Day 3 of Trump New York hush money trial

By the end of the day on Thursday, the jury in the first criminal trial of former President Donald Trump had been seated. Only five alternates are left to be selected on Friday.

Here are the takeaways from Thursday’s topsy-turvy jury selection in Trump’s criminal trial:

No cameras are allowed inside the Manhattan courtroom where Donald Trump’s hush money trial is underway, but sketch artists are capturing the scenes as jury selection continues.

The full 12-person jury for Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial has been seated. One alternate has also been selected, and jury selection will continue until about six alternates are seated.

Here’s what we know about the seven men and five women on the jury:

Meanwhile, the first empaneled alternate juror is an analyst for an asset management company who grew up in England. She lives with her boyfriend. She reads the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. 

A jury of 12 New Yorkers has been seated in former President Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial in Manhattan. It comes after two empaneled jurors were dismissed Thursday morning and seven new jurors were chosen by the afternoon.

The jury is made up of seven men and five women.

Now, the court is working to pick up to six alternates. One has been seated so far. Judge Juan Merchan said he is hopeful the process will be finished on Friday.

Here’s what to know to get up to speed:

Seated jurors dismissed:

Lawyers continue their questioning:

Jurors excused for cause:

Trump in court: The former president turned his chair and faced the jury box while lawyers asked questions. He craned his neck to look at the jury pool as several prospective jurors said they disagreed with Trump’s policies or generally disliked him.

Tomorrow: Merchan swore in a new panel of potential jurors who will return on Friday when the selection of alternates will continue.

Gag order: Meanwhile, prosecutors say Trump violated his gag order seven more times, pointing to posts online and calling the situation “ridiculous.” The order was issued to stop Trump from making statements about witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff, or the family members of prosecutors and court staff in late March. Merchan will have a hearing about the matter next Tuesday.

Attorneys have selected a jury of 12 New Yorkers — but now they need to seat as many as six alternates before opening statements can begin. One alternate was picked on Thursday.

Both sides know jury selection is one of the most important parts of the trial. These are the people who will hear the evidence and determine the historic outcome. Alternates ensure the trial can continue to the end if a seated juror cannot proceed.

New York criminal procedure law outlines several cases in which an alternate would replace a juror, and that juror would be dismissed, during a trial.

That includes:

The state law also says alternates must have the same qualifications and go through the same examination as other jurors. They will be questioned and chosen by the judge and the lawyers in this case after all 12 jurors are seated.

Alternates will listen to the entire trial, but won’t participate in deliberations.

Former President Donald Trump lamented that he is sitting in a Manhattan courtroom all day to attend his hush money criminal trial while he should be traveling across the country to campaign as part of his presidential run in 2024.

“I’m supposed to be in New Hampshire, I’m supposed to be in Georgia, I’m supposed to be in North Carolina, South Carolina. I’m supposed to be in a lot of different places campaigning, but I’ve been here all day on a trial that really is a very unfair trial,” he said as he came out of the courtroom after the day’s proceedings wrapped.

Trump held up copies of what he claimed were numerous media “stories” that have legal experts saying “this is not a case, the case is ridiculous.”

He continued to read the headlines out loud. The copies were not immediately visible and made available for viewing to reporters as he spoke.

Trump also complained about how cold the courtroom is. “I’m sitting here for days now, from morning till night, in that freezing room, freezing. Everybody was freezing in there.”

About the case: Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for his alleged role in a hush money scheme before the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty. Get up to speed on the case here.

Court is adjourned for the day. It is scheduled to resume Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Donald Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked for the names of prosecutors’ first few witnesses because it’s possible testimony could start as soon as Monday.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said usually they would extend that courtesy, but because Trump posts on social media about the witnesses, “we’re not telling him who the witnesses are.”

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked Judge Juan Merchan to confirm if he intends the court go straight through until 2 p.m. ET on Monday and Tuesday for Passover.

The judge said that is his plan.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche said Monday is fine to break at lunch but asked that they do not sit on Tuesday because it’s a holiday the entire day for one attorney on the team.

“I can appreciate it’s a holiday, the entire day for him. It’s not a court holiday,” Merchan says.

Judge Juan Merchan said he intends to have the Sandoval hearing tomorrow if there’s time left in the day.

What happens during a Sandoval hearing: A judge is asked whether previous bad acts can be brought up, and the judge is expected to weigh the probative value versus prejudicial effect of doing so, according to CNN legal analyst Karen Friedman Agnifilo.

The full 12-person jury for Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial has been seated Thursday, with Judge Juan Merchan overseeing a productive afternoon despite starting the day with two previously empaneled jurors getting dismissed.

To recap:

Now we move on to the process of selecting alternates.

Twelve jurors and one alternate have been chosen for Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

The remaining alternate jurors still need to be selected – and 22 prospective jurors were seated this afternoon.

They will all go through the questionnaire and voir dire tomorrow.

Judge Juan Merchan said the process will start sharply at 9:30 a.m. ET.

She is an analyst for an asset management company who grew up in England. She lives with her boyfriend. She reads The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Juror 11: She was seated on the jury after Judge Juan Merchan denied the Trump team’s challenge for cause. The former president’s lawyers argued she should be dismissed because she said she does not like his “persona.”

During voir dire, she said:

“He just seems very selfish and self-serving so I don’t really appreciate that in any public servant, so I don’t know him as a person; so I don’t’ know how he is in terms of his integrity. It’s just not my cup of tea.”

The juror works for a multinational apparel company. She’s not a native New Yorker, not married and doesn’t have kids. She said she doesn’t really follow the news but occasionally follows headlines and reads industry-specific publications.

Juror 12: The final juror seated on the main panel is a physical therapist. She has a doctorate degree in physical therapy. She reads The New York Times, USA Today and CNN. She is married and has no children.

Judge Juan Merchan said court will resume tomorrow and jury selection will continue until all the alternates are seated.

He said he’s hopeful they will finish the jury selection process tomorrow.

The empaneled jurors have been sworn in.

Judge Juan Merchan is now reading instructions to them.

Juror 8: A retired wealth manager who is married with two kids. The man, whose hobbies include fly fishing and yoga, said he hears things from people and he knows about Trump but, “I’m more interested in my hobbies that I do.

Juror 9: This juror is a speech therapist with a Master’s degree. She’s not married and lives alone. During voir dire the juror said, “He was our president, everyone knows who he is.”

“When he was president, everyone was kind of talking about politics,” said the juror. When asked by Trump attorney Susan Necheles if she’d feel pressured by others, she said “Not at all.” She said she would make sure not to talk about the case with anybody.

Juror 10: He works for a retailer and says he doesn’t really follow the news. He does, however, listen to podcasts on behavior psychology. “It’s my little hobby there,” he said during jury selection. He was born and raised in Ohio, is unmarried and lives with another adult roommate. He says he loves to spend time outdoors and with animals.

The jurors are being empaneled now.

The jurors for the Trump hush money criminal trial are coming into the courtroom. Twelve jurors and one alternate have been seated.

