Numerous potential jurors were immediately dismissed on Monday as they arrived for the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump in New York City.
According to Axios, around 50 out of the 96 individuals summoned for jury duty left the courthouse after expressing their inability to remain fair and impartial in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s trial of Trump.
Bragg has accused Trump of committing felonies through alleged “hush money” payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal eight years ago. Both Daniels and McDougal claimed to have had affairs with Trump, which he has denied.
The Republican presidential candidate has argued for the dismissal of the case, asserting that the trial is an instance of election interference—an opinion shared by many legal experts. However, Bragg is prosecuting Trump on 34 counts of allegedly falsifying business records.
As noted by Axios on Monday night, finding suitable jurors for the trial has proven to be a challenge, despite hundreds of people being ordered to appear at the Manhattan courthouse this week. The difficulty of jury selection became apparent on Monday when the first wave of dismissals occurred in a city predominantly comprised of Democratic Party voters.
Among those dismissed on Monday morning were over two dozen white women, 14 white men, four Asian women, one Asian man, and one Hispanic woman. The demographics of the remaining individuals were not disclosed, but all those who left the courthouse stated their inability to hear the case without any bias.
“I just couldn’t do it,” said one prospective juror.
Out of the 96 individuals initially summoned as potential jurors, only 36 remained at the end of the day. These individuals will be questioned about their political affiliations, their family’s political leanings, and their media consumption habits.
After answering these questions, those who are still in the running will have their social media profiles scrutinized by both Trump’s defense team and the prosecutors. The process of jury selection carried on into Tuesday. Monday’s trial marked the first instance of a former president facing criminal charges in a courthouse.
Trump has accused Bragg and others of trying to prevent him from securing another term in the White House by putting him behind bars instead. However, due to a gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan, the former president’s ability to speak out during the trial is restricted. In an early morning post on his Truth Social account on Tuesday, Trump criticized Merchan and claimed that the trial was biased against him.
“This conflicted, Trump Hating Judge won’t let me respond to people that are on TV lying and spewing hate all day long,” he said.
“He is running rough shod over my lawyers and legal team. The New York System of ‘Justice’ is being decimated by critics from all over the World,” the former president said. “I want to speak, or at least be able to respond.
Ok, where does it say they were Republicans or bias for Trump? Those 50 were probably biased against Trump, siding with demonrats who support the AG and the judge by not being able to truthfully side with the truth, but biased against Trump.
It was a misleading title I read it the same as you, but after reading it again It never claimed they had bias for Trump, just that the people rejected were biased and they were potential Trump jurors.