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How Donald Trump has handled juries so far

How Donald Trump has handled juries so far

 


CNN-

Three months ago, Donald Trump spoke before a nine-person jury in a New York courtroom, without his typical outburst or ramblings. The former president's complaints about the affair and his confrontation with the judge took place out of sight of the jury in E's defamation case. Jean Carroll, and he gave a quick, scripted testimony lasting about three minutes.

The next day, however, Trump found a way to protest the trial in full view of the jury, storming out during closing arguments delivered by Carroll's attorney. The record will show that Mr. Trump just got up and left the courtroom, Judge Lewis Kaplan announced, in case any jurors missed him.

That same afternoon, the jury returned an $83.3 million verdict against Trump for defamation of Carroll, a huge figure that the columnist's lawyers attributed in part to Trump's protest.

I think it hurt him terribly, Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, told CNN's Anderson Cooper at the time of Trump's stunt. I mean, our whole case was about Donald Trump being incapable of following the law, incapable of following the rules. He thinks it doesn't apply to him.

Starting Monday, Trump will appear before a jury in New York again, this time with even higher stakes. The 12-person jury, plus six alternates, will be chosen from hundreds of New Yorkers after an exhaustive selection process that could extend beyond the first week of the trial.

Choosing a jury will not be an easy task when the accused is a former president who has been at the center of American politics for almost ten years now and a figure in the New York tabloids for decades.

The problem for Donald Trump's lawyers and prosecutors is that they have to find a way to choose a neutral, lucky jury, said Steve Tuholski, a partner at Delphi Litigation Strategies who works on witness training and jury selection. . I can't imagine there are many people, especially in New York, who haven't made up their minds one way or the other about whether he's a serpent or the Messiah. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium.

The silence case is the first of four criminal trials Trump will potentially face and potentially the only one before the 2024 election, even though Trump campaigned in part on merging his legal risk with his White House bid.

The presumptive 2024 Republican nominee will have plenty of reasons to make an impression on both the jury that decides his guilt or innocence and the general public, including his views on the first criminal trial of a former president in the he history of the United States could be a determining factor in whether Trump is re-elected in November.

Court officials expect about 100 potential jurors at a time to be brought into Judge Juan Mercans' courtroom in downtown Manhattan for screening when jury selection begins Monday.

Merchan this week released the questionnaire that will be presented to potential jurors, which contains several questions that could signal political views to attorneys on both sides.

There are questions about news consumption, affiliations with groups like the Proud Boys, QAnon and Antifa, and whether potential jurors or anyone they know has attended a Trump rally or an anti-Trump event. Potential jurors will be asked if they have ever read books or listened to podcasts by Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and the prosecutor's key witness, or if they have read any of Trump's own books.

Jury members will also be asked if they have their thoughts on whether a former president can be indicted in state court and how Trump is being treated in the case.

The questions will be used by the judge to strike jurors from the start, if they do not believe they can return a fair verdict. They will also be used by attorneys for both sides to strike jurors for any reason, a key part of the jury selection process.

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a CNN legal analyst and former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office, said Trump's lawyers would look for jurors who sympathize with Trump, of course, but also anyone who might be an independent thinker, ready to stand alone. and let a jury hang. A unanimous verdict is required to obtain a conviction

If you're Trump, you'd like an acquittal, but if you can't get an acquittal, you'd want them to hang, because then there won't be a conviction before the election, Agnifilo said. You would want someone who is strong enough to resist and someone who is an independent thinker, who won't follow the group.

The prosecutor's office will try to find jurors who are productive and constructive people, who must make decisions regularly and who are capable of judging credibility, Agniflio said, criteria that could cover both office heads and the parents.

Sometimes parents are still good because they have to listen to what their child says and sometimes have to determine his credibility: is he telling the truth? Is he not telling the truth? she says.

A source close to Trump said there was concern that some potential jurors had ulterior motives for wanting to participate in the former president's trial.

Trump's lawyers have already argued that he couldn't get a fair jury in New York County, which is Manhattan, because the jury there was biased against him. They filed a motion this week, which was denied, to delay the trial so the venue could be moved to another county.

In terms of pretrial publicity in this county, this case is unique, Trump attorney Emil Bove said during Monday's emergency appeal hearing.

In the 2020 election, Manhattan voters chose President Joe Biden over Trump 86% to 12%. But simply having political views about Trump, for or against, will not be a reason for potential jurors to be dismissed.

People are going to have an opinion about Trump. That doesn't mean they can't be fair and impartial about the evidence and its burden, Agnifilo said.

Manhattan's political makeup also doesn't mean Trump won't have any supporters on the jury. During Carroll's defamation trial that took place in federal court, meaning the jury came from Manhattan as well as parts of neighboring counties, two potential jurors said they believed the 2020 election had been stolen, and three said they had contributed to the Trump campaign or a group supporting it. .

These three jurors said it would not affect their ability to be fair and impartial.

Trump took a keen interest in jury selection during the Carroll trial, turning behind him to jurors in the gallery behind him to watch them answer political questions. When Kaplan asked jurors a series of questions individually, Trump turned in his chair to watch each person speak.

In the defamation case, the jury was completely anonymous, meaning no identifying information about the jurors was made public or shared with lawyers for either side.

In the hush case, the jury will be known to attorneys, but Merchan wrote that identifying information about jurors will not be released publicly to protect privacy and avoid exposing them to an atmosphere of intimidation.

Merchan warned Trump in his silence order that the former president could not make public comments or direct anyone to make public comments about jurors involved in the proceedings.

A dynamic and unpredictable situation

Once the jury is selected, it will be able to observe Trump throughout the trial, which is expected to last six weeks.

That means they can see the former president's reaction to the district attorneys' allegations, witness testimony from Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, and will potentially see him testify and answer questions from the district attorneys' office, if Trump chooses to testify.

During the defamation case in January, Trump's conduct at the defense table became a point of contention, when he made comments calling the case a witch hunt and a fraud in the presence of the jury while Carroll was at the helm. When the jury was excused at a break, Carroll's lawyers explained to the judge what Trump was saying and said they thought the jury could hear it.

This prompted Kaplan to reprimand Trump and warn him that he could be removed from office if he continued to be disruptive, prompting the former president to respond that he would love for the judge to expel him from office. trial.

While the jury was present, Kaplan tried to keep control of Trump as well as all the lawyers involved. It took the judge longer to negotiate Trump's testimony outside of the jury's view. I want to know everything he's going to say, Kaplan told Trump's lawyer, than the three minutes Trump was on the stand.

Elie Honig, CNN senior legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor, warned that Merchan could face a much more dynamic and unpredictable situation with Trump in front of the jury for the upcoming secret trial.

Something that is revealed in front of a jury is permanent, he said. Even though a judge will order the jury to disregard this, you cannot turn off the bell.

Of course, Trump's conduct could go either way for a jury. Tuholski, who works to prepare witnesses for trial, said a jury often picks on witnesses who argue with the judge or don't answer questions asked of them.

In my world, the attitude of the witness is almost as important, and sometimes more important, than the actual testimony he or she offers, he said.

CNN's Kara Scannell, Kristen Holmes and Lauren Del Valle contributed reporting.

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