Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York on charges of falsifying business records is not a referendum on his presidency, a prosecutor told prospective jurors on Tuesday in asking whether they could put personal politics aside.
"This case is really not about whether you like Donald Trump. This case is about the rule of law and whether Donald Trump broke it," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told the 18 prospective jurors who remained of an initial pool of 96.
Jury selection for the former president's trial got underway on Monday. He faces 34 felony counts of allegedly falsifying business records to cover up a payment to Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. Daniels says she had a sexual encounter with Trump about a decade beforehand.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies an encounter took place. The Republican presidential candidate has called the case, brought by Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a partisan witch hunt meant to interfere with his campaign to unseat President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 election.
The business records case is one of four criminal indictments he faces, which stem from his alleged mishandling of classified information and trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden. He has pleaded not guilty in those cases, which may not go to trial before the election.
The proceedings so far have underscored the challenges of choosing a jury of 12 residents of heavily Democratic Manhattan who can try the case fairly and impartially.
Roughly half of 96 potential jurors summoned on Monday were dismissed after saying they could not impartially judge the polarizing businessman-turned-politician.
Six more were excused on Tuesday. They said they had scheduling conflicts, concerns about balancing juror service with their jobs, or had thought further overnight and come to the conclusion they could not be fair.
One excused juror said many of his family, friends and colleagues in finance were Republicans and it would be hard for him to be impartial.
"Being in the finance and accounting world, a lot of people tend to intellectually slant Republican," said the juror, who grew up in Texas. "Even though I feel like I can be impartial, there might be some implicit bias surrounding that."
The jurors allowed to stay on for now after answering questions on Tuesday included an asset manager at Lazard who is originally from Mexico and enjoys scuba diving and skiing, and a corporate lawyer from Oregon who hikes and runs in his spare time and reads the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Trump, wearing a blue tie, at times held a piece of paper up to his face as jurors read out answers to a list of 42 questions. Occasionally he yawned and leaned back in his chair at the defense table.
After prospective jurors gave basic biographical information in the questionnaire, Steinglass was given 30 minutes to ask follow-up questions. Trump's lawyers will have the chance to question them later.
Several jurors told Steinglass they thought they could put their opinions of Trump aside and be fair.
"I don't think it matters what my political beliefs are, or in relation to the defendant," said one woman, a high school teacher who lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side and enjoys reading and hiking.
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