Judge Juan Merchan said a full 12-person jury has been seated in the Trump trial.

The court is now selecting alternates.

Both sides in the courtroom used all their peremptory strikes on potential jurors.

The Trump defense and the prosecution began the trial with 10 strikes each.

Three more jurors have been seated on the jury. That brings the total number to 10 jurors.

Donald Trump’s has used his last strike. Prosecutors still have two strikes left.

How the process works: At the beginning of jury selection, both sides were given 10 peremptory strikes that they could use to excuse jurors. Trump and prosecutors used six on Tuesday. They started Thursday with four strikes each.

These strikes can be used to dismiss potential jurors they don’t want without providing a reason. Both parties can also ask the judge to dismiss jurors for cause, which means they would not use a strike.

A potential juror who wrote what the Trump attorney described as “vitriolic” posts about the former president on social media was dismissed from the jury panel.

Judge Juan Merchan said it was a “close call” and noted that she had apologized to Trump, but ruled he would grant the challenge by his attorneys and dismiss her for cause.

The potential juror said she’s changed her views toward Trump to some extent since her harsh posts.

She said she would withdraw the term racist she once used against Trump.

She did say:

“There have been behaviors that I haven’t approved of President Trump toward females.” But she said his ethics are his business and not at issue at this trial.

The two newly empaneled jurors are both men.

It brings the total number of jurors back to seven as two people were excused this morning — one over concerns about her identity being public and one after prosecutors called into question the truthfulness of their answers.

The potential juror being questioned about past social media post read back what she wrote around the 2016 election, where she stated that former President Donald Trump was being sexist and racist.

“Oops that sounds bad, thanks guys,” she says, noting they were “strong words.”

“I was in a disturbed frame of mind during that election cycle. I was very concerned,” she says. “I do not hold those positions today.”

“They’re very negative posts,” she added.

Judge Juan Merchan asked her how she feels about the former president and if could she set aside “these pretty strong views” about him on the jury and give him an assurance she could be fair and impartial.

The juror said, “I’d like to say electoral politics can get pretty spicy, and Mr. Trump can get pretty spicy. I should apologize for some of the tone in my posts.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles thanked her for apologizing.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles has now moved on to removing another juror for cause, a woman she says has “vitriolic” social media posts about the former president through 2020.

The potential juror said she wouldn’t believe Trump “if his tongue were notarized,” Necheles told Judge Juan Merchan.
The woman said she stopped posting because of Covid, not because she changed her view about Trump, according to the Trump attorney.

She also called Trump racist and sexist in social media posts, Necheles said.

Merchan is now reviewing the posts provided by Trump’s attorneys.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass acknowledged the “anti-Trump” rhetoric but argued the potential juror has since “mellowed.” He suggested the woman be asked about her posts and they are getting her now.

Necheles noted that the posts were written at the same time as “the events of this case,” as she continued her push to disqualify the prospective juror for cause

“We’re gonna talk to her about it,” Merchan responded.

The post has been again updated with more remarks by Necheles and Merchan.

Prosecutors struck one juror from the first seven in the pool.

Former President Donald Trump’s side struck three of the seven.

Two more jurors have been chosen to serve on the jury for the Trump criminal trial in New York.

They take the place of two who were dismissed from the panel earlier today.

Donald Trump is sitting alone at the defense table while his lawyers are standing away from him to discuss peremptory challenges.

Attorney Todd Blanche walked over to whisper something to Trump before returning to the huddle.

Judge Juan Merchan denied the challenge for cause for the potential juror who Trump attorney Susan Necheles says once stayed at her house.

According to Susan Necheles, a potential juror who earlier said she knew the Trump attorney actually stayed at Necheles’ home with her family.

The juror will be brought in for questioning soon.

One of the prospective jurors was dismissed after prosecutors asked she be removed for admitting she did not think she could be fair.

Judge Juan Merchan asked Trump’s lawyers if they have any objection to prosecutor’s request to excuse the juror, and they said they do not.

According to journalists in the courtroom, Donald Trump looked at his aides in the gallery and could be heard saying:

— From pool reports

Prosecutors and Donald Trump’s attorneys are still huddling with their respective groups in court as they review the latest batch of 18 potential jurors and move on to strikes.

Both parties had the opportunity to question the potential jurors about their feelings regarding the former president and whether they think they can be fair in the trial.

How the process works: Both sides were given 10 peremptory strikes that they could use to excuse jurors. Trump and prosecutors used six on Tuesday, leaving them each with four strikes remaining.

These strikes can be used to dismiss potential jurors they don’t want without providing a reason. Both parties can also ask the judge to dismiss jurors for cause, which means they would not use a strike.

Thursday’s dismissal of two jurors who were seated underscores how the process is not perfect and requires “self-reflection and self-disclosure,” a CNN legal analyst noted.

“We were one step forward, now it’s two jurors back,” CNN’s Laura Coates told CNN’s Boris Sanchez. “It’s not a perfect system. It’s not quite an honor system. But it is about self-reflection and self-disclosure.”

The goal is to find jurors who don’t have a personal stake in the matter and who can keep an open mind, but it’s proving more and more challenging as the hours — not just the days — go by, Coates added.

President Joe Biden warned that former President Donald Trump would pose a threat to democracy while touting his campaign’s advantage over Trump’s in Pennsylvania.

“This really is about, our, democracy’s really at risk, it’s not a joke – I mean, I’m being deadly earnest, and this guy [Trump] means when he says, if we haven’t learned that now, we’re kidding ourselves,” Biden said during a grassroots organizing event with volunteers in Pennsylvania. “He means what he says, when he talks about being a dictator on the first day, he means being able to negate elements of the Constitution … the idea that he thinks that those insurrectionists are patriots, and he’s gonna them all if in fact he gets elected. I mean, this is a full-blown attack on the capital, hasn’t happened since the Civil war.” 

The president took the opportunity to trumpet his own campaign’s infrastructure in the state and told volunteers that a second Trump term would pave the way for the former president to roll back the legislative accomplishments of Biden’s first term.

“He’s committed to be opposed to, not just figuratively, but literally, everything you’ve helped me get done, everything, he wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, just go down the list, so what you’re doing here, is bigger than you, bigger than me, bigger than all of us combined,” he said.

Earlier Thursday, Biden received the formal endorsement of more than a dozen members of the extended Kennedy family, aiming to harness the legacy of a storied Democratic family while implicitly underscoring their near-universal rejection of a third-party challenge mounted by one of their own, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Michael Williams contributed reporting to this post.

The next panel of prospective jurors has been sworn in.

The judge is now giving them instructions and dismissing them for the day. They will be brought back tomorrow morning around 11 a.m. ET. Judge Juan Merchan says he’d like to start at 11:30 a.m. ET Friday with this panel.

A new panel of nearly 100 prospective jurors is making their way into the courtroom.

Judge Juan Merchan said earlier that the batch of 96 jurors will be sworn in. Then he’ll then send them home for the day and plan for them to return tomorrow around 11 or 11:30 a.m. ET for questions.

