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OAN’s Abril Elfi
5:04 PM – Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Seven jurors have now been selected to serve on the jury for former President Donald Trump’s trial.
On day two, Trump was present at the Manhattan Supreme Court, where he sat through the jury selection for his criminal trial.
The “hush money” trial began on Monday, where potential jurors were screened, and at least 50 were dismissed after they said they could not be fair or impartial.
This marks the first time a former United States president has gone to trial over criminal charges.
The trial comes amid a six-figure hush-money payment that Trump allegedly paid to former porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy playmate Karen McDougal ahead of the 2016 election. The 45th president has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with so-called hush money payments to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. This was reportedly done through Trump’s now-disgruntled former attorney Michael Cohen.
The trial is expected to last around two months, and if convicted, the former president faces up to four years in prison.
Each side has 10 peremptory strikes to remove a juror from the pool with no questions asked. Any side does not need to use a strike if it is successful in dismissing a prospective juror for cause. Six preemptive strikes have been used by both the prosecution and the defense, which means there are four strikes remaining for each side.
Surfacing reports have claimed that the seven jurors selected include an “oncology nurse,” a “corporate lawyer,” and an “English teacher.”
The first seated juror is a “man of Irish descent” who works in sales and has some college education. He also reportedly “read[s] the New York Times and Daily Mail and watches some Fox News and MSNBC,” according to his own statements.
The second juror is an oncology nurse from New York who “reads the New York Times and watches CNN.”
The third seated juror is an Oregon corporate lawyer who gets his news from “The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Google.”
The fourth juror is a “Puerto Rican man who owns an IT business for training and consulting.” He reportedly told the court that he finds Trump both fascinating and mysterious.
“So many people are set off one way or another, and that is interesting,” he said. “Really, this one guy can do all of this. Wow.”
Trump “makes things interesting,” the man continued, but he also did not indicate any strong feelings regarding his political affiliation.
The fifth juror is a “Black woman who teaches English and has a master’s [degree] in education.” She stated that even though she has friends who have strong opinions on Trump, she is personally “not a political person.” She also said that she tries to avoid political conversations and does not really care for the news. In addition, the female juror did say that she appreciates Trump’s candor: “President Trump speaks his mind, and I’d rather that than someone who’s in office who you don’t know what they’re thinking.”
The sixth juror is a “software engineer” who said that she has “no strong feelings against Trump.” She gets her news from the “New York Times, Google, Facebook, and TikTok.”
The last juror seated is a “Manhattan civil litigator” who gets his news from the “New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and Washington Post.” He said that he has “political views as to the Trump presidency” and he admitted that there were Trump administration policies that he disagreed with.
“I don’t know the man, and I don’t have opinions about him personally,” he said. “I certainly follow the news; I’m aware there are other lawsuits out there. But I’m not sure that I know anyone’s character.”
The next batch of 96 jurors have been sworn in but were dismissed until Thursday morning.
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