As former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial continued Friday, the 12 people who will sit on the jury were selected alongside six alternates after they convinced both the prosecution and the defense that they could render a fair and impartial verdict.
Appeals court won’t stop trial over defense complaints regarding jury
Update 4:45 p.m. EDT April 19: An appeals court judge has denied Trump’s legal team’s request to stop the trial as they are working to get their case moved out of the Manhattan area, according to The Associated Press.
Judge Marsha Michael’s decision came after the end of the jury selection process in Trump’s hush money trial.
-- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Who are the alternate jurors?
Update 2:45 p.m. EDT April 19: Here’s what we know about the alternate jurors:
Alternate Juror 1: The first alternate to be seated, who was chosen Thursday, said she works in finance and gets her news from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, according to The Washington Post. She lives in Midtown East.
Alternate Juror 2: The second alternate is originally from Spain and said she does not follow the news or have social media accounts, CNN reported. She said that she likes to travel and is married with adult children.
Alternate Juror 3: CNN described the third alternate juror as “a native New Yorker.” He is an audio professional, ABC News reported.
Alternate Juror 4: The fourth alternate described herself as “not a big news person” but said she looks at The New York Times, Reuters and the BBC, according to CNN. She said that she has social media profiles but she does not use them.
Alternate Juror 5: The fifth alternate is a married woman who works for a clothing company and said she gets her news from Google, CNN reported. She is originally from Texas, according to ABC News.
Alternate Juror 6: The sixth alternate is a project manager for a construction company and lives on the Upper East Side, ABC News reported. She said her father was convicted of a federal crime when she was in high school but that she was “shielded” from details of the incident at the time, according to the news network.
— Theresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
All six alternates chosen
Update 1:35 p.m. EDT April 19: As of Friday afternoon, all six of the alternate jurors who will serve during Trump’s trial have been chosen, according to The New York Times.
Opening statements are expected to begin Monday.
— Theresa Seiger, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
What we know about the new jurors
Update 5:10 p.m. EDT April 18: Here is what we know about the jurors chosen Thursday to serve in Donald Trump’s hush money trial:
Juror 8: Juror No. 8 is a retired wealth manager. He is married and has two children. According to CNN, he is focused on his hobbies, which are fly fishing and yoga.
Juror 9: Juror No. 9 is a speech therapist with a master’s degree. She is not married and has no children.
Juror 10: Juror No. 10 works in retail and says he doesn’t follow the news but does listen to podcasts, according to CNN. He is not married but lives with a roommate.
Juror: 11: Juror No. 11 works for a multinational apparel company. She is not married and has no children. According to CNN, she does not follow the news regularly and usually reads publications that are specific to her industry.
Juror 12: Juror No. 12 is a physical therapist with a doctorate who follows some news outlets.
-- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
12 jurors selected for Trump jury
Update 4:56 p.m. EDT April 18: Twelve people have been selected for the jury for Trump’s trial as of Thursday afternoon, according to The Associated Press. Alternates are in the process of being selected with one already selected, according to CNN.
Friday is expected to be the last day of jury selection. Court resumes on Friday at 9:30 a.m. EST, CNN reported. Judge Merchan is hoping that opening arguments can begin on Monday, according to The New York Times.
-- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Two jurors picked to replace excused ones
Update 4:33 p.m. EDT April 18: Two jurors have been picked to replace the jurors who were excused earlier in the day Thursday, according to The Associated Press.
Judge Merchan swore in the new panel of jurors which has returned to seven which was the same number at the start of the day Thursday, according to the AP.
What we know about the two new jurors:
Juror 2: Juror No. 2 is an investment banker who has a Master’s degree. He lives with his wife. According to CNN, he has been following Trump on his TruthSocial platform as well as Michael Cohen on X, formerly known as Twitter. He also had read Trump’s book called “The Art of the Deal.”
Juror 4: Juror No. 4 is a security engineer. He is married with three children. According to CNN, he has a high school diploma and does not have social media. He gets his news from a majority of news organizations.
-- Jessica Goodman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Second juror dismissed
Update 12:21 p.m. EDT April 18: Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said Thursday that he notified the court that a juror who had been seated for the trial may not have given truthful answers during voir dire.
Judge Juan Merchan dismissed the juror shortly before noon. At the start of the day, seven jurors had been seated for the trial.
According to Steinglass, questions about the veracity of the juror’s answers arose during the prosecution’s research after the juror was chosen Tuesday. Prosecutors said they found records of a person with the same name who was arrested in the 1990s for tearing down political advertisements, according to The New York Times.
The juror who was dismissed was identified as juror No. 4.
Oncology nurse is dismissed from jury, cutting jurors to six
Update 9:40 a.m. EDT April 18: One of the jurors seated in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Tuesday afternoon has been excused from the jury after she told Judge Juan Merchan that she no longer feels she can be impartial in the trial.
According to CNN, the juror, an oncology nurse, said she had been contacted by friends and co-workers asking her if she was one of the jurors picked for the trial. She said they figured out she was on the jury because they knew where she worked.
“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.
That information about her place of employment was included on juror questionnaires released by the court.
Merchan said he is going to have the answers about where someone works redacted from the court record.
Merchan issued an order Thursday morning saying journalists are not allowed to report employer information of prospective jurors.
“We just lost what probably would’ve been a very good juror,” Merchan said. The judge said the juror said she was “afraid” and felt intimated by the press, according to CNN.
Original story: The seven were sworn in as jurors on Tuesday afternoon and directed by Judge Juan Merchan to return to court on Monday when opening arguments could begin in the first criminal trial of any former president.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign.
The allegations focus on payoffs to two women -- adult film actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal -- who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump years earlier, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged Trump had out of wedlock.
Trump has denied the affairs and any child born out of wedlock.
Here’s what we know about the first seven jurors:
Juror 1: Juror No. 1 is a married man. He works in sales and lives in West Harlem. Juror No. 1 likes “anything outdoorsy,” and gets news from The New York Times, Fox News and MSNBC.
Juror 2: Juror No. 2 is an oncology nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering. She lives on the Upper East Side and is engaged to be married. She said she gets her news from CNN, The New York Times, Google and Facebook. She likes to spend time with family and friends and take her dog to the park. (Dismissed on Thursday)
Juror 3: An attorney who lives in the Chelsea neighborhood was chosen as juror No. 3. He likes to hike and run, according to his questionnaire, and gets his news from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Google.
Juror 4: A man who works in IT training and consulting and lives on the Lower East Side is juror No. 4. He is married and has one child and two grandchildren. He gets news from the New York Daily News, The New York Times, Google and X. (Dismissed on Thursday)
Juror 5: Juror No. 5 is a teacher who lives with her boyfriend in Harlem. She loves to travel, write and go to the theater. She gets news from Google and TikTok and listens to podcasts on relationships and pop culture, according to her questionnaire.
Juror 6: A software engineer who lives in Chelsea is juror No. 6. She gets news from The New York Times, Google, Facebook and TikTok.
Juror 7: Juror No.7 is an attorney and civil litigator. He lives on the Upper East Side and loves the outdoors. He gets his news from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and The Washington Post.
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