Trump trial live updates: Lawyers scrutinize jury pool on second day of trial – NBC News
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Trump left the courtroom with his lawyers as both sides discuss which jurors they’re going to request be stricken.
One potential juror said during questioning that she “didn’t sleep last night, thinking about… can I really do this,” when asked about if she could be fully impartial against Trump in the trial.
Earlier in the questioning she had said that there is “very little we probably agree on policywise,” about Trump. However, she said she considers herself a “thoughtful person.”
When Blanche pushed her, asking if she really does not have an opinion on the case, she said she “doesn’t think I will have a problem separating that and starting at zero.”
“I don’t know how to convince you of that and I know you have a dilemma,” the potential juror added. “I will do my level best, I don’t know how to give you any more assurance.”
Trump’s attorney Blanche, going from juror to juror, asked for opinions of the former president. For one man, the view was one of awe.
“I find him fascinating,” one prospective juror said. “He walks into a room and he sets people off one way or the other and I find that really interesting. Really, this one guy can do all of this? Wow.”
Blanche pressed a little more for an indication of whether the juror likes or dislikes Trump. He didn’t get much.
“Certainly, he makes things interesting,” the man said. “All right,” Blanche replied without having elicited a tilt. “Thank you.”
What’s happening in this courtroom right now is striking — the former president is forced to listen to a group of everyday New Yorkers give their unvarnished views on him, discussing their friends’ opinions of him, recollections of watching “The Apprentice” in middle school — and so far most are saying they can give him a fair shake. As they answer questions, he watches the jury box intently.
Blanche pushed one prospective juror on how she viewed Trump.
“What about your opinion of him, having nothing to do with this case? What opinion did you walk in here with?”
“I didn’t even know I was walking into this,” the prospective juror replied, sidestepping the question. “I’m here for my civic duty. I’m here just to listen to the facts and not let anything persuade me either way.”
The jury selection process has resumed.
One prospective juror, a woman who lives in the East Village, was dismissed after saying the intensity of her job would make participating difficult, she said in an interview with MSNBC.
“I work in cybersecurity,” she said. “Due to the nature of my job, it would be extremely hard for me to be here for the hours needed for as long as this trial is going to be.”
The dismissed juror added that she did say she would be able to be fair and impartial toward Trump in the trial, but that actually seeing him in person was “jarring.”
“I had never seen him in person before, you know,” she said. “And you see someone blown up so larger than life on the media for so many years, to see them in person is very jarring.”
The woman said that she made eye contact with Trump twice, once when she first began to read off the questionnaire and again right after she had finished and was dismissed.
“It was just another level of nervousness,” she said.
Trump has signed a form to waive his right to be present at sidebars — meetings held between lawyers from both sides and the judge to discuss nonpublic matters.
The court is taking a 10-minute break.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said to the potential jurors that “several of these witnesses have what you might consider to be some baggage.”
He alluded to, but didn’t explicitly name, Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen and David Pecker.
Steinglass then talked about Cohen pleading guilty to some crimes and how some witnesses like him have written books.
Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor in the DA’s office, said to the group of potential jurors, “Everyone and their mother has an opinion about this case, and what the right outcome should be.”
He also said that jurors cannot discuss the case with friends and the DA’s office needs an assurance that they will keep an open mind. Steinglass added that the media hasn’t heard the evidence yet that they will hear in the case.
And we are getting another preview of the prosecutor’s opening statements, as Joshua Steinglass is addressing the elephant in the room: Everyone knows Donald Trump.
“No one is suggesting you can’t be fair because you’ve heard from Donald Trump,” he says. “We need jurors who can set aside strong feelings and focus on evidence.
“It’s not a referendum on the Trump presidency … we don’t care. This case is about whether this man broke the law.”
Another prospective juror is out after struggling with questions surrounding her ability to be fair.
“I believe no one’s above the law, so I guess that’s a strong opinion,” she said. Asked by the judge whether she could be impartial, she said she wasn’t certain.
“I’m not 100 percent sure that I could be fair,” she said.
Merchan excused her.
Nine of the 23 potential jurors who have answered the questionnaire so far have identified TikTok as a source of news.
Congress is currently considering legislation that would ban the popular social media app from the U.S. app store unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells it. The House has passed the measure, and it’s unclear whether the Senate plans to act on it.
One prospective juror confessed in the jury box that her Facebook page contains many things that she didn’t put there and does not know how to remove.
She said that this includes some content from Occupy Democrats, a hyper left-wing group on social media.
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