Update - 9:35 am Eastern:
The day is already starting with a bit of drama as one of the already-empaneled jurors contacted the court and raised concerns as to whether she could, in fact, be fair and impartial in the trial. She has now been excused. So, we're back down to six.
And Judge Merchan has admonished the press regarding descriptors of jurors.
So Wednesday was a bit of a nice reprieve from the Manhattan criminal trial of former President Donald Trump over so-called "hush money" payments made to Stormy Daniels. Not a reprieve from a raucous news day, mind you. But a nice pause before diving back into jury selection. As we've reported, seven jurors have been seated thus far in the case.
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Thursday, the parties will proceed with sorting through the next panel of 96 prospective jurors, attempting to weed out those who can't be fair and impartial. (Note: This is a bit of a wink-wink situation. Of course each party doesn't want to weed out those who'll be partial to their side or antagonistic toward the other. But...those with an obvious bias have to be excused if the show trial is going to have any credibility. This is true in any/all trials.)
Once those with clear scheduling conflicts or obvious biases are excused for cause, the parties will wrangle over a few — likely examining past social media posts as they did on Tuesday. A bit more about that:
And after excusing prospective jurors for cause, the prosecution and defense will make their peremptory challenges. Each side has four left.
Judge Juan Merchan has indicated he intends for them to seat up to six alternate jurors in addition to the 12 primary jurors selected. This only makes sense in a trial that is likely to stretch on for a number of weeks. Jurors get sick, have family emergencies, or fall into a persistent pattern of nodding off while witnesses are testifying. Any of these occurrences can necessitate substituting an alternate in his/her place.
Based on the pace at which things have proceeded thus far, I wouldn't be surprised if they complete jury selection by the end of the day on Thursday — Friday at the latest.
Stay tuned here as we bring you live updates of the day's developments in the case.