Attorneys for former President Donald Trump had a prospective juror disqualified on day two of the former leader’s criminal trial for hush money after they discovered posts advocating for Trump’s imprisonment.
As the process of questioning prospective jurors regarding their private lives and posts on social media continued, Justice Juan Merchan of the New York Supreme Court, Trump’s attorneys, and prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg dismissed a juror due to a post about Trump that called for “locking him up.” The same jury allegedly said, “Get him out,” in another social media post.
Selected to sit on a 12-person bench are the first seven jurors.
According to the Associated Press (AP):
“Over the course of two days, Trump’s attorneys excused dozens of potential jurors, citing their inability to be unbiased or their other obligations. Trump’s attorneys questioned a few people about their social media posts, and fired one person for a 2017 tweet that screamed, “Lock him up!”
According to the Daily Mail, Merchan reportedly admitted that the comment about locking Trump up was bad and that he did not think he could allow the prospective juror to “stay” in the trial.
“It is a well-known fact that Mr. Trump faces the possibility of a lengthy prison term, including confinement,” Merchan stated.
On the first day of the trial, the court eliminated more than fifty of the 96 prospective jurors for failing to act impartially.
One possible juror, who apparently wrote on social media, “Republicans projected to take up 70 seats in prison,” was among the other prospective jurors who made it to day two of the trial. Additionally, this prospective juror was not chosen.
On March 27, a different prospective juror uploaded a mock video of Trump saying, “I am dumb as f*ck.” This juror, too, was excluded.
In April 2023, Braggs filed 34 counts of first-degree falsification of business documents against Trump for payments he made to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
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