New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan excused a second seated juror on Thursday for unknown reasons during the third day of the Trump criminal trial, according to court reporters.
Seven jurors were selected Tuesday. Now only five remain. A total of 18 are required, including 6 alternates.
Merchan “abruptly” dismissed the first juror on Thursday morning after she raised concerns about her identity becoming public, according to court reporters. The judge warned court reporters about writing “physical descriptions” of the jurors.
Later in the day, Merchan removed a second juror, marked as juror number four, for unknown reasons. The prosecution raised concerns about juror four because he “may have misrepresented his past arrest history when answering the questionnaire,” the New York Times reported:
The Times detailed:
The reasons for the juror’s dismissal will remain a mystery for at least some time: Justice Merchan has sealed that part of the record. All we know is that there were concerns about his credibility. Now, he’s gone, and seven more jurors need to be seated to arrive at a full panel.
The juror is speaking to the lawyers. One thing that strikes me as we wait for an outcome here is that, if he remains on the jury, the lawyers will know this juror better than they know any others, just based on the amount of interpersonal interaction they’ve had today. But of course, he could be excused. We expect to find out shortly.
During this long sidebar, Trump has been alone and apparently silent at the defense table, looking very much like any other defendant as the lawyers hash out the juror’s fate.
Upon leaving the courtroom, the former juror said he should not have been excused and nodded when asked if he thought he could be unbiased. He declined to give his name to court reporters.
Below is a description from Axios of the seven jurors chosen on Tuesday:
1. The foreman, who works in sales, lives in Harlem but is originally from Ireland.
2. A native New Yorker who’s an oncology nurse.
3. A corporate lawyer originally from Oregon.
4. A self-employed IT consultant who lives on the Lower East Side but grew up in Puerto Rico.
5. A teacher and lifelong New Yorker. She was the only juror in the box who said they didn’t know Trump was charged in three other cases.
6. A software engineer who works for Disney.
7. A lawyer who lives on the Upper East Side.
Trump’s unprecedented trial began Monday morning with jury selection. Thursday is the third day of that process, which could wrap up early next week.
Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 felonies, accusing him of falsifying documents to conceal an alleged sex scandal. The trial is the first-ever criminal trial of a president of the United States. Trump could face jail time if convicted.
Only about one-third of U.S. adults believe Trump did anything illegal regarding the case, an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found Tuesday.
The case is New York v. Trump, No. 71543-23, in the New York Supreme Court for New York County.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.