Trump Trial Jury Selection: Chaos Erupts as Judge Seeks Fairness

“We have the jury,” said Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the proceedings, Thursday afternoon.

“We will select our other people,” he said, adding that he was “hopeful” that the jury will be definitively established on Friday, when there will be five more jurors, out of the six which are required, are selected.

When the new jurors took an oath to judge the case in a “fair and impartial” manner, Donald Trump, sitting at the defense table, did not take his eyes off.

After this crucial and sometimes laborious phase, the trial of the Republican candidate for the November presidential election will have the opportunity to get to the heart of the debates.

The first vice president of the United States to appear in criminal court, Donald Trump is on trial in the case of hidden payments to buy the silence of a former porn star, Stormy Daniels, a few days before the 2016 election he won. almost against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

A lawyer throws in the towel

The third day of the hearing got off to a chaotic start. Initially, a juror selected on Tuesday expressed her fear of being identified, saying she was identified by relatives, while jurors have the right to remain anonymous to avoid pressure. .

Shortly after, the judge dismissed another member of the jury, who prosecutors said discovered after an investigation that they may not have been telling the truth when they answered the lengthy questionnaire given to each person -jury.

These first snags raise the question of guaranteeing the anonymity of jurors during the trial, and Donald Trump, who denies a “witch hunt”, has complained several times about being judged in New York, a Democratic stronghold.

The Republican candidate on Wednesday, on the Truth Social network, echoed the comments of Fox News host Jesse Watters, confirming without proof that “they are currently electing progressive infiltration activists who will lie to the judge for to be part of the jury.

The prosecution and the defense have the ability to challenge ten jurors each, without giving excuses.

The judge has already banned Donald Trump from attacking jurors on social networks.

A life examined

During the day on Thursday, Donald Trump was present, in a cooling courtroom – “we are freezing”, he said – the ballet of candidates, anonymous citizens falling overnight to a historic transaction, and which is called life study.

Several dozen were challenged again, admitting that they could not judge Donald Trump impartially.

“The question is not whether (Donald Trump) is like …

More than three years after leaving the White House in turmoil, Donald Trump is theoretically facing a prison sentence. This would not stop him from being a candidate in the presidential election on November 5, where he will dream of revenge on Joe Biden, but that he would advance the campaign into the unknown.

If he was found not guilty, however, it would be a major victory for the Republican candidate.

Especially since he was able to appeal to cancel his other three criminal trials, two for illegal attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and one for allegedly manipulating classified documents.

Donald Trump is responsible for falsifying accounting documents for his company, the Trump Organization, which allegedly aimed to hide, under the guise of “legal fees”, a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels by his personal attorney at the time, Michael Cohen.

In exchange, the former movie star agreed to remain silent about a sexual relationship with the billionaire in 2006. Donald Trump has always denied this relationship and his protection ensures that the payments were in the private domain.

But prosecutor Alvin Bragg plans to show that these are actually fraudulent moves to hide information from voters a few days before the vote.