Former Federal Prosecutor Says it Will Be ‘Impossible’ For Trump to Get a ‘Fair and Unbiased Jury Pool’ in DC Trial

Former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi told CNN it would be “impossible, or very hard, to get a fair and unbiased jury pool” for former President Donald Trump’s federal indictment in Washington, D.C., Friday.

Reacting to the news that prosecutors had requested a gag order on Trump, CNN anchor Pamela Brown said, “I think we can’t separate the politics from this and that Donald Trump stands a lot to gain from this and from his rhetoric saying, ‘Oh he’s trying to take away my First Amendment rights.'”

Rossi replied:

I think Donald Trump wants to poison this jury in the worst way because he knows that the evidence against him is so strong, and the only way he can win is to create a jury pool that is so tainted. I finished a six-week trial in February and March of this year, Judge Mehta, he did the best he could with the jury pool and he concluded he had a fair jury, but there were answers and responses in our jury pool — it was an Oath Keeper [on trial] — that were just over the top. Donald Trump is multiplying that times five and it’s going to be impossible, or very hard, to get a fair and unbiased jury pool.

Brown noted, “Jack Smith is making this argument too, that Trump’s public rhetoric is just gonna further prejudice a jury. But, I mean, some might hear that and say, look, he was the former president of the United States, he’s a leading Republican, you know, presidential candidate, I mean how are you going to get an unbiased, unprejudiced jury with someone like Donald Trump?”

Former January 6 Committee investigative counsel Marcus Childress then weighed in, arguing, “Well the jury just has to follow the judge’s instructions, that’s the real key, or do you have an opinion formed so concretely that you can’t follow the judge’s instructions?”

He continued, “Look, I think I’m more worried about the safety of the jurors and the witnesses who don’t want to really be involved in this, right? They’re called to their civic duty, and you heard Senator Romney mention this week how there were members who were afraid to vote on impeachment because the former president was tweeting about how they should vote and they were scared for their safety.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.