Court typically starts around 9:30 a.m. ET. The reason they are starting later with this panel is because there are still prospective jurors from the second panel they haven’t gone through yet, which they will likely do Friday morning.

Eighteen potential jurors are leaving the courtroom after being questioned by prosecutors and attorneys for former President Trump.

Both sides can use peremptory strikes to dismiss potential jurors they don’t want without providing a reason. Each side has four strikes left. They can also ask the judge to dismiss jurors for cause, which means they would not use a strike.

Donald Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now asking all the potential jurors if they would be able to return a verdict of not guilty if prosecutors don’t prove their case. All of the people in the jury pool said, yes.

Moments ago, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked if the potential jurors would be able to look at Trump and say “guilty” if the case was proven.

One prospective juror, a lawyer, said she disagrees with some of Donald Trump’s politics.

“Sometimes the way he may carry himself in public leaves something to be desired,” she said, but added she sees how also resonates with “a lot of people in America.”

This woman gave a lengthy speech noting that her family has been affected by totalitarian regimes. She said she’s “seen people sent to prison without a fair trial and I really strongly disagree with that.”

Another prospective juror says she’s has thought about having former President Donald Trump as a defendant over the past several days.

“I tend to not agree with a lot of his politics and his decisions as a president, but I’ve really taken the past few days to reflect and make sure I can leave that and be a totally impartial juror, and I feel like I can,” she says.

Trump attorney Susan Necheles asks her what she feels like she has to leave behind to be impartial.

“There’s so much information about him everywhere,” the prospective juror responds. “He was our president. Everyone knows who he is.”

Asked if she posts about him on social media, she says, “No, I try to stay away from politics on social media.”

A prospective juror who is a business owner praised the former president.

“I mean he was our president. That’s pretty amazing. He’s a businessman in New York,” he said. “He’s forged his way…I’m impressed with that.”

He likened himself to Trump as an entrepreneur who’s also accomplished things. “I see that as a positive thing,” the juror said.

As several of the prospective jurors are saying they disagree with Donald Trump’s policies or just generally dislike him, the former president is craning his neck looking at the jury pool.

Trump has been looking toward the jury box during most of the questioning.

Donald Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles is continuing to go down the line of potential jurors, asking them about their feelings about the former president as he listens in court.

Here’s what they are saying:

“Fairly neutral,” says one man.

Another potential juror said, “I don’t think too much about politics. I have no really strong opinion about the president.”

A retired wealth manager whose hobbies include fly fishing and yoga said he hears things from people and he knows about Trump but said he’s more interested in his hobbies.

A prospective juror, who still uses a flip phone, said he is in law enforcement and was thankful to Trump for helping to fix the Wollman Rink in Central Park.

“I don’t like his persona,” said another prospective juror. “I don’t like some of my coworkers, but I don’t try to sabotage their work.”

Asked to explain what she meant about his persona, the potential juror added, “He just seems very selfish and self serving so I don’t really appreciate that in any public servant so I don’t know him as a person so I don’t’ know how he is in terms of his integrity. It’s just not my cup of tea.”

“Sounds like you’re saying you don’t like him?” Necheles asks.

“Yes,” she says.

One man said some of Trump’s policies are okay, but “some of them are outrageous.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles pressed one of the prospective jurors about her adult son’s employment for a Congressional Democrat and whether it would affect her ability to be fair.

She said his work won’t conflict with her ability to serve as a juror in the case against the former president.

“I am a registered Democrat but I have no strong feelings toward him since it’s my first time being in a room with him,” she said.

Asked if her son’s job would affect her ability to be fair, the woman responded: “Absolutely not.”

One prospective juror, a retired university administrator, said she was born and raised in Brooklyn. “I spent my whole life knowing about Donald Trump,” she said.

She said her cousin lived in a Trump building and “had nothing but positive things to say about the whole construction.”

However, she also acknowledged that “how I feel about him as a president is different.”

A potential juror said she has strong feelings about former President Donald Trump, when asked directly by Trump attorney Susan Necheles.

“Yes I disagree with his policies,” she said. “It’s a purely a political opinion,” she added, noting that she doesn’t have an opinion about him personally.

As she continues her portion of questioning, Donald Trump’s attorney Susan Necheles is being more direct with jurors and their social media use.

She’s asking one of the prospective jurors about whether she posts on social media about the former president, and whether her husband does so as well.

The woman said she doesn’t have a strong feeling about Trump at this point, but said she may have posted about his policies in the past.

“If for instance, there’s a policy that he’s promoting and I disagreed about it, I might post about it,” she said.

The woman said it’s been a while since she posted about the former president

“I just don’t have strong feelings about President Trump at this point.” she said. ” I don’t post about him.”

Trump attorney Susan Necheles is now questioning the jurors for the former president.

Trump’s other attorney, Todd Blanche, did it both times on Tuesday.

She begins by raising prosecutor Joshua Steinglass telling jurors that some witnesses may contradict themselves and asking them to use common sense.

She then asks whether anyone has a problem with the notion that if “two witnesses get on this witness stand and say, under oath two diametrically opposed things,” that somebody is lying.”Does anyone have a problem with that?” she asks.

No audible answer could be heard.

Necheles then said some government witnesses have “personal animus” against President Trump.

“Can you understand that someone who says they want revenge against President Trump is someone whose word you should evaluate in that light?”

No audible answers could be heard.

The post was updated with more of Necheles’ remarks.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked the potential jurors to look at defendant Donald Trump and ensure they can look the defendant in the eye and say “guilty” if their case is proven.

The prosecutor is going one by one through the prospective jurors to answer affirmatively.

Trump is looking over at the jury box as the jury pool is saying that yes, they can do so.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has reiterated his request to push back deadlines in his federal classified documents case Thursday, saying he and his lawyers were only able to focus on the ongoing New York trial.

Defense attorneys say they can’t meet a May deadline for reviewing classified evidence in the federal case because that review must be conducted in a secure facility in Florida, while they and Trump will be at the trial in New York for several weeks.

“Simply put, President Trump and his counsel cannot prepare — or even discuss — the required filings anywhere but an appropriate SCIF, a virtually impossible task given President Trump and Messrs. Blanche and Bove’s involvement in People v. Trump,” in New York, Trump’s attorneys wrote in a court filing.

Trump is charged with illegally retained national defense information and concealing documents in violation of witness-tampering laws, among other alleged crimes. He has pleaded not guilty.

Special counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting the case, opposed the request, telling the judge in court filings that Trump and his legal team have already had more than enough time to meet the May 9 deadline.

Read more about the classified documents case.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is speaking to the jury pool about how to determine a defendant’s intent through context clues. He made an analogy of a driver honking at you on the street and deducing whether the driver is waving at you or making a different hand gesture.

He asks one juror whether she can use that logic to deduce intent. “I think so. I don’t see why not,” she replies.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked one prospective juror, who said she knew attorney Susan Necheles, who is on Donald Trump’s legal team, about her relationship.

