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*UPDATE* Jury Seated in Trump Hush Money Case After Judge Excused Two Jurors

*UPDATE* Jury Seated in Trump Hush Money Case After Judge Excused Two Jurors

One juror admitted she couldn’t remain impartial. The second was arrested “for tearing down right-leaning political advertisements.”

*UPDATE* We have a jury:

A jury of 12 people was seated Thursday in former President Donald Trump’s history-making hush money trial, propelling the proceedings closer to opening statements and the start of weeks of dramatic testimony.

The court quickly turned to selecting alternate jurors, with the process on track to wrap up by the end of the week. Prosecutors could begin presenting their case early next week.

The jury of Manhattanites includes a sales professional, a software engineer, a security engineer, a teacher, a speech therapist, multiple lawyers, an investment banker and a retired wealth manager.

Previous reporting…

Former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial is in jeopardy after Judge Juan Merchan excused two jurors on Thursday.

The court swore in seven jurors on Tuesday.

Merchan excused Juror #2 after she said she could not remain impartial. She lives on the Upper East Side and works as a nurse:

“I definitely have concerns,” she said, noting that her family and friends questioned if she was serving on the jury. “I don’t think I can be fair.”

She also said she thought that “outside influence” would “interfere.”

The woman also noted that she did not want aspects of her identity to be reported.

Judge Juan Merchan excused her and warned the press about covering the trial.

Merchan cautioned the press, “You can write about anything on the record, but apply common sense when writing about jurors using physical descriptions and descriptors.”

He also told them not to write “about anything that can be observed with eyes to ‘ensure jurors remain safe.'”

Merchan pointed out that the trial “lost what would have been a good juror” due to fears “of being intimidated.”

Do you think the press will oblige?

Merchan then excused Juror #4 after a past arrest “for tearing down right-leaning political advertisements” came to light:

The man had been arrested in Westchester, N.Y., for tearing town political advertisements, according to a prosecutor from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

“I actually believe the propaganda that was being ripped down was political posters that were on the right — the political right,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Thursday.

Steinglass said that after additional research, it also appeared that the juror’s wife had been previously accused of, or involved in a “corruption inquiry” that needed a “deferred prosecution agreement with the district attorney’s office.”

Now the trial only has five sworn in jurors. The court needs thirteen before the prosecutors or defense present their opening arguments.

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Comments

It seems they’re having a hard time making their stalinist show trial look even remotely fair.

    TargaGTS in reply to Ironclaw. | April 18, 2024 at 3:24 pm

    They don’t care, obviously. However great the statutory, precedential and constitutional infirmities with this trial are, any appellate review and reversal (almost certainly) won’t happen until long after people vote this fall. If they can use this fallacious indictment, and likely conviction to move the vote of 10K to 20K low-info voters who might have been otherwise moved to simply vote against Biden, they see it as a victory…and they may not be wrong. It’s going to be another razor-thin election.

      GWB in reply to TargaGTS. | April 19, 2024 at 8:44 am

      Or get those 10-20k to stay home.
      Aside from their non-votes, their ballots can be used as the fraudsters see fit. After all, they won’t even notice.

    diver64 in reply to Ironclaw. | April 18, 2024 at 3:53 pm

    Damn that non state controlled media. This should be a simple propaganda show trial with a guilty verdict.
    Those darn Founding Fathers and that Constitution. How could they have been so brilliant and all under 35yrs old?

    Subotai Bahadur in reply to Ironclaw. | April 18, 2024 at 4:03 pm

    Actually, this could lead to the basis for a real bugger of a betting pool. Between today and the putative election day in November, on what date will it become publicly undeniable that the process is either rigged or cancelled?

    Subotai Bahadur

    Fairness is definitely not part of the program with this trial. If it were remotely fair, this case would never have been brought or summarily dismissed with sanctions for the Prosecutor.

    randian in reply to Ironclaw. | April 18, 2024 at 6:38 pm

    Given that the judge called her a “good juror” after she basically said she has already decided to convict Trump I’d say they’ve taken off their masks and aren’t even bothering to try and look fair.

    jhkrischel in reply to Ironclaw. | April 18, 2024 at 9:05 pm

    If there is any justice to be had, this judge, and this prosecutor, and everyone connected to it, will serve prison time for their blatant abuse of power and breaking their oaths of office.

    4fun in reply to Ironclaw. | April 18, 2024 at 10:29 pm

    Surprised they didn’t bring in the hildabeast (clinton) and the wookie (michelle) as jurors.

