by WorldTribune Staff, April 21, 2024
On Friday, five more alternate jurors were seated in former President Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York, completing jury selection.
As noted on social media, the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president is being conducted in a heavily Democrat city, by a Democrat judge, Democrat prosecutors and the active involvement of a partisan-Democrat Department of Justice under a Democrat incumbent currently trailing in the polls against the defendant.
Those selected on Friday join the other 12 jurors and first alternate who were sworn in during jury selection proceedings on Thursday.
Donald Trump in court during jury selection in his hush money trial. / Video ImageJudge Juan Merchan said that opening statements in Trump's historic criminal trial can begin as early as Monday.
The judge instructed jurors not to discuss or research the case before sending them home for the weekend.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba said Merchan would not allow questions on past votes or campaign work during jury selection. Habba added that, in the E. Jean Carroll case, such questions were allowed and jurors admitted they were working for the Biden campaign.
The Trump hush money jury:
Juror #1 is a man originally from Ireland who now lives in New York and works in sales. He was assigned by the judge to be foreperson. He enjoys the outdoors and gets his news from the New York Times, the Daily Mail, Fox News and MSNBC.
Juror #2 is a man who works in investment banking and lives with his wife in New York. He said he follows Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and a key witness in the case, on social media, as well as Trump's Truth Social posts. He said he pays attention to “anything that might be able to move the markets I need to know about.”
Juror #3 is a corporate lawyer originally from Oregon. He said he likes to go hiking, and gets his news from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Google. He said he was “not super familiar with the other charges” that Trump faces and doesn't “follow the news that closely.”
Juror #4 is a security engineer who said he spends most of his spare time with his children. He said he gets his news from a variety of outlets and is not on social media.
Juror #5 is a teacher who said she is not very interested in politics or the news, which she gets from The New York Times and TikTok. While her friends have strong opinions about Trump, she said she does not. She offered this opinion under questioning from one of Trump's lawyers: “President Trump speaks his mind. I would rather that in a person than someone who's in office and you don't know what they're doing behind the scenes.”
Juror #6, a software engineer, said she can treat Trump as she would any other person on trial. She reads The New York Times and uses TikTok.
Juror #7, a civil litigator, said he enjoys time outdoors with his children. He told the court he reads The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and The Washington Post. He likes the podcasts “Smartless” and “Car Talk.”
Juror #8 is a retired wealth manager. He said he enjoys meditation and yoga, and gets his news from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC and CNBC.
Juror #9 is a woman originally from New Jersey and works as a speech therapist. She said she doesn't “watch any news or follow it too closely” and listens to podcasts about reality TV. She said she does get newsletters from The New York Times and CNN.
“I do not agree with a lot of his politics and his decisions as a president, but I have really taken the past two days to reflect and make sure that I could leave that at the door and be a totally impartial juror, and I feel like I can,” she said in court.
Juror #10 is a man originally from Ohio who works in commerce. He said he enjoys the outdoors and animals. He said he could put aside his views about Trump and decide the case impartially.
“I don't have a strong opinion about Mr. Trump,” he said. “For some things I am in favor, for [some] things I am not in favor.”
Juror #11 is a woman originally from California. She works in product development. She said she thinks Trump “seems very selfish and self-serving, so I don't really appreciate that in any public servant.” But she said that doesn't mean she can't be impartial.
Juror #12 is a woman who works as a physical therapist. She said she listens to sports and faith-related podcasts, and gets her news from The New York Times, USA Today and CNN.
“As an eligible voter I feel it is my responsibility in regard to elections to establish an educated decision so that I can vote. In regards to this court case and the defendant in the room, I have no opinions until I am presented the information in the courtroom,” she said in court.
One of the panelists suddenly removed from the jury slammed Merchan as a coward and the prosecutors as unfair.
Herson Cabreras, previously only known as Juror No. 4, told USA Today in an interview that he was taken aback by Thursday’s dismissal over an undisclosed criminal case after he had been empaneled Tuesday.
“That surprised me, that really surprised me,” Cabreras said. “I said, ‘Wow, something else is going on here.’ But they decided not to take me, and that’s it. What can I say? So I said, ‘Fine.’”
Cabreras, who is in his late 70s, was dismissed after prosecutors raised a 1991 incident in which he was accused of tearing down political campaign signs in a New York suburb, a majority of them Republican signs.
“I didn’t expect they were going to go into my history of 30 years and pull out something I didn’t even remember,” he said. “I just thought it was an excuse” to get him off the jury.
Cabreras said he expected Judge Merchan to intervene, but he let prosecutors have it their way.
“I looked at him, like, ‘Aren’t you going to say something?’ ” Cabreras said. “I’m sitting there, I’m the target, and he’s supposed to be judging. And he just let it happen, he didn’t say anything.”
The incident gave Cabreras a bad impression about Judge Merchan, whom he called a “cowardly judge,” for letting prosecution go into details from decades ago.
Cabreras called Trump “fascinating and mysterious,” which he downplayed in the USA Today interview as an obvious fact that implies neither support nor opposition.
Wherever Mr. Trump goes, “he stirs up all kinds of things,” he explained Thursday. “The guy walks in, and people go crazy. That’s what I meant.”
Trump said on Friday that keeping him confined to a courtroom is “the only way” Democrats “think they can win” the 2024 election.
But the presumptive Republican presidential nominee declared that “it's not going to work.”
Trump spoke to the press after sitting in court for the fourth day of his criminal trial.
“This is really a concerted witch hunt very simple. Everything you heard in there, this is a witch hunt by your worst judges, Democrat judges. You take a look at it,” Trump said.
Meet the Trump jurors: One who was dismissed shocked by ‘cowardly’ judge added by Editor Two on April 21, 2024
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