The prospective juror, whose husband works in the legal field, said she met Necheles through him once 15 years ago.

She said it won’t affect her ability to be fair and impartial in this case.

Steinglass asked the juror to confirm she had “no reason to doubt” she could be fair and impartial. That’s correct, she responded.

In his remarks to the jury pool, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass reiterates some of what he said on Tuesday about a number of the expected trial witnesses having “some edge.”

He mentions an adult film star, a tabloid publisher and disbarred lawyer Michael Cohen, who lied before Congress.

One potential juror, a lawyer who worked as a law clerk, said they spent a year discussing the case with colleagues in the legal profession.

” I’m worried that I know too much,” she said.
“I just don’t know – I’m worried that it’s going to seep in in some way.”

During the questionnaire, this juror also expressed concerns about how her background could impact her as a juror.

When Merchan asked whether she could give assurances to follow his instructions on the law, she sighed, before saying:

“Yes, I will follow your instructions.”

She sighed a second time when asked whether discussing the case with her coworkers would affect her ability to be fair and impartial. She said she would put her legal training aside, though “it’s hard to unring a bell.”

Former President Donald Trump has turned in his chair and is facing the jury box. His head is tilted again as he’s listening to the back and forth between the prosecutor and the jurors answering questions.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass started his questions by asking the potential jurors if they feel that prosecutors have more to prove “because the defendant is Donald Trump?”

“I can be objective,” said one of the prospective jurors.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the prospective jurors this case is not a “referendum on the Trump presidency” but about whether “this man broke the law.”

The 18 prospective jurors who were questioned by the judge before the lunch break are back in the courtroom.

Judge Juan Merchan is addressing them in the box. They will go through 30 minutes of questioning by Donald Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors.

Trump is hunched forward in his chair as prosecutor Joshua Steinglass is addressing the box of 18 jurors.

Remember: Attorneys on both sides can use peremptory strikes to dismiss potential jurors they don’t want on the panel without providing a reason. They both have four strikes left. They can also ask the judge to dismiss jurors for cause, which means they would not use any strikes.

There are currently five seated jurors. Ultimately, 12 New Yorkers and likely six alternates need to be selected.

One jury consultant said the dismissal of two seated jurors on Thursday morning could point to larger problems within the jury selection process as a whole.

One sworn-in juror was dismissed after expressing concerns that part of her identity was made public by the media. A second empaneled juror was excused after prosecutors questioned the truthfulness of the answers he gave to questions from attorneys on Tuesday.

Consultant Carolyn Koch said both of these cases underscore that this is “no ordinary trial,” but the act of disqualifying people after you’ve vetted them in court is a “symptom of a problem.”

She said in her experience with other high-profile cases involving political issues or serious crimes, written questionnaires were used. This allowed lawyers to have time to review the answers and vet people in advance before the actual jury selection process began in open court.

“They had time in advance to really scour the landscape to make sure that on the day of jury selection, people are properly vetted, so you are not going to have surprises like that,” Koch told CNN.

Using an oral questionnaire, by contrast, doesn’t allow attorneys to learn much about prospective jurors beyond what they disclose themselves, Koch said.

Background: Earlier, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass notified the court that his team found information that called into question the veracity of answers provided by the second dismissed juror. A man with the same name as the juror was arrested in the 1990s for tearing down political advertisements, according to prosecutors. It’s unclear if this is the reason the juror was excused, or if he is the same person prosecutors said was arrested. The conversation that led to his dismissal was not public.

Judge Juan Merchan said another batch of 96 jurors will be brought in to be sworn in.

He’ll then send them home for the day and plan for them to return tomorrow around 11 or 11:30 a.m. ET for questions.

Court typically starts around 9:30 a.m. ET. The reason they are starting later with this panel is because there are still prospective jurors from the second panel they haven’t gone through yet, which they will likely do Friday morning.

The court is back from lunch break, and jury selection is in the works in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan. There are currently five jurors who have been seated after two were dismissed Thursday morning for different reasons.

Ultimately, 12 New Yorkers and likely six alternates will need to be selected.

Here’s where things stand as the court returns from a lunch break:

Donald Trump made his way back into the courtroom following today’s lunch break.

“Speak to you later,” he told reporters on his way inside.

Trump is now back in the courtroom, sitting at the defendant’s table.

“It went from zero to 60 very fast.”

That’s how one dismissed juror who made it to the jury box, but was ultimately not empaneled, described the experience earlier this week. 

The juror, who did not want to be identified due to safety concerns, said the first thing he saw when he walked into the courtroom was former President Donald Trump, “scowling at the jury.”

The juror read through the questionnaire and was questioned by Defense Attorney Todd Blanche.

“Man, was he good,” the juror said describing Blanche’s questioning. But, he said the prosecution ran out of time and did not question him.

In the jury room, he and other potential jurors discussed how it seemed as if the district attorneys’ attorneys had mismanaged their time.

He was there Monday and Tuesday but was eventually struck although he was not told why. 

He noted that the former president was more engaged on the first day than the second day when he appeared to be more “zoned out” – though he noted that Trump did seem to briefly look up when a couple of blond women were in the courtroom.

Additionally, the juror said that during lunch on Tuesday they began to get reports that some identity-revealing information had been published by media outlets, which made some in the pool feel “scared.” 

Attorneys from both sides are going to use their peremptory strikes more cautiously now, since prosecutors and Donald Trump’s lawyers each only have four left, CNN’s Kara Scannell told CNN’s Laura Coates today.

During the jury selection process, attorneys have the ability to remove 10 jurors without reason, using peremptory strikes. Earlier this week, attorneys from the prosecution and from Trump’s team used six strikes to remove potential jurors from the pool, Scannell explained.

This will put more of the “onus on them looking for reasons for cause if they have some concern about any of these jurors and it could mean we could move pretty quickly,” Scannell noted.

Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts repeating unsubstantiated claims about potential jurors is “baiting” Judge Juan Merchan into acting and “thumbing his nose at the system,” Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst, said.

“However, it is not entirely straightforward under New York law what happens next,” Williams added. Prosecutors say Trump has violated his gag order seven more times, pointing to posts online and calling the situation “ridiculous.”

Williams notes that despite the repeated violation allegations, Merchan can’t just throw Trump in jail. The judge has to bring Trump in for a hearing and he has to decide if it’s a civil or criminal proceeding. “There’s pitfalls to both of those approaches,” the legal analyst added.

Williams added: “What’s telling is that the judge has waited five days” and he’s not having a hearing until April 23 regarding the gag order violations, “which is quite significant. He’s letting this all stay out there.” Williams said that it’s maybe a way of the judge trying to be more fair to the former president than Merchan needs to be “just in the interest of caution.”

As former President Donald Trump exited the courtroom for a lunch break, he turned to reporters inside the courtroom and asked, “Is it cold enough?”

It is, indeed, chilly in the facility, according to CNN journalists at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York.

One of Trump’s attorneys, Todd Blanche, approached Judge Juan Merchan earlier today and asked if they could make the courtroom any warmer. Merchan agreed it was chilly, but said that even a minor adjustment to the thermostat would heat up the courtroom significantly.

