Yesterday, Costello behaved so atrociously on the witness stand that Juan Merchan cleared the courtroom to admonish him & the defense attorneys. Costello is due back on the stand
Some of Trump's team, since the start of the trial, have been noticeably confident of a #HungJury. #Blanche, Trump's lead lawyer, shared his thoughts about the idea w/a NY Magazine reporter who wrote a cover story about him as the trial kicked off.
The prediction that the trial will end w/that outcome has been striking, particularly since hung juries, in which jurors cannot agree on a defendant's guilt or innocence, are relatively unusual.
Prosecutors in Trumpās #criminal trial say he has violated a #GagOrder barring him from attacking #witnesses, #jurors & others close to the case. Testimony is set to resume later Tuesday morning.
Alright, whoās ready to see #Trump get his just deserts? He fucked up the whole damn world & thatās not an overstatement.
PS #BabySquirrel & I had a lovely weekend. Itās as boy! (Heās developed discernible - stuff)
He is doing quite well! Name: āRamoneā because heās a sweet little punk rocker.
Lawyers indicated that their opening statements will take a little more than an hour combined. Justice Juan #Merchan also noted that one #juror reached out before court resumed to express nervousness about the media attention surrounding the case, but the judge added that the juror is still here.
A #juror was quickly dismissed at the start. She was among the 7 already selected, she said she was very worried that despite the fact the court ruled to keep jurorsā name secret, she would still be exposed & targeted.
The #juror explained that aspects of her being part of the jury are now out in #public. She said she was concerned about people knowing her identity.
The juror is worried about what has already been reported about her publicly. She said she had friends, colleagues & family conveying to her that she had been identified as a potential juror.
We are down to 6 jurors, & apparently waiting to hear from another, juror 4. The judge is addressing the #NewsMedia, saying there is a reason #reporters are taking measures to keep the #jury#anonymous.
It ākind of defeats the purpose of that" when so much information is #publicized about them.
"There's a reason this is an #anonymous#jury & why we have taken the steps we have taken," Justice #Merchan says, asking that the #press "abide common sense," & avoid physical descriptions.
Merchan says we lost a #juror who he thinks would have "been a very good juror."
"I'm directing the press to refrain from writing anything you observe w/your eyes & hear w/your ears that's not on the record," the judge says.
Joshua Steinglass, a Manhattan DA office prosecutor, suggested that prospective #jurors not be asked to answer who their current & previous employers are, to better anonymize them.
The judge says it's a great suggestion.
It was the juror questionnaire, which was not created by the #press, that included a question about employers.
Justice #Merchan says the questions about employers are necessary. But he directs prospective jurors' answers to be #redacted from the transcript & #reporters to not report them.
Christopher Conroy, one of the Manhattan DA prosecutors, is now arguing that #Trump has continued to violate the #GagOrder that was placed on him. [ya think?]
Emil Bove, one of Trump's lawyers, says #Trump is simply responding to "political attacks" when he criticizes #MichaelCohen, his fmr atty & #fixer, who's a key trial #witness.
#Merchan makes no immediate ruling on possible violation of the #GagOrder, saying he will wait for a hearing scheduled for April 23.
So yeah, Trump is certain to spend the time before then posting crap that will test the gag order's limits.
#Merchan is now saying that the DAās office came across information about juror #4 that called the veracity of that juror's answers into questions. The juror did not arrive at court on time.
The judge notes that the #juror was asked to be here at 9:15 & is still not here, & he expressed some reluctance to come in this morning. He is letting the parties discuss whether to dismiss the juror or wait for him.
w/a celebrity trialāor a case that elicits strong feelingsāthereās a dynamic where people are trying to get on the #jury. Not so w/the #TrumpTrial; >50 of Mondayās 1st group of 96 said they couldnāt be fair. Dozens today have said the same, & theyāve had a few days to think about the ramifications of serving.
So far, 48 prospective #jurors left bc they said they could not be fair & impartial, 9 more were excused for other reasons. 39 are left in this group.
The prospective #jurors will now be asked the 42 questions on the juror questionnaire, starting w/ basics. Theyāll also be asked more targeted questions re their political leanings. For example, they will be asked if they have ever attended a #Trump rally or read one of his books.
Trump has been animated at points this morning, but now, he has partially closed his eyes --- his new narrative is he does this when heās trying to keep from lashing out.
The juror spoke to the lawyers. If he were to remain on the jury, the lawyers will know this juror better than they know any others, due to all of this interaction.
Merchan tapped the microphone then stated he was excusing juror 4.
Itās probably safe to say that few, if any, judges have had to deal w/the array of #threats to #their trial that Justice #Merchan has had to. Besides #Trump himself, who constantly tests the boundaries of his #GagOrder, there are his allies who attacking the judge & his family & who arenāt covered by the gag order. Then thereās the #media who has been putting potentially identifying info about prospective #jurors on TV.
In a brief interview outside the courtroom, #juror4 who was just dismissed declined to give his name & said he didnāt want to answer questions. But nodded when asked if he thought he could be unbiased & shook his head when asked if he felt at all intimidated in the courtroom.
Asked if he thought he should have been dismissed, he gave a one-word answer: āNope.ā
A total of 7 jurors had been seated on Tues.
2 of the 7 have now been dismissed. No one yet has been newly selected.
So we are down to just 5 seated jurors.
Lawyers on both sides of the case must now replace the 2 ā & find several more.
But >Ā½ of a fresh group of 96 prospective jurors were dismissed almost immediately, including 48 who indicated that they did not believe they could be fair & impartial.
@Nonilex This is not surprising. Jurors answer the questions. The press publicizes the answers. The answers are used to identify the jurors with a fairly high degree of confidence. The jurors are harassed by friends, family, and coworkers to spill the tea. They then realize that they cannot remain anonymous and that their safety is at risk.
A sensationalist press is complicit in making this nearly impossible to seat a jury.
I personally would refuse to answer many of these questions if there was any possibility of the answers being made public, as they are a gross invasion of privacy and a social engineering hackerās dream. Thereās very little possibility of someone remaining anonymous from this.
#JurySelection began w/a sworn in juror getting dismissed over doxxing concerns.
āI definitely have concerns now. One of them especially being the aspects of my identity have already been out there in public. Yesterday alone I had friends, colleagues & family push things to my phone regarding questioning my identity as a juror.ā
āWeāre going to ask you to be patient as we walk you through all those documents in what sometimes may seem like excruciating detail.ā
The potential jurors, called on individually by Steinglass, said they could do that.
#Trump is reportedly staring intently at the jury box as the #VoirDire goes on. He (again) shakes his head as Steinglass references someone being ācriminally liableā for the acts of others.
Necheles is all but cross-examining certain prospective jurors about their #socialmedia posts & #personal info.
One juror said she fiercely disagrees w/ #Trump politically but has no feelings personally.
Necheles asked if the prospective juror's husband had written a ābook opinionā about Trump. The juror said that her husband does write book reviews.
#Trump's lawyer, Susan Necheles, confronted many prospective #jurors about their #socialmedia activity, clearly the lawyers know things about them, a lot of which was not stuff they were asked in open court. They clearly have people doing deep dives on these people. Itād be pretty hard to not have concerns that their identities will be leaked
More about the question of whether #Trump violated his #GagOrder by posting a quote from #FoxNews' #JesseWatters, Trump didnāt ārepostā Watters, he wrote out his own post referencing Wattersās false characterization of prospective jurors.