements in suburban Westchester County. The posters were on the political right, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass said.
Steinglass also disclosed that a relative of the man may have been involved in a nonprosecution agreement in the 1990s with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Trump’s case.
Judge Juan M. Merchan had instructed the man to come to court at 9:15 a.m. Thursday to answer questions and verify whether the people involved were him or his relative.
Merchan noted the juror’s apparent “reluctance to come in” and asked both sides if they’d consent to having him removed without further inquiry. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche declined, saying he wanted to first hear what the man had to say.
Under questioning earlier this week, the man had said he hadn’t been convicted of a crime.
Prosecutors in Donald Trump's hush money trial told Judge Juan M. Merchan on Thursday that they wanted the former president held in contempt and sanctioned for seven more posts they said violated his gag order.
Trump's new posts came after the prosecutors initially sought a $3,000 fine on Monday for three other Truth Social posts.
Prosecutor Christopher Conroy said several of the new posts involved an article that referred to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen as a “serial perjurer” and another from Wednesday that repeated a claim by a Fox News host that liberal activists were lying to get on the jury.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove said Cohen “has been attacking President Trump in public statements,” and that Trump was just replying.
Merchan had already scheduled a hearing for next week on the prosecution’s request for contempt sanctions over Trump’s posts.
After dismissing a seated juror in Donald Trump's hush money trial, Judge Juan M. Merchan admonished the media for reporting details about the seated and potential jurors that could be used to identify them, ordering them not to report prospective jurors’ answers to questions about their current and former employers.
“As evidenced by what’s happened already, it’s become a problem,” he said Thursday morning.
He also directed reporters to “abide by common sense” and avoid writing about the physical characteristics of the people called to serve.
“We just lost what probably would have been a very good juror,” the judge continued. “She said she was afraid and intimidated by the press, all the press.”
A juror who had been selected for Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial was dismissed Thursday after she told the court she’d become concerned about her ability to be impartial.
Although the jurors’ names are being kept confidential, the woman, a nurse, “conveyed that after sleeping on it overnight she had concerns about her ability to be fair and impartial in this case,” Judge Juan M. Merchan said before calling her into the room for questioning.
The woman said her family members and friends were questioning her about being a juror.
With the woman's dismissal, the total number of seated jurors dropped to six. Attorneys now need to pick 12 more people to serve on the panel that will decide the former president's criminal case.
Merchan admonished the media for reporting details about the jurors that could be used to identify them.
“There’s a reason that this is an anonymous jury,” Merchan said. “It kind of defeats the purpose of that when so much information is put out there that it is very easy for anyone to identify who the jurors are.”
“The press is certainly entitled to write about anything that’s said on the record because it’s on the record,” Merchan said, but he added that he’s directing reporters to “abide by common sense” and not do things like writing about physical characteristics of the people called to serve.
Donald Trump sat at the defense table in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday morning, talking on a cell phone for about 30 seconds before his lawyers came over and put it away.
Trump looked sternly ahead while being photographed, a stark contrast from a moment earlier when he was casually chatting with lawyer Todd Blanche before the photographers arrived.
While the trial cannot be televised, Judge Juan M. Merchan is allowing a handful of still photographers to shoot photos of Trump before each day’s proceedings start.
Harvey Weinstein was famously admonished for playing with his phone by a different judge during his trial in the same courtroom four years ago.
Trump’s cell phone usage happened while court was not in session and before the judge had taken the bench.
Generally, cell phone usage — and certainly making or taking calls — is prohibited in New York courtrooms.
Former president Donald Trump has left Trump Tower, on his way to court in Manhattan on Thursday for another day of jury selection in his criminal hush money trial.
The jury selection process has moved swifter than expected, prompting Trump when departing the courthouse on Tuesday to complain to reporters that the judge, Juan M. Merchan, was “rushing” the trial.
Merchan has suggested that opening statements could start on Monday.
The seating of the Manhattan jury in Donald Trump's hush money trial will be a seminal moment in the case, setting the stage for a trial that will place the former president’s legal jeopardy at the heart of the campaign against Democrat Joe Biden and feature potentially unflattering testimony about Trump’s private life in the years before he became president.
The process of picking a jury is a critical phase of any criminal trial but especially so when the defendant is a former U.S. commander-in-chief and the presumptive Republican nominee for this year's presidential election.
Inside the court, there’s broad acknowledgment of the futility in trying to find jurors without knowledge of Trump, with a prosecutor this week saying that lawyers were not looking for people who had been “living under a rock for the past eight years.”
Former President Donald Trump folds his hands as he appears at Manhattan criminal court during jury selection in New York, Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)
Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings during jury selection at Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, April 18, 2024 in New York. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)
Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings during jury selection at Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, April 18, 2024 in New York. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)
Former president Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower on his way to Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Former president Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower on his way to Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in New York. Jury selection in Donald Trump's hush money trial enters a pivotal phase as the former president returns to court. Attorneys still need to pick 11 more jurors to serve on the panel that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former U.S. commander-in-chief. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings during jury selection at Manhattan criminal court, Thursday, April 18, 2024 in New York. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Donald Trump returns to the courtroom after a recess at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in New York. Donald Trump returned to the courtroom Tuesday as a judge works to find a panel of jurors who will decide whether the former president is guilty of criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool)
Former President Donald Trump approaches to speak to reporters as he leaves a Manhattan courtroom after the second day of his criminal trial, Tuesday, April 16, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool)
Former President Donald Trump returns to the courtroom after a short recess during the second day of jury selection at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in New York. Donald Trump returned to the courtroom Tuesday as a judge works to find a panel of jurors who will decide whether the former president is guilty of criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Donald Trump returns to the courtroom after a short recess during the second day of jury selection at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in New York. Donald Trump returned to the courtroom Tuesday as a judge works to find a panel of jurors who will decide whether the former president is guilty of criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Donald Trump speaks to the press after the second day of his criminal trial, Tuesday, April 16, 2024 in New York. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)