The judge said he would rather be a little cold than sweat.

The 17-story Art Deco courthouse, with its steel frame and granite and limestone facade, is composed of four towers, according to the city of New York. It was completed in 1941.

Lawyer and jury consultant Linda Moreno says having attorneys on the jury could prove beneficial to both Donald Trump’s defense and prosecutors.

So far, two attorneys have been selected to the panel.

Usually, Moreno tells CNN’s Dana Bash, lawyers don’t want other lawyers on the jury as they can act as powerbrokers.

But, she says since the case is complicated – it could work in both side’s favor.

“Here, I think that both sides… this might be to their advantage because there are some nuances, there are some technical, legal issues regarding the elements like intent and perhaps both sides would benefit from some clear thinking on those issues.”

The court is now on a lunch break. Proceedings will resume at 2:15 p.m. ET.

Earlier today, two jurors seated in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial were excused, leaving five empaneled jurors as selection continues.

Judge Juan Merchan said that one potential juror knows Susan Necheles, who is on Donald Trump’s legal team. The judge said he wants to ask her if she can be fair and impartial and isn’t dismissing her yet.

Eighteen potential jurors have now gone through the questionnaire.

Judge Juan Merchan is giving them instructions before the court breaks for lunch, including telling them not read about or discuss the case with anyone.

What happens next: Now that this portion of the questioning has ended, attorneys for each side will be able to use peremptory strikes to dismiss potential jurors they don’t want on the panel without providing a reason. They both have four strikes left.

Another prospective juror has been dismissed after he said he can’t be fair.

“It would be hard for me to maintain that impartiality and fairness,” he said.

As a group of potential jurors are being questioned by the judge, here’s what we are learning about them:

Remember: The questions are being used for the judge to strike jurors at the outset, if they don’t believe they can render a verdict fairly. They are also being used by lawyers for both sides to strike jurors for any reason — a key part of the jury selection process.

The potential juror being questioned now said she has opinions about former President Donald Trump but said they wouldn’t get in the way of her ability to be fair and impartial.

Trump leaned over to his attorneys right after she said that. They, in response, nodded.

The prospective juror said she gets news from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and CNN, and said she occasionally watches Fox News “to see what’s going on on all sides.” She said she works as an attorney and once was a legislative intern.

After several hours of court proceedings today, Judge Juan Merchan now finds himself with fewer seated jurors than when he started.

Ultimately, the court needs 12 New Yorkers to be empaneled on the jury for former President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial, and likely needs another six alternates.

The day started with seven jurors already seated and a batch of 96 potential new jury members ready for consideration. But as the court started paring down the new group, Merchan found himself excusing two jurors who had already been seated.

The first juror to go expressed concerns about her identity being shared publicly, saying friends and family had already reached out to her asking about the trial after her description was published in news reports.

Now, a second juror has been excused, this time after prosecutors said they found information that called into question the truthfulness of their answers during voir dire, the period where lawyers from both sides question potential jurors.

As for today’s batch: Judge Juan Merchan says nine prospective jurors are filling out their questionnaires, and then there will be a lunch recess.

Donald Trump is leaning back in his chair with his arms folded, while looking toward the jury box as one of the prospective juror who is being questioned now speaks. 

Judge Juan Merchan says the questionnaire is continuing with nine prospective jurors, and then there will be a lunch recess.

Jurors returned to their seats and are answering the questionnaire.

A second juror who was empaneled yesterday has been excused. That means we’re now down to five people on the jury.

Earlier today, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said he notified the court that in the prosecution’s research, they found information about this juror that called into question the veracity of the answers he gave during voir dire.

Prosecutors said they found records of a person with the same name who was arrested in the 1990s for tearing down political advertisements.

Court has resumed, with Judge Juan Merchan on the bench.

Donald Trump is back in the room.

The judge is engaged in conversation with the lawyers.

Former President Donald Trump stood waiting to go out of the courtroom for about a minute before exiting. He gave a smirk to reporters in the room as he walked out.

An empaneled juror who was supposed to come in this morning is walking to the courtroom.

Judge Juan Merchan says that the juror thought he was supposed to come on Friday. Merchan is huddling with the juror and the attorneys while former President Donald Trump remains seated at the defendant’s table.

The juror was speaking a few feet behind him and has now left the courtroom.

Earlier today, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said he notified the court that in the prosecution’s research, they found information about this juror that called into question the veracity of the answers he gave during voir dire.

Prosecutors said they found records of a person with the same name who was arrested in the 1990s for tearing down political advertisements.

We’re down to six empaneled jurors in former President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial, and another batch of potential members is currently under consideration.

Here are some of the key developments so far today:

Court is now in a 15-minute break.

Former President Donald Trump appears engrossed with potential jurors seated in the jury box as they give their answers to the questionnaire, according to reporters in the courtroom.

He is leaning way back in his chair as he cranes his head to get a good view of them as they speak.

— From pool reports

Legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers has told CNN the events of Thursday morning’s juror selection, during which one woman was excused because she said she had been identified by friends, family and colleagues was “very unusual.”

Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Rodgers said jury selection was “going backward.” We had 7 jurors as of first thing this morning, now we have 6 and maybe even five because one of the jurors didn’t turn up,” she said.

“So, we’re heading in the wrong direction in terms of getting this jury complete.”

The jury selection process in the hush money trial against Donald Trump is proving to be difficult, as Judge Juan Merchan, prosecutors and Trump attorneys question a new panel of people.

CNN’s Kara Scannell explains what happens once 18 jurors are in the box.

“They’re going to build out the little profiles for the first 18 jurors in the box. Once they see 18, meaning they’ve gone through the questionnaire and they don’t believe any need to be excused” the attorneys will have their chance to find out more about the jurors.

The prosecution and Trump’s lawyers will each have 30 minutes to question the panel of jurors.

Scannell noted that what we’ve seen during this part of the jury selection process is that the prosecution is trying to get to the actual issue in the case by asking questions like can the jurors believe someone who has previously lied under oath or if they can look past someone’s job as an adult film actor.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers have been asking questions that are more geared toward how people feel about the former president. “Trying to unearth if there was a hidden bias, subconscious bias, against him,” Scannell said.

Remember: Ultimately, 12 New Yorkers and likely six alternates will need to be selected.

A group of potential jurors are being questioned by the judge now. Here’s how things are playing out at the moment:

Another prospective juror says she is a stay-at-home mom with three kids. She’s originally from Colorado and is not married. She used to teach and has a master’s degree. She says she does not follow the news.

A prospective juror who says she works for a law firm said she has previously discussed the legal merits of Donald Trump’s case with coworkers when she worked as a law clerk.

At one point, after a long pause and a deep sigh, she said she thinks she can be fair.

She reiterated her knowledge of this case several times: “It’s hard to unring a bell,” she said.

As the first prospective juror is answering questions from the judge, Donald Trump looked over at her for a while. He then turned his gaze back to the judge.

