For The Washington Post

nat-trumpnyjurytracker-12

Trump Manhattan criminal court

The Washington Post

Former US President Trump attends hush money hearing over porn star payment, New York, USA - 25 Mar 2024

Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears at court in New York

FILE PHOTO: David Pecker, chair and CEO of American Media, speaks at the Shape and Men's Fitness Super Bowl Party in New York

Donald Trump

for The Washington Post

Former U.S. President Trump's criminal trial on charges of falsifying business records continues in New York

Photographer

Donald Trump Presents New Proposal For World Trade Center Site

Staff

Getty

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Attorney general moves to reclassify marijuana as lower-risk drug

Poll shows how RFK Jr.’s appeal to anti-vaccine right could hurt Trump

Views of the campus protests are too broad — and too narrow

The FBI director’s concerns over terrorism are at ‘a whole other level’ 

U.S. campus protests spread to the Middle East and Europe  

Biden is letting Assad off the hook, with dangerous consequences

Miss Manners: Some audience members ask rambling questions post-lecture

Carolyn Hax: Her family left all the kitchen work to her, so she went on strike

Ask Amy: Why did my friend lie about seeing my ex-girlfriend?

I learned to heal my sadness by cradling dying chickens 

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

Soldiers reunite with their pets from overseas: ‘It meant everything to me’

Apple banned this app for years. It’s now America’s No. 1 iPhone app. 

8 major newspapers join legal backlash against OpenAI, Microsoft

Fired Google workers who protested Israel deal file complaint with labor board

Southwest passengers now get a $75 voucher for big flight disruptions

The Rick Steves guide to life

The sad, stale state of in-flight vegetarian meals

Trump and allies say Biden pays rent for ‘illegals’ in Michigan. Not true.

Eighty percent of Ukraine-Israel bill will be spent in U.S. or by U.S. military

Facts in the Trump courtroom v. ‘facts’ in the court of public opinion

Nationals sweep away the Marlins to get back to .500

Jayden Daniels is latest in Washington’s checkered history of first-round QBs

The Rangers swept the Capitals, and it’s time for the new core to take charge

A murder plot that cannot be ignored: India must come clean at last

How to confront antisemitism, deal with protests — and respect free speech

Is student loan debt an emergency? Take our quiz.

Americans are sleeping more than ever. See how you compare.

Parenting in Gaza today is so much more than keeping your children alive

In photos: Flash floods kill over 100 people in Kenya

 Donald Trump Speaks During A Campaign Rally In Green Bay Wisconsin

See more coverage in your recommendations

Get the weekly Campaign Moment newsletter

Set alerts for major election developments

Election 2024

The Campaign Moment newsletter

Politics alerts

Jabin Botsford

NEW YORK — A 12-member jury was assembled for Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Thursday hours after <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/18/trump-hush-money-trial-live-updates/" target=_blank>two previously sworn-in jurors were removed</a>, illustrating the intense scrutiny and potential public exposure that comes with sitting in judgment of the former president and likely 2024 Republican White House nominee.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/16/jury-trump-hush-money-trial/" target=_blank>Seven men and five women</a> have been picked, along with the first of what is expected to be a group of six alternates. Jury selection will resume Friday. While it is possible that additional sworn-in jurors will also drop out or be removed, requiring more to be screened and chosen, New York Supreme Court Justice <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/31/trump-judge-merchan-indictment/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Juan Merchan</a> said he expected opening statements on Monday.

Some of the selected jurors said during questioning that they have personal views of Trump or his presidency but could remain impartial in the case. One spoke favorably of him, saying she liked that he “speaks his mind.” Another told the court, “I don’t like his persona.”

Trump Hush Money

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/the-trump-trials/" target=_blank>Sign up for The Trump Trials newsletter</a> for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/30/trump-trial-hush-money-takeaways/" target=_blank>daily recaps of the trial</a>.

Overall, the jurors showed a range of knowledge about his court cases, with several saying they didn’t follow the news closely.

Trump is the first former U.S. president to stand criminal trial. He faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with reimbursement of a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. Prosecutors have accused Trump of classifying the reimbursement as a legal expense, rather than a campaign expense, and of authorizing the payment to Daniels to keep her from publicly accusing him just before the 2016 election of a tryst she alleged happened years earlier.

It is one of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2023/trump-investigations-indictments/" target=_blank>four criminal indictments </a>against Trump; the other three trials are delayed and may not happen before the election.

Subscribe to The Trump Trials, our newsletter to keep you up to date on Donald Trump's criminal cases

In addition to picking a jury, lawyers have been sparring in the courtroom this week over whether Trump has repeatedly violated a gag order by making public comments and social media posts related to witnesses and others Merchan has said should be protected.

That discussion led to an extraordinary exchange late Thursday in which Trump’s lawyer pledged to keep his client from posting about witnesses and the judge said he did not think that was possible.

On the first day of the trial, prosecutors asked for Trump to be held in contempt and fined $1,000 for each of what they said were three violations. Before juror candidates came into the courtroom Thursday, prosecutors alleged that Trump had violated his gag order “seven more times” in recent days by repeatedly highlighting articles and tweets disparaging the credibility of Michael Cohen, a key government witness who was once Trump’s lawyer and fixer, and that of the jurors selected on the second day of the trial. They are seeking another $7,000 in penalties.

