Trump jury selection follows familiar pattern

NEW YORK (AP) When the first group of potential jurors was summoned for Donald Trump's criminal trial this week, all lawyers had to do to evaluate them was first their names and the answers they gave. they gave the court a set of questions. selection questions.

Then the lawyers got to work, scouring social media for posts that might reveal whether jury members had hidden biases or extreme views.

A potential juror was dismissed by the judge after the former Republican president's lawyers found a 2017 online article about Trump that said: Lock him up! Trump's lawyers rejected another potential juror after discovering she posted a video of New Yorkers celebrating Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election.

It's all part of an effort by both sides to get a competent jury that might perhaps lean slightly in their favor.

What you need to know about Trump's silent trial:

Even experts in the art of jury selection say there are limits to what any lawyer can do.

We never choose a jury. We select jurors, said Tama Kudman, a veteran defense attorney in West Palm Beach, Fla., who also practices in New Jersey and New York.

We never get who we want. We just make sure we get rid of the ones we think are dangerous to our customers, she said. You know you've chosen a good jury when no one is happy. The prosecution didn't get who it wanted. The defense didn't get who they wanted. But everyone has kind of gotten rid of the people who really make the hairs on the back of our necks stand up.

FILE – Former President Donald Trump, center, appears in court for his arraignment, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, swimming pool)

Jury selection resumed Thursday in a trial over allegations that Trump falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign. Ultimately, 12 jurors will determine the verdict, with six alternates on hold.

Nearly 200 potential jurors have been summoned. All potential jurors will be asked if they can serve and be fair and impartial. Those who said no were sent home.

Lawyers for both sides then review the answers that potential jurors provide orally to the court to a series of 42 questions aimed at determining whether they have been part of various extremist groups, attended pro- or anti-Trump rallies, or have been involved in Trump's political campaigns. , among others.

The judge can remove people who do not seem likely to be impartial. Under state law, each side can also strike up to 10 potential jurors they don't like, plus some additional strikes for potential alternate jurors.

Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, a jury consultant who worked on the OJ Simpson trial team in the mid-1990s and remains in that role today, said a social media check had become critical in recent times. years. She likened it to a juror polygraph that can reveal whether a potential juror's answers to court questions are false.

Still, Dimitrius said, such controls are not foolproof. Potential jurors can erase their online tracks before showing up or make their social media accounts private.

A jury consultant helped Trump's lawyers research the backgrounds of potential jurors whose names are provided to lawyers on both sides, but not to the public.

Some people considered but not selected for Trump's jury had information on their social media that seemed problematic. Some had shared inflammatory messages, including a meme showing Trump beheaded.

In each case, the person was taken to court alone to confirm that the messages appeared or originated from their account and, in one case, from their spouse's account. They were asked again what they thought of Trump and whether they could act impartially.

A bookseller who previously refused to share his feelings about the former president admitted to having a very unfavorable overall impression of him after being confronted with a series of Facebook posts, including a video mocking Trump.

In that case, the judge agreed with Trump's lawyers that the prospective juror should be removed for cause. But in other cases, Judge Juan M. Merchan said the positions did not rise to that level, forcing Trump's lawyers to use their limited number of strikes to dismiss potential jurors.

The question is not whether or not someone agrees politically with your client, the question is whether or not they can be fair and impartial, Merchan told Trump's lawyers.

The process led Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in this year's presidential race, to say in a Truth Social article Wednesday that he believed strikes were supposed to be unlimited, not capped at 10, while the witch hunt continues! ELECTION INTERFERENCE!

Among the six people hit by the Manhattan district attorney's office were a prosecutor who works for the Bronx district attorney and a man who works in real estate and who said he had read Trump's book, The Art of the Deal .

Perhaps the most memorable was a former corrections officer who said he may have once served on a jury for a case involving Trump and Merv Griffin. He was removed from office by prosecutors after admitting he enjoyed Trump's style of humor.

The man had also expressed reservations about Trump, noting that he knew relatives of the teenagers wrongly accused in the Central Park Five case, a group that Trump said should face the death penalty.

Sabrina Shroff, a criminal defense attorney, said she considers the jury selection process one of the most stressful and fun parts of any trial.

It's like going on a blind date with 12 people and you hope the blind date is at least a friendship in the end. It’s a real crapshoot, she says.

Jason Miller, advisor to former President Donald Trump, returns to court after a recess, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in New York. Donald Trump returned to a New York courtroom Tuesday as a judge works to find a panel of jurors who will decide whether the former president is guilty of criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, pool)

Shroff said she trusts her instincts when choosing jurors. Reviewing social media profiles, she said, can be difficult because what people put online is not who they are.

Perhaps their affiliations are telling, she says. You're still guessing. We make the wrong call all the time. Sometimes you really think the juror was pulling for you and then you find out he was leading the charge to convict.

Shroff added: You are always afraid of making a mistake. You misread the scowl or the smile. Maybe they're not smiling at you, they're just thinking about a movie they saw and liked.

___

Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.

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