Two of seven Trump trial jurors dismissed

Two of the seven jurors already sworn in earlier this week to hear the New York criminal case against former U.S. President Donald Trump were dismissed from the jury on Thursday, while dozens more prospective jurors were excused when they said they could not render a fair verdict in the case.

In one instance, a woman, an oncology nurse selected as a juror on Tuesday, was dismissed from the jury after she told New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan her friends had told her she had been all but identified because of what "has been reported about her publicly." Merchan demanded that the media limit its reporting of would-be jurors’ employment and what they look like.

In a second case, a man identified only as Juror No. 4, was removed from the jury without public explanation after prosecutors told Merchan the juror may have given deceptive answers about his background when he was questioned earlier in the week.

Prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers huddled in front of Merchan for an out-of-earshot discussion with the juror before Merchan dismissed him from the jury.

That left five remaining jurors as Merchan questioned more possible jurors, looking to fill the eventual 12-member jury and add as many as six alternate jurors as well.

So far, Merchan over three court sessions has brought 192 would-be jurors into his courtroom, but dozens of them said they could not judge the case fairly and were immediately dismissed.

Merchan brought 96 prospective jurors in for consideration on Thursday, after the case was adjourned on Wednesday. With their names drawn for jury duty from voter rolls in heavily Democratic New York City, half of them immediately declared they could not fairly judge the case against Trump and were quickly dismissed. Nine others were also excused without explanation.

Trump is a Republican who served a single term in the White House from 2017 to 2021. He is now the party’s presumptive 2024 nominee in the November election against President Joe Biden, a Democrat who narrowly defeated Trump nationally in the 2020 election but trounced him in Manhattan, the New York borough where the trial is taking place.

Although the names of the would-be jurors have not been made public to protect their identity and safety, the lawyers have a list of them. Trump’s support staff has been poring over the names to see what anti-Trump social media messages they may have posted in recent years.

Trump is accused of scheming to hide hush money payments to cover up alleged extramarital affairs just ahead of his successful 2016 campaign for the White House.

If the full jury is picked by Friday sometime, Merchan said opening arguments in the case could start Monday morning in a trial that is expected to last six weeks.

Trump has often assailed Merchan in his social media posts and called the case "election interference" as he seeks to reclaim the presidency.

Prosecutors have contended that Trump several times has violated Merchan’s gag order prohibiting him from disparaging key participants in the case, although the judge excluded himself from the edict.

Former President Donald Trump, seated far left, looks on with Judge Juan Merchan presiding as members of the jury panel answer questions from the jury questionnaire in Manhattan criminal court in New York, April 18, 2024.

Merchan has scheduled a hearing next week to hear arguments on the prosecutors’ demand the country’s 45th president be held in contempt of court and fined, although Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Merchan has asked New Yorkers in the jury pool about the news outlets on which they read or hear the news of the day, their marital status, whether they have children and where they work.

The lawyers, by Merchan’s edict, cannot ask the would-be jurors whether they voted for or against Trump in his 2016 and 2020 campaigns or about their political party registrations. Blanche has asked the would-be jurors variations of one basic question: What is your opinion of Donald Trump?

The trial is a moment unlike any in U.S. history, with Trump the first former U.S. chief executive ever to face criminal charges and the threat of imprisonment if he is convicted.

The former president is watching the proceedings from the defendant’s table flanked by his lawyers, taking some notes and occasionally glancing at the prospective jurors. He appeared to doze off at some points on both Monday and Tuesday before jolting alert again.

Eventually, he could take the witness stand to defend himself, depending on how he and his lawyers view the prosecutors’ evidence.

Since Trump is required to be in court, the case almost certainly will limit the 77-year-old candidate’s time on the campaign trail.

Charges explained

Trump stands accused of hiding a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels just ahead of the 2016 election to keep her from publicly talking about her claim that she had a one-night tryst with him at a celebrity golf tournament a decade earlier, less than four months after Trump’s wife, Melania, had given birth to Barron, the couple’s son who is now 18.

In a second instance, the indictment alleges that a former Playboy Playmate of the Year, Karen McDougal, says she had a monthslong affair with Trump and was paid $150,000 by a tabloid publisher who bought the rights to her story and then, at Trump’s urging, killed the article.

Trump has denied both affairs and all 34 charges he faces in the New York case, including that he directed his one-time political fixer, convicted perjurer Michael Cohen, to make the payment to Daniels and then reimbursed him during the first year of his presidency in 2017 — all the while labeling the monthly stipends to Cohen in Trump’s business records as legal expenses.

As he arrived for the trial on Tuesday, Trump told reporters, "I was paying a lawyer and marked it down as a legal expense. That’s exactly what it was.’

Altering his company’s ledgers would be a misdemeanor offense, but to convict Trump of a more serious felony, prosecutors will have to convince jurors he committed an underlying crime, such as trying to influence the outcome of the 2016 election by keeping information about the alleged affairs from voters.

It is not illegal to pay hush money, and Trump may claim the payments were made simply to avoid disclosure of personally compromising moments of his life, not to try to influence the 2016 election.

The eventual 12-member jury will have to reach a unanimous decision of either a guilty verdict or acquittal. If the jurors fail to agree among themselves, there would be what is called a "hung jury," leaving the prosecutors to decide whether to seek a new trial.

Each of the charges carries the possibility of a four-year prison term, although Trump is certain to appeal any guilty verdict and sentence.

The New York case is one of an unprecedented four criminal indictments Trump is facing encompassing 88 charges, all of which he has denied.

Two of the other indictments — one state and one federal — accuse Trump of illegally trying to upend his 2020 loss, while the third alleges that he illegally took hundreds of highly classified national security documents with him to his oceanside Florida estate when his presidential term ended, and then refused requests by investigators to return them.

No firm trial dates have been set in any of those three cases and Trump has sought to push the start dates until after the election.

If he wins, he could seek to have the federal charges dismissed. In any event, if he assumes power again, he would not be tried during his presidency.