Judge Scolds Trump’s Lawyers After Trump Muttered and Gestured at Potential Juror: ‘I Will Not Have Any Jurors Intimidated’
Judge Juan Merchan issued a warning to former President Donald Trump’s lawyers during jury selection, after the ex-president was reportedly audibly muttering and gesturing while a potential juror was being questioned.
Trump is in a Manhattan courtroom as he faces 34 felony counts for falsifying business records regarding alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election — a historic first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president. The jury selection process kicked off on Monday, and Trump has made headlines for reportedly falling asleep each day so far and repeatedly complaining that he does not think get a fair trial.
Tuesday afternoon brought a new kerfuffle after one of the potential jurors was questioned about a Facebook post regarding a video of an event in NYC in 2020.
CNN chief legal analyst Laura Coates reported that there were “beginning to happen in this particular courtroom” as the juror was questioned about the Facebook post.
This individual juror was questioned about the post and regarding whether it was biased against Trump. According to CNN correspondent Kara Scannell, the questioning centered around whether this was “a New York moment that she caught on camera” or a “celebration” of President Joe Biden’s victory. Scannell said that Trump’s defense attorneys were arguing that she “went to an anti-Trump rally” and therefore should be struck for bias, and the juror was replying that she just captured the moment.
According to Scannell, Merchan said that this juror “looked me in the eye and said that she could be impartial, so we refuse to excuse her for cause,” meaning Trump’s lawyers could still use one of their strikes, although they had not yet done so.
This prompted a “reaction from Trump,” Scannell continued, “as the juror was leaving, he could be heard audibly saying something and gesturing in the direction of the juror leaving the room, that prompted the judge to raise his voice.”
Scannell described Merchan as “a soft-spoken judge, but firm,” and said that he “raised his voice” and said to Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, that he could hear Trump uttering and warned the lawyers that their client “cannot do that, cannot disrupt this proceeding.”
“And then went on to suggest that he won’t have any jurors intimidated,” added Coates.
“It’s really important moment here,” said Coates, “really extraordinary moment” to have a former president, guarded by Secret Service uttering something as a lone juror is being questioned, and “some sort of reprimand” being issued. “It seemed as though his patience for being able to be quiet in that courtroom is waning thin.”
Politico legal reporter Erica Orden tweeted an exact quote of Merchan’s words.
“Your client was audibly uttering something,” she wrote he said. “I won’t tolerate that. I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom. I want to make that crystal clear.”
Orden added that as Merchan was scolding Blanche, “Trump was slumped in his seat, sitting as though he were in a lounge chair.”
Scannell also noted that this was the third Trump trial she had covered, and there had been past instances of him having trouble not reacting in the moment, like in the E. Jean Carroll trial during her testimony, he also audibly reacted, drawing a warning from the judge.
“You can clearly see that it is hard for him not to want to react and respond when he’s hearing certain things.”
Just Security and MSNBC Contributor Adam Klasfeld (formerly managing editor at Law&Crime) reported on several other juror who were struck for cause because of their past social media posts.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
