By Kara Scannell, Jeremy Herb, Maureen Chowdhury, Kaanita Iyer, Aditi Sangal and Elise Hammond, CNN
The third prospective juror answered "yes" when she was asked, "Do you have firmly held beliefs about Trump, or that he's a current candidate, that would interfere in your ability to be fair?"
Lawyers had a sidebar at the bench after she answered. Afterward, the judge announced the potential juror would be excused.
Trump remained seated during the sidebar.
Donald Trump's team was expecting around 40% of jurors to be dismissed on the question of whether they can be impartial, sources told CNN's Paula Reid, but more than half of the first group of 96 prospective jurors were reportedly excused after that question was asked.
"They're going to preserve this issue on appeal," Reid said. "Their concern is if Trump is convicted, right, that is a concern, their strategy is to appeal this and preserve every single issue, and try to kill the case."
Trump's lawyers fought to have this question separated, Reid reported. They did not want to have all the potential jurors who can't serve to be lumped in as one so they could establish how many people cannot be impartial.
From pool reports
Voir dire has begun, according to pool reports, and a young woman has started answering the jury questionnaire.
Donald Trump is reading along with her as she answers, with his own copy.
The judge last week released the questionnaire that will be presented to potential jurors. It includes questions about a potential juror's news consumption and whether they've read any of Trump's books.
Judge Juan Merchan is now moving on to juror questions.
The judge last week released the questionnaire that will be presented to potential jurors, which contains multiple questions that could signal political views to the lawyers on both sides.
Here's what potential jurors could be asked about:
At least nine more prospective jurors were excused in the first group after raising their hand when Judge Merchan asked if they could not serve for any other reason.
Those reasons were not disclosed.
That leaves approximately 34 jurors out of the 96 who entered court in the initial panel.
A group of 18 potential jurors have been called into the jury box.
More than half of the prospective jurors in the first batch of 96 people have been excused after saying that they couldn't be fair and impartial. The press pool estimates at least 50 people were let go for that reason.
Judge Juan Merchan asked potential jurors to raise their hands if they believed they cannot be fair and impartial. He then began excusing those jurors one by one.
Judge Juan Merchan has moved on to his second question for potential jurors.
He asked the jury pool, "Please raise your hand if you’re unable to serve on this jury for any other reason."
"If you have an honest, legitimate, good-faith reason to believe you cannot serve on this case or cannot be fair and impartial, please let me know now," Judge Juan Merchan told the prospective jurors.