The jury box has been filled with potential jurors from today’s batch, and the judge will soon begin going through a list of 42 questions with each prospective juror.

Judge Juan Merchan last week released the questionnaire that is being presented to potential jurors in court. It contains multiple questions that could signal political views to the lawyers on both sides.

A panel of 12 New Yorkers and six alternates need to be seated to decide whether to convict Donald Trump. Six jurors are empaneled so far.

Here’s a look at some of the topics of the questions:

Those in the jury pool will also be asked if they have views on whether a former president can be charged in state court and how Trump is being treated in this case.

The questions are being used for the judge to strike jurors at the outset, if they don’t believe they can render a verdict fairly. They are also being used by lawyers for both sides to strike jurors for any reason — a key part of the jury selection process.

There are 39 potential jurors remaining of the initial batch of 96, after 48 were excused because they felt they could not be fair and impartial, and another nine who had other conflicts.

Nine more prospective jurors have been excused because they had something that would conflict with the trial.

The remaining potential jurors are now being asked if there is any other reason — such as scheduling or work — that would prevent them from serving on the jury.

Forty-eight people from the jury pool of 96 have been excused so far, as they are being questioned row by row about being fair and impartial, according to reporters inside the courtroom.

— From pool reports

Donald Trump turned around to stare at the potential jurors behind him as some of the people in the group were excused, according to journalists inside the courtroom.

It’s the first time he’s looked back at the prospective jurors today.

— From pool reports

Twelve potential jurors from the batch of roughly 100 have been excused so far, according to reporters in court.

Judge Juan Merchan now is asking prospective jurors to raise their hand if they feel they can’t be fair and impartial.

He is going row by row to excuse potential jurors.

As Judge Juan Merchan reads his instructions, the jury pool is sitting mostly still and listening to the judge. They are filling out all of the previously empty rows in the courtroom.

Former President Donald Trump’s aides moved from the back row to the front behind his attorneys to make room for the jurors.

As the prospective jurors filed into the room, some seem surprised to see former President Donald Trump at the defense table, according to journalists inside the court. 

Trump appears keenly attentive to those potential jurors seated in the jury box.

When the defense is introduced to the potential jurors seated in the audience, Trump does not stand up like his legal team does to turn and face them.

— From pool reports

Judge Juan Merchan is addressing the new batch of potential jurors and giving them the same speech he gave to to the first group on Monday, including instructions that they will have to follow the facts and the law. 

The judge introduced the lawyers on each side as well as defendant Donald Trump.

A new panel of about 100 potential jurors is now walking into the courtroom and taking their seats.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass notified the court yesterday that in their research, they found information about one of the empaneled jurors that calls into question the veracity of the answers they gave during voir dire.

Prosecutors said they found records of a person with the same name who was arrested in the 1990s for tearing down political advertisements.

He’s been called in today but he isn’t here yet.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche said he doesn’t want to dismiss the juror without hearing from him, so they’ll circle back to it when the juror shows up to court.

CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig says former President Donald Trump violated his gag order in a post to Truth Social.

In the post, Trump quotes Fox News host Jesse Watters and writes: “They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury.”

Remember: A gag order was issued by Judge Juan Merchan to stop Trump from making statements about witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff or the family members of prosecutors and court staff in late March.

Honig told CNN’s Kate Bolduan the post was “over the line.”

“If Donald Trump had simply typed out what he typed out, but not put quotation marks around it and attributed it to Jesse Watters. It would be a straight down the middle flagrant violation of the gag order and I don’t think Donald Trump’s going to be able to convince the Judge that he can get around it simply by attributing it to somebody else or taking something that somebody else said and re-posting it.”

Honig added that the fundamental reason for the gag order was to protect members of the jury.

Now prosecutors say former President Donald Trump violated the gag order seven more times.

“It’s ridiculous and it has to stop,” prosecutor Chris Conroy said.

According to pool reports, the prosecutors outlined when they say Trump violated the gag order: One links to a New York Post article calling Michael Cohen a “serial perjurer” and the case “an embarrassment for the NY legal system.” Later that day, Trump posted the same link and the same text on his website, they say. Last night at 7:09 p.m., they say Trump posted another article showing Cohen and attacking his credibility. Finally, “and this is the most disturbing post in light of what just happened this morning,” Conroy says, that they are “catching undercover liberal activists lying to the judge” in order to get on the Trump jury, quoting the commentator Jesse Watters.

Trump attorney Emil Bove argues that there’s a gray area with Cohen, who repeatedly talks about Trump in the public. He says Trump’s response about Cohen have been political in nature.

A juror sworn onto Donald Trump’s jury panel Tuesday was dismissed Thursday morning after expressing concerns that part of her identity were made public by the media.

There are now six jurors empaneled. Juror No. 2 told Judge Juan Merchan:

“Aspects of my identity have already been out there in the public, yesterday alone I had friends colleagues and family push things to my phone questioning my identity as a juror,” she said.

The juror’s concerns reflected the historic nature of the case and the intense pressure in a polarized political climate that will be on the panel of people who are called to do their civic duty to be fair and impartial.

Merchan then addressed the press in court, telling them “there’s a reason this is an anonymous jury.”

Merchan said he agrees with the defense that it’s important to obtain information about prospective jurors’ employers. But he says he is going to have those answers to questions 3a and 3d redacted from the court record, and he is directing the press in the courtroom and in the overflow not to report those answers.

“It’s become a problem,” Merchan says.

Questions 3a and 3d ask: Who is your current employer and who is your previous employer?

While having an empaneled juror excused is not common, the juror’s concern about aspects of her identity being revealed is a byproduct of a high profile case with a lot of publicity.

Judge Juan Merchan ruled media outlets cannot publish the jurors’ answers to question 3 on the questionnaire. It will also be redacted from the transcripts.

Questions 3a and 3d ask: “Who is your current employer and who is your previous employer?”

Donald Trump attorney Todd Blanche suggested that Judge Juan Merchan instruct members of the press not to publish where potential jurors work.

Merchan is considering the options now. He hasn’t ruled yet.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass suggested they direct the jurors not to announce the company where they are employed.

Judge Juan Merchan liked the idea, but former President Donald Trump’s team pushed back. Trump attorney Susan Necheles said, “It’s the government’s fault we don’t have a written questionnaire. We knew this would be a problem.”

After a paneled juror expressed concerns in court about her ability to serve, Judge Juan Merchan addressed the press in court, telling them “there’s a reason this is an anonymous jury.”

“I’m directing that the press simply apply common sense and refrain from writing about anything that has to do with physical descriptions, it’s just not necessary, it serves no purpose,” the judge said.

“We just lost what probably would’ve been a very good juror,” Merchan said. “The first thing she said was she was afraid and intimidating by the press.”

The juror says that she has concerns because “aspects of my identity” have been out there and she’s concerned she will not be able to act fair and impartial.

“Yesterday alone, I had friends colleagues and family push things to my phone questioning my identity as a juror,” she said.

She is excused.

