A lot of pressure for these future jurors. A group of anonymous New Yorkers are summoned in a week to a Manhattan court to serve as jurors, a banal civic duty except that this one promises to be historic. The case that calls them is in fact unprecedented in History: it is the very first criminal trial of a former American president.
Donald Trump is facing 34 counts of alleged falsification of documents which served, according to the prosecutor, to conceal a payment of money to an X-rated movie star, Stormy Daniels, to buy her silence before the presidential election in 2016. The Republican, again a candidate for the White House, denies any sexual relationship with Stormy Daniels and denies any fraudulent confidentiality agreement with the actress.
Selection of twelve jurors from April 15
The filing is titled “The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump.” Jury selection is scheduled to begin April 15, and hundreds of Manhattan residents have received summons to appear in court. From them, twelve jurors and up to six alternates will be chosen, with the trial expected to last up to six weeks.
Each potential juror, drawn at random from a public list of residents, will fill out a detailed questionnaire and undergo a selection process called “voir dire”, according to legal terminology that has retained these words from old French. Their verdict must be unanimous, hence the importance of each of them.
New Yorkers, predominantly Democrats
The prosecutors prosecuting Donald Trump, like the lawyers defending the septuagenarian, will seek to know at all costs which side the jurors lean politically, knowing that New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, respectively in 2016 and 2020.
On the other hand, although born in New York and having built his real estate empire there, Donald Trump remains a controversial figure, to say the least, in the megalopolis. “Manhattan has a long history with Donald Trump,” recalls Leslie Ellis, a lawyer and psychologist expert in juries. “Not just because of his presidency and the time after his presidency, but also because of his experience in real estate and business in New York before that. »
This is particularly why the former president’s lawyers tried, in vain, to delay the trial. According to them, jurors in New York would have been exposed to “enormous biased and unfair media coverage”.
Trump denounces a “witch hunt”
Targeted by several other legal proceedings, Mr. Trump, 77, continues to denounce a “witch hunt” carried out according to him by Democratic prosecutors and judges who seek to derail his campaign to reconquer the White House in November.
“Many potential jurors already believe, wrongly, that President Trump is guilty,” said the candidate’s counsel, in an argument sent to Judge Juan Merchan, who will preside over the hearings.
But the district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who filed the complaint against Donald Trump, brushes aside this idea. “Given the size of New York County, it is absurd for the defendant to assert that it will be impossible or impractical to find a dozen fair and impartial jurors, plus alternates, from among more than a million people,” said Alvin Bragg.
Names of jurors kept secret
In any case, the constitution of the jury promises to be more complicated than usual. Judge Merchan has already ruled that the names of the jury members will be kept secret due to the “likelihood of bribery, jury manipulation, physical harm or harassment.”
The magistrate also warned Donald Trump that, if he violated his order imposing silence outside the proceedings, in particular prohibiting him from criticizing witnesses or court employees, then he could decide not to transmit the names of the jurors to his lawyers.
Possibility of challenging jurors
Such a decision would handicap Donald Trump’s defense by limiting its ability to seek information about a potential juror, outside of the questions asked during voir dire. Just like the prosecutors, the former businessman’s lawyers will have the possibility of preventively challenging this or that juror.
According to Leslie Ellis, although it may seem difficult to believe regarding a figure as high-profile as Donald Trump, there will certainly be potential jurors who will claim, in good faith, that they do not know much about the case.