Apr.19

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Trump Legal News: The Trial (Day 3)

Yesterday, the task at hand for Judge Juan Merchan was to get as much of a jury seated as is possible. Things did not get off to a good start, but by the end of the day, the Court had managed to empanel 12 regular jurors and one alternate.

The reason the day got off to a poor start is that two of the jurors who had already been empaneled were dismissed. The oncology nurse we listed as Juror 2 yesterday told Merchan that enough information about her had become public that people had begun to put 2 and 2 together and figure out her identity. She said she feared for her safety, asked to be dismissed, and was.

The other juror to get the heave-ho was listed yesterday as Juror 4; the older Puerto Rican man who said he finds Trump fascinating and mysterious. The DA's office found news stories about a person of the same name who got busted for defacing right-wing political posters back in the 1990s. They also found news stories about the wife of a person of the same name being part of a corruption investigation, also in the 1990s. If Juror 4 was positively identified as the subject of either of those news stories, that information has not been made public. However, after a long bench conference, Merchan decided to dismiss.

That means that we have 8 new jurors. Here's a brief rundown of the newbies, with comments, like we did yesterday:

• Juror 2: The new Juror 2 is an investment banker who is married without children. So, we know it's not Al Bundy. He loves him some eX-Twitter, and so has seen postings from both Trump and Michael Cohen through that platform. He has not read The Art of the Deal, so he has at least one thing in common with Trump. This fellow seems pretty neutral to us; not favorable to either the defense or prosecution.
  
  
• Juror 4: The new Juror 4 is a security engineer who did not graduate college. We are not sure exactly what that job title means. It's possible he works in cybersecurity, though that would be unusual without a college diploma. It's also possible "security engineer" is a euphemism for "guy who stands at the entrance to the grocery store to discourage shoplifters." He doesn't like social media or reading, and while he has served on a jury before, he could not remember the verdict. Sounds like he's pretty much a blank slate.
  
  
• Juror 8: He is a retired wealth manager who admits he has "strong opinions" about Trump, but says he can be fair and impartial, and that he cares more about his hobbies than about politics. Undoubtedly, the prosecution is hoping those are strong negative opinions, while the defense is hoping those are strong positive opinions. The general consensus among those in the room was that it's the former, not the latter.
  
  
• Juror 9: She is a speech therapist who lives alone and says she doesn't know much about the news or about legal proceedings. If Trump actually takes the stand, she might have some interesting insights to share in the jury room about what his speech patterns reveal. She's not supposed to share those insights, but there are lots of things that aren't supposed to happen in jury rooms but do.
  
  
• Juror 10: He is from Ohio, works in e-commerce, and says he prefers to listen to podcasts about behavioral psychology rather than paying attention to the news. We suspect he might have some insights in the jury room, albeit those of an armchair psychologist. Just what the trial needs, a Jonathan Haidt clone.
  
  
• Juror 11: She was born and raised in California and works for a multinational apparel company. Although she says she does not follow the news, she does like to watch late-night comedians. Unless she's referring to Gutfeld!, then it means she's been exposed to a goodly amount of Trump criticism and mockery. She also said Trump seems "very selfish and self-serving." Clearly, the defense had exhausted their peremptory challenges by the time this juror was seated.
  
  
• Juror 12: She is a physical therapist with a Ph.D. who follows The New York Times, USA Today and CNN, and likes to listen to podcasts on sports and faith. Maybe she's an evangelical fundamentalist, but not too many people like that have a Ph.D., live in New York, and read the NYT. And if she's not an evangelical fundamentalist, then this reads like the profile of a juror more amenable to the prosecution than the defense.
  
  
• Alternate 1: She was born in the U.K., works in finance, and reads the NYT and the WSJ. Brits and women both tend to be Trump-skeptical, so our guess is that the defense would prefer she not be moved into the regular pool.

So, it looks to us like none of the new jurors are likely to lean Trumpward, while about half of them look to be moderately unfriendly to him. Of course, this is just guesswork, and it's also possible that someone is misrepresenting themselves. And all Trump needs is one to hang the jury.

The other big storyline is that the prosecution feels Trump has now violated his gag order seven times, and they want sanctions. Merchan may address that today, or he may wait until Monday, by which time there are sure to be at least, what, seven more violations? Either Trump just can't control himself, or he wants to be jailed. Either way, the Judge is going to have to do something, or the gag order is meaningless.

The trial will resume today, of course, and the general consensus is that opening arguments will commence on Monday. Guess we know what our first item will be every day next week. We will likely have an item on Day 4 tomorrow, and we'll definitely have some questions and answers about the trial. (Z)