A hundred people will have to answer questions to check if they can be fair and impartial. The judge hopes to have 12 jurors and 6 alternates chosen by Friday.
Judge Juan Merchán on Tuesday rejected two candidates, one of whom had published a message about Trump on the social network Facebook in which he said "lock him up," but he denied others. Both sides can file an unlimited number of challenges for cause; it is up to the judge to decide whether to grant them and strike out those jurors. The case is being treated as "election interference," by the judge, who chastised Trump for appearing to talk to one of the candidates who were being questioned about a Facebook post. "I'm not going to tolerate that. I will not allow any member of the jury to be intimidated. I want to make that very clear,' Merchán said.