The grueling process of finding five more impartial Trump jurors: Inside the brutal selection in which a bookseller who listens to NPR in the shower was rejected for being too political

Prosecutor Josh Steinglass asked each of the 18 potential jurors before him to look at Donald Trump and then take a long look within themselves and decide whether they were tasked with deciding guilt or innocence.

“You have to be able to come back from your deliberations, look the defendant in the eye and say ‘guilty.’

“And only you can know that.”

The suspect knew exactly where to look. He turned his body to the right, facing them, and gave a piercing look as each in turn answered yes.

It made for a dramatic moment on day two of Trump’s hush-money trial. The former president stood face to face with several men and women from Manhattan who will deliver one of the most important statements in history.

The difficult process highlights the challenge of finding people who can judge a highly polarizing defendant without bias.

As they questioned the panel of 18 possible suspects, prosecutors wanted to know that each of them was capable of reaching a guilty verdict without adding additional hurdles to protecting the country’s most famous man, a man who claims to be the victim. being a political witch. hunt.

The defense wanted to know what the 18 – readers of the New York Times almost to a man and a woman – thought of their client. They only need one to decide

Not many people wanted to share their opinions.

Juror B113, a Manhattan bookseller with short gray hair in his 50s or 60s who said he listened to NPR in the shower, said it had no bearing on the case.

“That’s different,” he said, in the kind of tone that said he wasn’t here to debate who won the 2020 election.

Defense Chief Todd Blanche smelled a rat. Imagine, we were sitting at a bar, he said, would you like to tell me your opinion?

“If we were in a bar, that’s what I would do,” he said, causing laughter in the room.

Blanche had to smile, but prospective jury member B113 persevered.

“I’ll say I’m a Democrat, so there you go, but I walk in there and he’s a defendant and that’s all he is,” he said.

Trump watched the conversation intently, looking as if he were trying to read the man’s face for signs that he had already made up his mind.

More about that later.

There were brief moments of levity.

Juror B402, a black woman in a vest who works with seniors, admitted she already had thoughts about Trump. Who not?

Trump smiled as she said he’s ‘stirring the pot’

“You can’t judge him for speaking his mind, I mean the way everyone wants to judge him for speaking his mind. … I know what is right and what is wrong,” she said.

Blanche pressed her to explain what she meant, part of his attempt to dispel any feelings that might mean his client was not given a fair chance.

“If I told you what I thought about people all the time, I would want to say some things to people, but my mom said be nice,” she said.

Of the first class of 96 potential jurors, more than half had raised their hands Monday to say they did not think they could be impartial.

With each successive step, another handful admitted that they couldn’t put aside their feelings about Trump or that labor disputes arose and were excused.

B354 said growing up in Texas and working in finance could put him at risk from “unconscious bias.”

Others who said they had no problem being impartial on Monday had reservations on Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, Judge Merchan was ready to begin selecting from the first group of 18 to fill the final seats.

Not so fast, Blanche said. His team had searched the jurors’ social media profiles for anything that might undermine their impartiality.

Merchan had no time for memes posted eight years ago by B330’s Upper West Side husband that showed a Simpsons character holding Trump’s decapitated head.

“If this is the worst thing you can find about this juror,” Merchan said, it gave him more confidence in her ability to be impartial.

But other people’s social media histories proved more controversial.

Juror B38, a middle-aged white man with thinning hair and black, thick-framed glasses, was looking for a post calling for Trump to be jailed over his 2016 travel ban.

B113, the bookseller with a no-nonsense approach and the idea that his status as a Democrat would not be an obstacle to impartiality, was questioned about messages featuring Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Wearing a dark blue button-down shirt, he said it was related to the sale of buttons for a political action committee. He said the party does not support any political party but is committed to getting out the voters.

Again he said his political views had no bearing on the case, but admitted he had a negative view of Trump. “Politically speaking, I do,” he said.

That was enough for Merchan.

“I have a hard time appreciating the answers,” he said later, “and if I have a hard time appreciating his answers, I have a hard time being on the jury.”

And with that, B113 was knocked out of the pool.

By the end of the day, seven potential jurors had survived and been sworn in. That means the court must find about five jurors plus six alternates by the end of Friday if the judge is to achieve his goal of delivering opening statements on Monday.