Jury selection in Trump hush money trial faces pivotal stretch as former president returns to court
WASHINGTON — Jury selection in the hush-money trial of Donald Trump enters a crucial and possibly final phase on Thursday, as attorneys look to complete the panel of New Yorkers that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former president.
Seven judges have been chosen so far, including an oncology nurse, a software engineer, an IT professional, a sales professional, an English teacher and two lawyers. Eleven more people have yet to be sworn in, with the judge saying he expected opening statements in the landmark case to be made as early as next week.
The Manhattan jury hearing — whenever it occurs — will be a pivotal moment in the case, paving the way for a trial that will put the former president’s legal danger at the center of the campaign against Democrat Joe Biden and potentially little will contain flattering testimonials about Trump’s private life in the years before he became president.
The process of choosing a jury is a crucial stage in any criminal trial, but especially when the suspect is a former president and the presumptive Republican nominee. Potential jurors are questioned about their social media posts, their personal lives and their political views, as the lawyers and judge look for biases that would prevent them from being impartial. There is widespread recognition within the court of the futility of seeking jurors without knowledge of Trump. A prosecutor said this week that lawyers were not looking for people who had been “living under a rock for the past eight years.”
To that end, at least some of the selected jurors acknowledged that they had their own opinions about Trump.
“I find him fascinating and mysterious,” a juror selected for the case, an IT professional, said under questioning. “He walks into a room and somehow gets people moving. I find that really interesting.’ “This one man can do all this?” That’s what I think.”
The trial has moved faster than expected, prompting Trump as he left the courthouse on Tuesday to complain to reporters that the judge, Juan Merchan, had “rushed” the trial.
The case centers on a $130,000 payment that Trump’s lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, made to porn actor Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump in the final days of the race would become public.
Prosecutors say Trump covered up the true nature of the payments in internal records when his company reimbursed Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018 and is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution.
Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, and his lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal fees.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying company records. If convicted, he could face up to four years in prison, although it is not clear whether the judge would choose to put him behind bars. Trump would almost certainly appeal any conviction.
The hush money case is one of four criminal charges Trump faces in his fight to win back the White House, but it is possible it will be the only case to go to trial before November’s presidential election. Appeals and other legal wrangling have caused delays in cases accusing Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 election results and illegally hoarding classified documents.
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Tucker reported from Washington.