Trump ally Jason Miller and Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung are seated inside the courtroom, according to reports from journalists in court.

The juror is now speaking with Judge Juan Merchan, who is questioning her.

One of the empaneled jurors called the court expressing concerns about her ability to be fair and impartial. The court asked her to come in to discuss further.

She is here today, and she will enter the courtroom momentarily.

The court is in session. The prosecution and defense will continue to vet prospective jurors to select a jury of 12, along with six alternates. 

A fresh panel of 96 potential jurors will be interviewed Thursday, to add to the seven jurors who were seated on Tuesday.

The prosecution and defense have used six peremptory strikes so far. They both have four strikes left.

Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench this morning. Follow along for more updates from court.

Former President Donald Trump is sitting between his attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove. He’s leaning back in his chair and whispering to Blanche, who is bent over him. Bove is leaning in to hear too.

Former President Donald Trump has entered the courtroom ahead of the third day of his criminal trial. He didn’t say anything as he went inside.

Jury selection is expected to continue soon.

We begin Day 3 of former President Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial with seven jurors seated. The prosecution and defense have both used six peremptory strikes to remove jurors so far. They both have four strikes left.

What strikes are used for: “There are some people that you think, maybe the other side is going to strike them, therefore, I can spare my strike,” Richard Gabriel, a jury consultant, told CNN. “So you’re prioritizing who are your most high-risk individuals, and then trying to eliminate them to basically reshape the pool a little bit, so you get the most advantageous hearing.”

Both sides are looking for different things, Gabriel added. He said the prosecution is looking for a consensus jury — a group of people that will get along and come to a unanimous verdict. Meanwhile, the defense is looking for high-conflict jury — one that will not get along because even if one juror doesn’t agree with the verdict, it’s a win for Trump, Gabriel said.

Attorneys can also argue to strike jurors for cause, which the defense did successfully twice on Tuesday. 

Social media posts are playing a pivotal role: While the jurors in this case are anonymous to the public, the lawyers were given the identities of the first panel of 96 prospective jurors on Monday. That gave Trump’s team the chance to mine their public social media postings to be ready for their challenges to the judge. Trump’s legal team challenged prospective jurors on their ability to be impartial in the proceedings based on their past social media posts. 

Judge is tired of this approach: While Judge Juan Merchan struck two potential jurors for cause based on their social media posts, he noted that this cannot happen with every juror. “If you have the goods on someone you need to politely and respectfully” ask them about it, he said.

 Donald Trump’s motorcade has arrived at the courthouse where the former president is expected to attend a third day of jury selection.

Trump usually speaks to media ahead of court proceedings, which typically get underway at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Jury selection in the first ever criminal trial of a former US president has moved briskly, with the judge suggesting opening statements could begin Monday.

On Tuesday, after just a day and a half of jury selection, seven people from Manhattan were selected to judge the evidence in the New York case against former President Donald Trump.

Thursday, attorneys will pick up with a pool of nearly 100 jurors and begin questioning them until they seat a total of 12 jurors and as many as six alternates.

Four men and three women have been selected so far as jurors for the case. They include two attorneys, an oncology nurse, a software engineer, a schoolteacher who said she likes that Trump speaks his mind, and a grandfather who said he finds Trump fascinating and mysterious. The foreman is originally from Ireland and works in sales.

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to coverup payments made to bury an allegation of an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Read more about Trump’s hush money trial ahead of today’s jury selection.

Donald Trump’s motorcade is on its way to the courthouse for the third day of his criminal trial.

After being dark on Wednesday – as is expected for the duration of the expected six-week trial – the court will resume jury selection today with a new panel of 96 prospective jurors, looking for the remaining five jurors along with six alternates.

Here are the takeaways from day 2 of the Trump hush money trial:

We have (more than half) a jury: So far four men and three women have been selected to serve on the jury. A man originally from Ireland who works in sales in New York City was appointed as the jury foreperson, who essentially serves as the panel spokesperson. Five of the seven have a college degree or higher education. Two men on the panel are lawyers. All but one juror empaneled Tuesday indicated that they’re aware Trump is facing charges in other criminal cases. The woman was the only one of the 18 jurors questioned who said she wasn’t aware of the other charges. None of them shared particularly strong views about Trump or politics.

Trump’s lawyers scrutinize jurors’ social media: Trump’s side asked the judge to remove five jurors for cause, pointing to alleged anti-Trump social media posts and trying to argue that the jurors were unfairly biased against the former president. When the former president’s attorney Todd Blanche was questioning the jurors, he asked them one-by-one what they thought of Trump, outside of the case. He then tried to argue before the judge that many of the jurors’ answers that they didn’t have an opinion of Trump did not align with their social media. Judge Juan Merchan was generally skeptical, but he did agree on two counts that the jurors should be struck. As for the three jurors Merchan did not strike: Trump’s side used its peremptory challenges to remove all of them anyway. After Tuesday, both Trump’s team and the district attorney’s office have four peremptory challenges remaining each.

Trump gets admonished (again): Trump was admonished for his conduct when Merchan brought in one of the jurors individually to discuss her social media posts raised by Trump’s team. After the juror left the courtroom, Merchan raised his voice and admonished Trump, saying he was was audibly speaking and gesturing in the direction of the juror. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in the courtroom,” Merchan told Blanche, raising his voice.

Jury selection could end – maybe – by the end of the week: One of the things Merchan has emphasized this week is that the court schedule is fluid. But the judge is hoping to wrap up jury selection this week. After swearing in the seven jurors Tuesday, Merchan told them he hopes they can return next Monday for opening statements – but he emphasized that the schedule could always change and the court would be in touch.

The hush money criminal trial against former President Donald Trump is one of four criminal cases he faces while juggling his presidential campaign.

The former president is facing at least 88 charges over the four criminal indictments in Georgia, New York, Washington, DC, and Florida. Trump has pleaded not guilty to every charge in these cases. 

Here’s a recap of each case: 

Read more about the four criminal cases Trump faces. 

Seven jurors were seated in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial Tuesday. Here’s what we know about them:

