Trump Juror Dismissed Over Social Media Post
The Trump hush-money trial has started, and it is already off to a controversial start.
On day one of jury selection, not a single juror was chosen.
By the end of day two, they were not even halfway through the process, with jurors being dismissed for a variety of reasons, including anti-Trump posts on social media.
Lock Him Up
It is surreal that the GOP candidate for the presidential election is not just in one criminal trial, but four of them.
However, only one of the trials has started so far, and it is arguably the weakest case against Trump.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg waited so long to file charges that he had to get rather cute in drafting the indictment, turning what would normally be a misdemeanor into a felony by stacking ledger entries that were made regarding the hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
During the first two days of jury selection, most of the jurors were removed because they said they could not be impartial, while others had previous commitments.
One juror, however, was dismissed over a social media post in 2017, which, in referring to Trump, stated, “Lock him up!”
Even Judge Merchan, who is not exactly a fan of Trump’s, had to concede that it was not a good look for the juror and that the juror should be excused.
Merchan explained, “Everyone knows if Mr. Trump is found guilty in this case, there’s a potential jail sentence which would be lock up.”
Another juror was dismissed for having posted, “Republicans projected to pick up 70 seats in prison.” Yet another was dismissed for a vulgar parody video that was posted of Trump.
There were 96 potential jurors in the first wave, with 50 of them having already been dismissed.
Attorneys still have to agree on half of the sitting jury and the full complement of alternates.
Jury selection was initially slated to take about two days, and they are already headed into day three. A considerable task still remains to find 18 people who can be unbiased in judging Trump in this matter.