    BartE in reply to Ironclaw. | April 19, 2024 at 12:45 am

    You do realise it was the prosecution that found out details about the juror who had a conviction for testing down right wing posters. That doesn’t seem to support your position very well does it

      steves59 in reply to BartE. | April 19, 2024 at 7:42 am

      That’s because even the prosecutors can recognize extreme TDS when they see it, and they FULLY recognize it will hurt their political persecution case.
      Sure as hell would be nice if you learned basic grammar and punctuation, dingus.
      Don’t they teach English in your British schools?

      BobM in reply to BartE. | April 19, 2024 at 8:46 am

      Nonsense.
      I’m sure they were actually checking for any political “activism” at all, and would boot any prospective juror whose social media content show a pic of them wearing a Maga hat as well.

      But leaving on the jury someone so tainted by their politics that they’ll commit vandalism or other crimes in support of it – and whose taint shows hostility to Trump as a given – in the hope that the defense doesn’t find out – would be like leaving a landmine in place in your own driveway. Perfect grounds for vacating a conviction.

ThePrimordialOrderedPair | April 18, 2024 at 3:08 pm

2 out of 7 … that’s only a 29% failure rate on “already seated” jurors. That’s still batting .710!! … which would get you the Number One spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame! So, there!

“Judge” Merchan would be the greatest hitter of all time if this were baseball. Pretty impressive. How could anyone call that “unfair”?

They’re going to need more than 13 jurors because of the absolute certainty that some of the seats are going to get vacated by either bail-outs, outside of the court statements, or other obvious signs of anti-Trump bias. My best guess would be five alternates, and that may not be enough. So we’ll have a Dem judge, Dem prosecutors, twenty Dem jury members, and one Republican on trial. Imagine if the parties were reversed. The Dems would scream bloody murder.

    BartE in reply to georgfelis. | April 19, 2024 at 12:48 am

    “The Dems would scream bloody murder”

    No they wouldn’t there have been multiple trials where maga types were on the jury and to there credit they did just fine when they listened to the facts of the cases.

In NYC I bet TDS runs so hard that some of the jurors won’t be able to contain themselves and stay off social media looking for clout and clapter. Might be a mistrial from the get go

Serious question (from personal experience):
If you are on a jury and during deliberations another juror says something like, “I don’t trust police officers, I’m voting not guilty!!!” Or in this case, “I was hoping to have a chance to nail this guy! (Or “stop the railroad!”)…
What is a juror to do? Ask to talk to the judge?
In my experience it got worked out in spite of such a statement… required grace to let someone backtrack while saving face.
Thanks

    TargaGTS in reply to MDP. | April 18, 2024 at 4:51 pm

    I believe the standard is ‘showing good cause’ to excuse a juror who refuses or is unable to do their duty. Refusing to deliberate or refusing to deliberate in good faith (which is essentially what you describe above) can meet that standard. Personally, I’ve always been uncomfortable with this standard because it’s a mechanism that could potentially be used to eject a juror who’s not bowing to peer pressure.

    I could easily see one hold out who refuses to vote to convict Trump based on either on a conclusion he/she formed either before or during the trial be excused because the other jurors tell the judge that person is ‘refusing to deliberate.’ How it actually works is real life is a matter for debate, with practicing lawyers claiming that it’s a real danger while others claiming it’s not a real issue at all.

RepublicanRJL | April 18, 2024 at 4:40 pm

Finding enough jurors with either bias or knowledge of Trump is like asking a Christian if they know of Jesus Christ and can remain impartial.

Trump will never get an impartial jury in NYC.

    Trump decried to make his billions using NYC real estate laws to his benefit to become a billionaire. The rooster comes back to roost.

      Ironclaw in reply to JR. | April 18, 2024 at 7:04 pm

      Trump made those billions through voluntary transactions with other people that they chose to do. There’s nothing illegal or immoral about that.

        BartE in reply to Ironclaw. | April 19, 2024 at 5:38 am

        Fraudulent voluntary transactions in some cases, and in many cases using his wealth to commit lawfare against subbies who he screwed over on numerous occasions.

          MarkS in reply to BartE. | April 19, 2024 at 7:44 am

          what on earth are you talking about?

          BartE in reply to BartE. | April 19, 2024 at 8:53 am

          @MarkS

          Where have you been lol, hiding under a rock

          BobM in reply to BartE. | April 19, 2024 at 8:54 am

          MarkS, it’s an old anti-Trump trope.
          Like any builder, he hires subcontractors.
          And he and they sign (voluntary) contracts, with penalty clauses for substandard or late work.
          Because he expects his subcontractors to actually do The Job and do it On Time he’s a Big Bad Meanie picking on The Little Guy.

          Any builder, especially in NYC, who doesn’t enforce subcontractor contracts is essentially treated as a tourist waving money around in a Bad Neighborhood.

