By Adam Reiss and Dareh Gregorian —
NBC News
Jury selection for the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump resumed this Friday in New York City for alleged irregular payments to actress Stormy Daniels in 2016.
With seven jurors already selected on Tuesday from a group of 96 candidates, this Thursday almost another hundred will be questioned to see if they can be fair and impartial to judge someone as polarizing as the former president. The judge has said that he hopes to have 12 jurors and six alternates selected by Friday.
Prosecutors and Trump's lawyers will have fewer opportunities to dismiss potential jurors because both used six of the 10 peremptory challenges provided by state law on Tuesday.
Although 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. 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.
Trump lamented the number of challenges he may file on Wednesday. “Did I think challenges were 'unlimited' when we picked our jury? “Then they told me we only had 10, not nearly enough when they purposely gave us the 2nd worst headquarters in the country,” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, before describing the case as “election interference.”
Wednesday's scheduled day off came after some crossfire Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom, where the judge chastised Trump for appearing to talk to one of the candidates who was being questioned about a Facebook post in which he apparently had celebrated the electoral victory of Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
“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,” Merchan said.
Finally, seven jurors were sworn in on Tuesday: two lawyers, a professor, an oncology nurse, a computer consultant, a professor and a computer engineer.
The jury foreman—who normally directs and guides the jury and acts as its spokesman—is a married man who lives in West Harlem and works in sales. He assured Merchan that he reads The New York Times and tunes into Fox News and MSNBC.
The names of the jurors were not made public because Merchan, citing security reasons, has decided to use an anonymous jury.
Trump faces 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records and has pleaded not guilty. He faces up to four years in prison if he is convicted.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's Office alleges that Trump falsified business records to hide money he was paying his former lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse him for $130,000 he paid porn actress Stormy Daniels near the end of the presidential campaign. 2016. Daniels has said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied these claims, but has acknowledged paying Cohen.
The Prosecutor's Office further alleges that American Media Inc. paid $150,000 to model and actress Karen McDougal, who appeared in Playboy magazine and claimed she had a 9-month affair with Trump before he was elected, “in exchange for committing to “not to talk about the alleged sexual relationship.” Trump has also denied having a sexual relationship with McDougal.