The first seated juror, who will be the foreperson on Trump’s jury, is a man originally from Ireland. He works in sales and has some college education. He is married but doesn’t have kids. He reads The New York Times and Daily Mail and watches some Fox News and MSNBC. The second juror is an oncology nurse who lives with her fiancé. She’s a native New Yorker. She reads The New York Times and watches CNN. The third seated juror is a corporate lawyer. He’s originally from Oregon. He gets his news from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Google. He’s a younger man who’s never been married and doesn’t have kids.  The fourth juror is an older man originally Puerto Rico who’s married with adult children and two grandkids. When asked about his hobbies, he said, “I guess my hobby is my family.” He has an IT business for training and consulting and attended one year of college. He told the court he finds Trump fascinating and mysterious. “So many people are set off one way or the other and that is interesting,” the man said. “Really, this one guy can do all of this, wow.” Trump “makes things interesting,” the man said, but also didn’t indicate any strong feelings about his politics. The fifth juror is a young Black woman who teaches English language in a public charter school system. She has a master’s degree in education, is not married and doesn’t have any kids. The juror said that as a person of color she has friends who have strong opinions on Trump, but she personally is not a political person. She said she tries to avoid political conversations and doesn’t really care for the news. The juror did say she appreciates Trump’s candor: “President Trump speaks his mind and I’d rather that than someone who’s in office who you don’t know what they’re thinking.” She was also the only juror of 18 in the box Tuesday morning who said she wasn’t aware that Trump is facing charges in other criminal cases. The sixth juror is a software engineer at a large broadcast company who recently graduated from college. She voiced no strong feelings about Donald Trump one way or the other and said, “I will be fair and impartial.” She is not married and has no kids, currently living with three roommates in Chelsea. The juror gets her news from The New York Times, Google, Facebook and TikTok. She asked the judge whether her sister’s wedding on a Sunday in September would be a scheduling conflict. Merchan quipped, “If we were still here in September that would be a big problem,” garnering laughs in the courtroom. The seventh juror is a civil litigator who is married with two kids and lives on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. Originally from North Carolina, he reads The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post and The Washington Post. He said he has “political views as to the Trump presidency” and that he thinks there were likely Trump administration policies he disagreed with. “I don’t know the man and I don’t have opinions about him personally,” he said. “I certainly follow the news, I’m aware there are other lawsuits out there. But I’m not sure that I know anyone’s character.”

Before Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial began, experts had deemed that selecting a jury would be a long and challenging task. But seven jurors had already been seated by the end of Day 2. 

Five more jurors, as well as six alternates, are required for jury selection to conclude. 

“Remember, the tactic here from defense counsel for months and months, it was to delay this trial. This pace is absolutely antithetical to trying to delay that process. In other words, this defendant, Donald Trump, has the pacing of most defendants who are charged with the crime in New York City,” CNN chief legal analyst Laura Coates said Tuesday. 

Remember: For months now, Trump’s team has pushed to delay the New York trial, as part of the former president’s broader strategy of trying to push back all four of his trials until after the 2024 election.

Donald Trump has faced three civil trials in New York since he left the White House, but this is the first time he faces possible jail time.

The former president is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, stemming from reimbursements made to his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for hush money payments he made before the 2016 election to an adult film star alleging an affair with Trump. The former president has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair with Stormy Daniels.

Each count represents a separate instance of the alleged misconduct, pointing to different business records associated with a series of repayments to Cohen (ledger entries, checks, stubs, invoices, etc.) that were allegedly falsified to conceal his criminal conduct.

Penalty: The maximum penalty for each count is four years in state prison. However, the judge has discretion on how long any sentence should be and whether to allow any sentences to be served consecutively. He could also sentence Trump to probation.

New York caps sentencing for this type of felony at 20 years.

A president has no authority to pardon state crimes.

Kara McGee, a juror dismissed from the hush money criminal trial, told CNN Tuesday she wasn’t sure if she was being considered for the case against Donald Trump until she walked into the courtroom and saw the former president.

“So yeah, it was when we walked into the courtroom and saw him that it was — that I was sure, that it was definitely this case,” McGee said. She said that Trump made eye contact with her, which she said was “odd.”

McGee said that it was a fascinating experience because on the one hand, she was aware that “this is history in the making and whatever the outcome of this is, everything going forward will be affected by it” and at the same time she walked into the courtroom and saw Trump sitting there and realized, “Oh it’s just a guy … he’s just a dude.”

McGee said that she believes she was dismissed because of her answer to a question regarding additional things that may impact her ability to serve on the jury. McGee said she mentioned her work schedule conflicting with her being able to be in court from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for an extended period of time. She said she was dismissed right after that question, even though they did not specify why she was dismissed.

Donald Trump’s legal team is frustrated after one juror was dismissed for having a pro-Trump bias, CNN’s Kristen Holmes reported.

The former president’s attorneys have been concerned about the political makeup of Manhattan and worried that they were not going to get anyone sympathetic to Trump, according to Holmes.

The defense team is not optimistic that it is going to win this case outright, Holmes says, but they are trying to get at least one sympathetic juror to try and aim for a hung jury.

Remember: A unanimous verdict is required for conviction.

Former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial is expected to take six to eight weeks from start to finish.

This trial, related to a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016, is the first of four ongoing criminal cases that are expected to head to trial for the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee.

Read more about the stages of the case, and what they mean here.

The identities of the jurors will remain anonymous, but are known to the attorneys on both sides.

On Monday, former President Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche asked Judge Juan Merchan how attorneys will get the names of the jury pool. Merchan said he will give them copies of jury lists with just numbers and a single copy with names and numbers. He told the lawyers the jurors are not to be photographed.

Former President Donald Trump was first indicted in March 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney on state charges related to a hush money payment to an adult film star in 2016.

As the case goes to trial, catch up on the key people in the case below:

An exhaustive process is underway to seat 12 jurors, along with six alternates, for Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial. The judge 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:

Why does this matter: The questions will be used for the judge to strike jurors at the outset, if they don’t believe they can render a verdict fairly. They will also be used by lawyers for both sides to strike jurors for any reason — a key part of the jury selection process.

If Donald Trump opts to testify at his New York criminal trial, Manhattan prosecutors want to use his past legal run-ins to discredit him to the jury.

In a filing released Wednesday, prosecutors for the Manhattan District Attorney’s (DA) Office said they will ask the former president about:

The judge plans to hold a proceeding called a Sandoval hearing to rule on what’s fair fodder for prosecutors if Trump takes the stand in his defense later at trial. A Sandoval hearing is a common preliminary proceeding that reviews a defendant’s criminal history and looks at how much prosecutors can ask if a defendant testifies.

The first criminal trial of a US ex-president is underway in New York where former President Donald Trump faces charges from the Manhattan District attorney related to a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016. 

This is the first of four criminal cases expected to go to trial for Trump, also the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee. CNN compiled a timeline of the key events leading up to the historic trial. 

Here’s how we got here: 

See the full timeline. 

There are two Donald Trump criminal trials now taking place.

There’s the one in a Manhattan courtroom, where a judge, attorneys for both sides and prospective jurors are making strenuous efforts to lay the foundation of the fair trial to which the ex-president and every other citizen is entitled.

And there’s the imaginary trial that exists in Trump’s rhetoric, led by “heartless thugs” and a “very conflicted judge” who is “rushing the trial” that the presumptive GOP nominee claims is a “Biden inspired witch-hunt.”

In court on Tuesday, Trump made eye contact with potential jurors and was admonished by Judge Juan Merchan for muttering while one was questioned.

But the surprisingly snappy pace of the process confounded initial expectations that putting on trial possibly the most famous man on Earth would be a laborious and prolonged process.

While there were occasional moments of levity in the court and reminders that Trump’s status make him a defendant like none other, conversations that members of the jury pool had with the judge and defense lawyers and prosecutors hinted at the gravity of what will unfold in the coming weeks.

One potential juror, for instance, noted:

Read the full analysis.