Prosecutors specifically cited Trump’s post on his social media site Truth Social of a quote from Fox News anchor Jesse Watters speculating that some of the prospective jurors are “undercover Liberal Activists lying to the judge in order to get on the Trump jury.”

Trump’s attorneys said the post did not violate the order. The judge has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday morning to discuss the issue.

Prosecutors said that Trump’s alleged violations pose a threat to people involved in the case and their families and that they were the reason the government does not plan to give defense lawyers advance notice of which witnesses will be called when — a common courtesy in most criminal trials.

“Mr. Trump has been tweeting about the witnesses,” Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass said. “We’re not telling them who the witnesses are.”

Merchan said he “can’t blame” prosecutors for their decision and refused to order the district attorney to provide the names. He flatly expressed doubt that Trump’s lawyers could keep their client quiet in exchange for the names — a concession that defense lawyer Todd Blanche offered despite the fact that he has been adamantly fighting the gag order and complaining that it violates Trump’s rights.

Blanche offered to “commit to the Court and the People that President Trump will not Truth about any witness,” referring to Truth Social.

“I don’t think you can make that representation,” Merchan said.

Even after Blanche offered to withhold the witness names from Trump, Merchan refused to compel Steinglass to coordinate with the defense team.

At the start of the day, seven jurors had been sworn onto the jury, with five more and about six alternates still needed. But by midmorning it seemed like things were moving in the other direction.

A woman who had been selected as Juror No. 2 said she no longer thought she could be open-minded. She had called the court the previous night to say she was concerned that people in her life had identified her as a juror, apparently based on news reports or pundit commentary, even though her name had not been said in open court.

“Yesterday alone I had friends, colleagues and family push things to my phone regarding questioning my identity as a juror,” the woman said after being called into court to speak to the judge and the attorneys. “I don’t believe at this point that I can be fair and unbiased and let the outside influences not affect my decision-making in the courtroom.”

Merchan then directed reporters covering the case to refrain from publishing or publicly discussing identifiable details relating to potential jurors. He later clarified that two facts in particular were off limits: where the jury candidates are employed, and where they previously worked.

Professional backgrounds had been discussed openly since jury selection began, as candidates read answers to a lengthy biographical questionnaire and also spoke about their jobs through voir dire questioning by the prosecution and defense.

A second panelist, who had been selected as Juror No. 4, also underwent additional questioning Thursday. He had issues related to the criminal justice system that he did not reveal during the earlier rounds of screening, but he also told Merchan that he was anxious about what had been publicly revealed about him during the process.

“He expressed annoyance also at how much information had been public about him,” Merchan noted as the man was excused.

In the afternoon, lawyers resumed the individual questioning of jury candidates about issues pertinent to the case, their lives and about whether they could set aside personal feelings about Trump to sit in judgment of him fairly.

One woman who was eventually picked for the jury conceded that she thought Trump “seems very selfish and self-serving.” Like everyone who was selected, she promised that she could evaluate the case based only on the evidence that will be presented — putting her feelings on Trump aside.

The trial is slated to last six to eight weeks.

Perry Stein, Mark Berman, Derek Hawkins, Patrick Svitek and Maegan Vazquez in Washington contributed to this report.

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, MS

Montclair State University, BA in History

Shayna Jacobs is a federal courts and law enforcement reporter on the national security team at The Washington Post, where she covers the Southern and Eastern districts of New York. 

Shayna Jacobs

Pulitzer Prize co-finalist for Feature Writing, 2017

Pulitzer Prize co-finalist for International Reporting, 2017

Part of team that won Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, 2018

Part of team that won Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, 2022

"October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election"

McGill University, BA 

Devlin Barrett writes about the FBI and the Justice Department, and is the author of "October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election." He was part of reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 and 2022. In 2017 he was a co-finalist for the Pulitzer for Feature Writing and the Pulitzer for International Reporting. 

Devlin Barrett

George Washington University, BA in Journalism and Political Science

Rachel Weiner covers federal courts in Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Va. 

Rachel Weiner

Sidney Award, Sidney Hillman Foundation, 2018

Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, National Press Club, 2019

Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, honorable mention, 2019

 Toner Prize for Excellence in National Political Reporting, finalist, 2022

Finish What We Started

Isaac Arnsdorf is a national political reporter for The Washington Post who covers former president Donald Trump, the “Make America Great Again” political movement and the Republican Party. 

Isaac Arnsdorf

12 jurors picked in Trump hush money trial as lawyers spar over gag order

the-washington-post

Live updates

The jury

The charges

Key people

The judge

Trump's lawyers

The prosecutor

Balance of Power Pair

U.S. House Aggregate

U.S. Senate Aggregate

Trump hush money trial

washpost

prism://prism.query/site,/politics/courts-law&limit=20

Courts & Law

Latest news and coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/national&limit=20

National

The Washington Post's national news coverage. Get the latest national news, featuring national security, science and the courts. Read breaking national news headlines from across the U.S.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/politics&limit=20

Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.

Politics

Post Politics from The Washington Post is the source for political news headlines, in-depth politics coverage and political opinion, plus breaking news on the biden administration and White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, elections and more.

Tumultuous Trump trial day ends with 12 jurors, 1 alternate selected

Two jurors selected earlier this week for the New York hush money trial were dismissed amid heightened scrutiny