Day 2 of Trump New York hush money trial

If you're just catching up, here are the takeaways from day 2 of the Trump hush money trial:

We have (more than half) a jury: So far four men and three women have been selected to serve on the jury. A man originally from Ireland who works in sales in New York City was appointed as the jury foreperson, who essentially serves as the panel spokesperson. Five of the seven have a college degree or higher education. Two men on the panel are lawyers. All but one juror empaneled Tuesday indicated that they’re aware Trump is facing charges in other criminal cases. The woman was the only one of the 18 jurors questioned who said she wasn’t aware of the other charges. None of them shared particularly strong views about Trump or politics.

Trump’s lawyers scrutinize jurors’ social media: Trump’s side asked the judge to remove five jurors for cause, pointing to alleged anti-Trump social media posts and trying to argue that the jurors were unfairly biased against the former president. When the former president’s attorney Todd Blanche was questioning the jurors, he asked them one by one what they thought of Trump, outside of the case. He then tried to argue before the judge that many of the jurors’ answers that they didn’t have an opinion of Trump did not align with their social media. Judge Juan Merchan was generally skeptical but he did agree on two counts that the jurors should be struck. As for the three jurors Merchan did not strike: Trump’s side used its preemptory challenges to remove all of them anyway. After Tuesday, both Trump’s team and the district attorney’s office have four peremptory challenges left.

Trump gets admonished (again): Trump was admonished for his conduct when Merchan brought in one of the jurors individually to discuss her social media posts raised by Trump’s team. After the juror left the courtroom, Merchan raised his voice and admonished Trump, saying he was audibly speaking and gesturing in the direction of the juror. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in the courtroom,” Merchan told Blanche, raising his voice.

Jury selection could end – maybe – by the end of the week: One of the things Merchan has emphasized this week is that the court schedule is fluid. But the judge is hoping to wrap up jury selection this week. After swearing in the seven jurors Tuesday, Merchan told them he hopes they could return next Monday for opening statements – but he emphasized that the schedule could always change and the court would be in touch.

No cameras are allowed inside the Manhattan courtroom where Donald Trump's hush money is underway, but sketch artists captured Tuesday's proceedings.

Former President Donald Trump said he would decide after the trial if he thought the seven jurors who were seated Tuesday in his New York criminal hush money case could be fair.

Trump was asked on Tuesday by a reporter, “What kind of juror in your mind is an ideal juror in this trial?” 
“Anybody that’s fair,” the former president said.
Trump was then asked, “Do you believe that the jury, the jurors seated today can be fair?”
“I’ll let you know after, after the trial, depending on what happens,” he said.

Seven people have so far been seated on the jury.

The court is not in session Wednesday, and jury selection will continue Thursday until a panel of 12 New Yorkers and likely six alternates has been selected.

Former President Donald Trump said he does not think he violated the gag order prohibiting him from talking about witnesses in his New York criminal hush money trial. It comes after prosecutors asked Judge Juan Merchan to sanction Trump for what they say are violations.

Prosecutor Chris Conroy on Monday asked Merchan to hold Trump in contempt for violating the gag order and sanction Trump $1,000 for each of three social media posts he made that prosecutors say violate the order 

“No, I didn’t. There shouldn’t be a gag order,” Trump said when asked by CNN if he thought he had violated the gag order.

The hush money criminal trial against former President Donald Trump is one of four criminal cases he faces while juggling his presidential campaign.

The former president is facing at least 88 charges over the four criminal indictments in Georgia, New York, Washington, DC, and Florida. Trump has pleaded not guilty to every charge in these cases. 

Here's a recap of each case: 

• Hush money: Trump was first indicted in March 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney on state charges related to a hush-money payment to an adult film star in 2016. Prosecutors allege Trump was part of an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election. Further, they allege he was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including the $130,000 payment. 
• Classified documents: Trump was indicted in June 2023 by a federal grand jury in Miami for taking classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials. The National Archives said in early 2022 that at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from the estate, including  some that were classified. The charges were brought by special counsel Jack Smith. 
• Federal election interference: Smith separately charged the former president last August with four crimes over his efforts to reverse the 2020 election results. The indictment alleges Trump and a co-conspirator "attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol by calling lawmakers to convince them ... to delay the certification" of the election. That case is currently on hold as the Supreme Court weighs Trump’s claims of presidential immunity in the matter. 
• Fulton County: State prosecutors in Georgia brought a similar election subversion case against Trump and others. An Atlanta-based grand jury on August 14, 2023, indicted Trump and 18 others on state charges stemming from their alleged efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 electoral defeat. A trial date has not yet been set in that case. 

Read more about the four criminal cases Trump faces. 

 

CNN’s Laura Coates and former US attorney Michael Moore took viewer questions about the trial yesterday.

