MANHATTAN (CN) — All 12 jurors in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial have been seated, as of Thursday. After a rocky start to the morning, which saw the case lose some of its already-sworn-in jurors, the court made up ground by swearing in seven new jurors and one alternate by the afternoon to round out a full panel.
Among the new jurors is a Manhattan investment banker, who admitted to following both Trump and Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen on Twitter, but assured the court that this wouldn’t affect his impartiality. A woman who said that Trump was “not my cup of tea” and appeared to be “self-serving” as a president was also sworn in on Thursday.
Another potential juror was asked to answer for some of her past social media posts, which Trump’s lawyers called “vitriolic” and represented a “deep hatred” for Trump. In one post, she called Trump a “racist, sexist narcissist.” She said she didn’t remember sharing anything so inflammatory, but was asked to read the post aloud to the courtroom to refresh her recollection.
“That sounds bad,” she said when reading it back. She was dismissed by the judge shortly after.
Despite now having a total of 12 jurors, the jury selection process isn’t over. Proceedings will resume on Friday to fill out a six-person alternate pool. New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the case, hopes to start opening arguments on Monday.
The efficient afternoon followed a tumultuous Thursday morning, as two of the seven previously selected jurors were dismissed by the court and Trump was chided again by prosecutors for testing the limits of his gag order.
After trial went dark on Wednesday, the former president and counsel returned to court Thursday morning with troubling information about one of their jurors: a Lower East Side IT consultant who said during voir dire that he found Trump “fascinating” and “mysterious.”
“Although we can’t confirm that it involves the juror in question, we did discover an article that a person with the same name had been arrested in the 1990s in Westchester for tearing down political advertisements,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said.
The juror failed to mention that on Tuesday while responding aloud to the 42-point jury questionnaire. He answered “no” when asked, “Have you, a relative, or a close friend ever been accused or convicted of committing a crime?”
Merchan invited the juror back on Thursday for questioning in a private sidebar discussion. The judge said that the juror “expressed annoyance” at how much information about him is public and excused him.
The court lost another juror on Thursday — an oncology nurse who previously told the court she didn’t really have an opinion of Trump but that “no one is above the law.” According to Merchan, that juror called the court on Wednesday and expressed concerns over her ability to be fair.
She was also called back to court on Thursday to explain.
"I definitely have concerns now, one of them especially being the aspects of my identity have already been out there in public," she said before being dismissed. "Yesterday alone, I had friends, colleagues and family push things to my phone regarding questioning my identity as a juror. I don’t believe, at this point, I can be fair and unbiased."
Merchan scolded the press, most of which was seated in a courthouse overflow room watching the trial via video feed, for sharing so much information about the potential jurors. The judge in March ordered that the jurors’ names be kept secret to preserve their safety in such a polarizing proceeding.
After losing the juror over those very concerns, Merchan told the press not to report anything related to the jurors’ “physical descriptions.”
“We just lost what probably would have been a very good juror in this case,” Merchan said. “The first thing she said was that she was intimidated by the press.”
On Wednesday night Fox News host Jesse Watters spoke about that same juror, telling his audience he was “not so sure” about her ability to be impartial. In a Truth Social post on Wednesday Trump quoted Watters as saying, “They are catching undercover liberal activists lying to the judge in order to get on the Trump jury.”
Prosecutors called it the latest violation of Merchan's gag order.
On Monday, the government moved to sanction Trump for other breaches of his gag order, which bars him from publicly attacking witnesses, jurors and others involved in the case. Since then, Steinglass claims that Trump has violated the order “seven more times.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Steinglass said. “It has to stop.”
Merchan will hold a hearing next week to determine whether Trump violated the order. The former president could face fines and be held in criminal contempt for future violations.
Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, charges brought last year by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Bragg claims Trump instructed Cohen to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star who claims to have been involved in an extramarital sexual relationship with Trump, to avoid bad press while making his first presidential run.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies ever having a relationship with Daniels.
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