      ThePrimordialOrderedPair in reply to JR. | April 18, 2024 at 8:41 pm

      Trump was one of the main people who saved New York City in the 80s. All of the other developers were leaving, since New York had become such a dirty sh*thole, but Trump loved Manhattan and he was one of the only developers willing to build there. He was building the Trump Tower when almost no one else was building and it was a stunning success. It quickly made history being the first residential apartments in America to sell for more than $1,000/sq-ft. Trump went into overdrive buying and developing everything he possibly could. Everyone wanted to be in business with him and banks were falling all over themselves to lend him money and get in on his projects. The other developers saw what a killing he was making and they started coming back. And Manhattan, and New York City, took off

      Trump was an excellent developer and was one of the people most integral to New York’s escape from the abyss. He was one of the main people who really saved New York City.

      Of course, you know nothing about New York City in the 70s and 80s, much as you know nothing about anything.

      mailman in reply to JR. | April 18, 2024 at 10:39 pm

      This is pretty fucking ignorant JR 😂😂 And demonstrates perfectly the problem with the left, their hatred of something trumps common sense and even worse, common decency.

      henrybowman in reply to JR. | April 19, 2024 at 12:39 am

      “using NYC real estate laws to his benefit”
      What a dirt-stupid criticism.
      You don’t even claim he violated those laws, because he didn’t.
      If he made his nut in accordance to those laws, more power to him.

This is a jury of the judge’s peers and not Trumps. The Left is always talking about racism at an unperceived level. Did they ever think to see that very problem in themselves with politics? The Left is a spectrum disorder as Michael Savage pointed out.

healthguyfsu | April 18, 2024 at 5:37 pm

Saying “I can’t be impartial” is a very easy way of getting excused from jury duty.

What a circus

Lucifer Morningstar | April 18, 2024 at 8:15 pm

>>She also said she thought that “outside influence” would “interfere.”<<

And if that is going to be a problem for this jury then the Judge should sequester the jury and alternates and they should be kept strictly incommunicado with the rest of the world for the duration of the trial.

    thalesofmiletus in reply to Lucifer Morningstar. | April 18, 2024 at 8:38 pm

    But then the jurors wouldn’t be intimidated by tacit threats, perhaps even from Biden himself, as in the Derrick Chauvin trial. The Regime needs to ensure the “right verdict”, after all.

Which is exactly why the hack Democrat ‘judge’ tried to put a ridiculous gag order on Trump.

So he couldn’t demonstrate just how insane this crap is.

These weren’t just ‘prospective’ jurors. They had ALREADY BEEN SEATED.

This is a joke, and not a funny one.

how can there be multiple lawyers within a group of 12 people. No factory workers, no waitresses, no one in r, Doesn’t sound like a representative pool of registered voters.

To sum up, about 50% of prospective NY jurors admitted the were too biased to be fair and impartial, the other half blatantly lied and said they were able to put aside their conviction Tru,p was guilty of whatever Bragg and Merchan accuse him of…

Great, when do we get to see the indictment that has the actual elements of his supposed crime?

Like whom he tried to defraud, and of what. Or what other crime he intended to commit.

All that 6th amendment stuff that apparently doesn’t apply in NY

    MarkS in reply to ALPAPilot. | April 19, 2024 at 7:47 am

    apparently the prosecutor does not have to identify the crime that caused the misdemeanor to become a felony

    Azathoth in reply to ALPAPilot. | April 19, 2024 at 8:12 am

    We don’t. Because there is none.

    Soon Milhouse will be by to explain to us why this is all right and proper.

    ALPAPilot in reply to ALPAPilot. | April 19, 2024 at 12:35 pm

    §175.05 – 10A person is guilty of falsifying business records in the second degree
    when, with intent to defraud, he:

    Makes or causes a false entry in the business records of an
    enterprise; or

    when his intent to defraud includes an intent to commit
    another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.

    §200.50An indictment must contain:
    7. A plain and concise factual statement in each count which, without allegations of an evidentiary nature,
    (a) asserts facts supporting every element of the offense charged and the defendant’s or defendants’ commission thereof with sufficient precision to clearly apprise the defendant or defendants of the conduct which is the subject of the accusation; and

    As far as I can tell, there are at least 3 elements:

    1. false statement
    2. intent to defraud
    3. intent to commit or conceal another crime.

    The indictment only addresses the false statement. How can this be legit?

Fat_Freddys_Cat | April 19, 2024 at 8:15 am

It will be interesting to see what happens if there is a hung jury, or if Trump is found guilty but doesn’t get jail time. I figure, Antifa riots.

I know it’s the proper terminology and all, but he didn’t excuse them so much as fire them.