Among them:

“What can prosecutors do to prevent a Trump supporter from using this opportunity to lie their way into the jury? Are there investigations allowed or penalties if such a juror is exposed once the trial begins?" - Rich from Colorado

Coates says:

"First of all, the idea of trying to navigate how to select a jury is a lot of gut and intuition and some research in terms of having past experiences of things. You might have somebody who is a "stealth juror," as we've discussed who has a different motive for being on the trial. That's why you have to ask a lot of questions to figure out what they actually are thinking and can they be consistent in their responses?"
"And as for the second part of it, once the jury panel has been empaneled you're going to have 12 and then six alternatives as well, there'll be a way to track to figure out if there's anything they're doing to violate the judge's orders about what they can and cannot do going forward. And if they are violating, that's when you have the alternative jurors coming in," she says.

Watch more answers to your questions here.

 As we end the second day of former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial with seven jurors seated, he’s where both sides stand on peremptory strikes:

• Prosecution: The Manhattan District Attorney’s team used six strikes on Tuesday. It is left with four strikes.
• Defense: Trump’s defense lawyers also used six strikes today. They also have four remaining strikes.

Attorneys can also argue to strike jurors for cause, which the defense did successfully twice on Tuesday. 

Court resumes Thursday: There is no court on Wednesdays.

Seven people have been seated on the jury in the hush money trial against former President Donald Trump in Manhattan. Court is not in session Wednesday, and jury selection will continue Thursday until a panel of 12 New Yorkers and likely six alternates has been selected.

But before anyone was seated Tuesday, jurors went through the questionnaire phase in which they were questioned by the district attorney’s office and Trump’s lawyers. As jurors spoke, Trump was frequently seen flipping through the jury questionnaire, often leaning back in his chair.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche challenged several prospective jurors, calling for some to be dismissed for cause due to social media posts.

Remember: Each side has 10 peremptory strikes to remove a juror from the pool — no questions asked. In the instances in which either side is successful in dismissing a potential juror for cause, it does not have to use a strike.

Both the prosecution and defense have each used six preemptive strikes. This means each side has four strikes left.

These were some of the challenges:

• Trump's team found social media posts from a potential juror referencing Trump that say, “Get him out” and “Lock him up." Judge Juan Merchan dismissed the potential juror because of that language.
• Merchan struck another potential juror who acknowledged he reposted a negative AI video about Trump in March. Trump’s attorneys also pointed out posts in which the potential juror shared a photo of display tables with a Biden-Harris poster and sold buttons to support a get-out-the-vote political organization.
• Trump’s team challenged another potential juror over posts on her Facebook page in 2018. She said Trump has said things “that I don’t care for.” Merchan denied the challenge, saying the potential juror was honest about her disagreements with Trump.

Who are the jurors? An oncology nurse, a corporate lawyer, an English teacher: What we know about the seven seated jurors.

Trump and the judge: Merchan gave the former president a stern warning for visibly and audibly reacting to one of the potential jurors in court. "I will not have any jurors intimidated in the courtroom," the judge said after the potential juror left.

Looking ahead: The next batch of 96 potential jurors was sworn in Tuesday and dismissed until Thursday morning.

Seven jurors have been seated in Donald Trump's hush money criminal trial so far today. Here's what we know about them:

1. The first seated juror, who will be the foreperson on Trump’s jury, is a man originally from Ireland. He works in sales and has some college education. He is married but doesn’t have kids. He reads the New York Times and Daily Mail and watches some Fox News and MSNBC.
2. The second juror is an oncology nurse who lives with her fiancé. She’s a native New Yorker. She reads the New York Times and watches CNN.
3. The third seated juror is a corporate lawyer. He’s originally from Oregon. He gets his news from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Google. He’s a younger man who’s never been married and doesn’t have kids. 
4. The fourth juror is an older man originally from Puerto Rico who’s married with adult children and two grandkids. When asked about his hobbies, he said, "I guess my hobby is my family." He has an IT business for training and consulting and attended one year of college. He told the court he finds Trump fascinating and mysterious. “So many people are set off one way or the other and that is interesting,” the man said. “Really, this one guy can do all of this, wow.” Trump “makes things interesting,” the man said, but also didn’t indicate any strong feelings about his politics.
5. The fifth juror is a young Black woman who teaches English language in a public charter school system. She has a master’s degree in education, is not married and doesn’t have any kids. The juror said that as a person of color she has friends who have strong opinions on Trump, but she personally is not a political person. She said she tries to avoid political conversations and doesn't really care for the news. The juror did say 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." She was also the only juror of 18 in the box Tuesday morning who said she wasn’t aware that Trump is facing charges in other criminal cases.
6. The sixth juror is a software engineer at a large broadcast company who recently graduated from college. She voiced no strong feelings about Donald Trump one way or the other and said, “I will be fair and impartial." She is not married and has no kids, currently living with three roommates in Chelsea. The juror gets her news from the New York Times, Google, Facebook and TikTok. She asked the judge whether her sister’s wedding on a Sunday in September would be a scheduling conflict. Merchan quipped, “If we were still here in September that would be a big problem,” garnering laughs in the courtroom.
7. The seventh juror is a civil litigator who is married with two kids and lives on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. Originally from North Carolina, he reads the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Washington Post. He said he has "political views as to the Trump presidency" and that he thinks there were likely Trump administration policies 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."

This post has been updated with information about the seventh juror.