Eighteen prospective jurors in former President Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial were cleared for a second round of questions on Tuesday as a lengthy jury selection process inches forward, including an oncology nurse, a teacher, a fan of Trump’s former reality TV show “The Apprentice,” and a potential juror who has read Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal.”
A group of prospective jurors were asked whether they believe they can be fair and impartial in ... [+]
The 18 potential jurors who made it past the first round of questionning faced a litany of further questions from defense attorneys and prosecutors on whether they can be unbiased.
A panel of 12 jurors from Manhattan will ultimately form the jury in Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan, where he has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying documents stemming from hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election.
The prospective jurors questioned on Tuesday include a New York City Department of Education employee who has lived on the Upper West Side for seven years, reads The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, as well as a Riverside Drive resident who reviews disability benefits for the Social Security Administration.
Another of the 18 potential jurors lives on the Upper West Side and works for a senior living company, while one potential juror is a corporate lawyer at Gunderson Dettmer, another works in marketing and another who works as an IT consultant.
The prospective juror in seat 15 said he has read “The Art of the Deal” and has several in-laws who work as Republican Party lobbyists.
Another potential juror teaches English at a charter school, one is a software engineer at the Walt Disney Company, and one is retired.
Those jurors have faced a string of questions from defense attorneys and prosecutors, with prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asking prospective jurors if they have seen news reports of the case that have affected their opinions on it, and if they could set aside the media reports they’ve seen while sitting on the bench.
Jurors were also required to answer 42 questions in what Judge Juan Merchan called the “most exhaustive questionnaire” the court had ever used, with questions running the gamut from prospective jurors job history, to which news outlets they follow, whether they have attended a Trump rally or support any of a number of fringe groups such as QAnon.
Trump was indicted on 34 felony charges in Manhattan last March, the former president and 2024 GOP nominee’s first of four criminal indictments since launching his presidential campaign. Prosecutors in the case allege Trump falsified business records by mislabeling a $420,000 payment to former attorney Michael Cohen to allegedly cover the cost of a $130,000 hush money payment to former adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, with Trump allegedly labeled that payment as a legal fee to Cohen. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges.
While the identities of the jurors have not been released, potential witnesses in the trial could include a group of Trump’s former associates and members of his family. Among the potential witnesses are former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House staffers Hope Hicks and Steve Bannon, as well as Trump’s adult children and his wife, Melania Trump.
Trump has sounded off against both Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg, who brought the felony charges, and Merchan, in the year since his indictment in New York, repeatedly bashing the case as a “witch hunt.” On Tuesday morning, the former president slammed Merchan again, claiming he “prohibited” him from attending his youngest son Barron Trump’s high school graduation on May 17, and while Merchan did not immediately grant Trump’s request to skip the trial for the ceremony, he did not outright deny Trump’s request either. In his response, Merchan said his decision on whether or not to grant Trump’s request “depends on if we are on time and where we are in the trial.”