OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
CNN’s legal analyst Elie Honig issued a big warning this week about the jury chosen for former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York City.
During an interview on CNN, Honig spoke with anchor Wolf Blitzer to discuss the seven jurors that have been chosen so far for Trump’s hush money trial in New York City.
“Jury selection, it’s a fascinating exercise, and it’s really more art than science. You’re trying to read human beings, inherently dynamic and unpredictable, but we’ve learned some really important, I think, potentially revealing details about these seven jurors,” Honig began.
“These jurors will be on the case. So far we know four males, three females. Let’s take a quick look at what we have for juror number one. Juror number one will be the foreperson. No magic powers associated with the foreperson. That’s the person who generally communicates on behalf of the jury with the judge, and tends to lead the deliberations in the room. What jumped out at me? This. Nothing remarkable in the bio, but this is a person who said he watches both Fox News and MSNBC. That’s an interesting combination. If I’m Trump and I got anyone who watches any Fox News, I want a chance that that person is going to go on the jury,” Honig said.
Honig then cautioned Trump’s team about getting too excited about the jury foreperson being potentially favorable to Trump.
“But I have to note this. In New York, I picked juries in New York, people sometimes confuse Fox News with the local Fox Five, and the jury form does not separate those two,” Honig added.
“So it could be that he’s actually talking about the local news, which is really not partisan. Honig then looked at juror numbers two and three and also noted their media habits,” Honig said.
“Let’s go to juror number two. Turn number two is a nurse here in New York. You get a lot of medical professionals, a lot of hospitals there. In my experience, medical professionals tend to be technical. They’re capable of separating facts from emotion. And really prosecutors want that. It really depends on how strongly you feel that your case is based when you get down to the technical elements of it. So you’re always going to have nurses, doctors, medical professionals, a native New Yorker watching CNN, that’s good to see,” he added.
Honig continued: “Juror number three. Okay. Juror number three. Now, this is interesting. Well, this is a lawyer. And typically the rule of thumb is lawyers don’t like lawyers on their juries. At the prosecutor’s office, we almost automatically got rid of any lawyer. But it’s also hard to do because you do have a lot of lawyers in Manhattan. The concern is that a lawyer might just take over the jury. They might say, listen, I’m a lawyer, forget about the judge, I know what’s going to happen here. But it’s hard to see the jury with no lawyers on it. Interestingly, he does read the Wall Street Journal, which has been quite critical of this particular case in its editorial pages. So juror number three, I think, would please me from Trump’s point of view.”
WATCH:
Trump is on trial in New York City on felony charges regarding a 2016 payment of hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
In April of last year, Trump entered a not guilty plea to a 34-count indictment that accused him of fabricating business records concerning a hush money payment to Daniels that his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to her in an attempt to improve his chances of winning the 2016 presidential election.
With a 6-8 week trial duration anticipated overall, jury selection may take up to two weeks.
Six jurors have been selected to serve in the criminal trial of Donald Trump for hush money. They represent a diverse cross-section of New York City, as per their biographical information. For security reasons, their identities are being kept private. Here is a brief sketch of each juror.
