EFE
After two days of questions, Judge Juan Merchan selected seven jurors for the criminal trial against Donald Trump, the first in United States history for a former president.
Jury selection will continue until the panel of 12 people and six alternates has been selected, but more than a third of the final group has already been achieved.
The candidates had to answer a long list of 42 questions, a process that lasted between five and seven minutes per person.
Many questions were simple: “What do you do? Who is your current employer? What do you like to do in your free time? Do you have any interests or hobbies? What media do you visit, read or read? look?".
Others, specific, about Trump: “Have you ever attended a Trump rally? Are you or have you ever subscribed to any newsletter or email list managed by Trump or his organization? Do you follow Trump on any social media or has he done it in the past?”
They were also asked if they had read books written by Trump or by Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and right-hand man, who is expected to be one of the prosecution's star witnesses.
On Monday, more than half of the potential jurors in the first batch of 96 people interviewed — there are about 200 candidates in total per day — were excused after saying they couldn't be fair.
Yesterday, in the question round of the questionnaire, several potential jurors said that, after thinking about it, they realized that they could not be impartial either and asked to withdraw.
Other reasons why some candidates were excluded were personal, such as a wedding, or work-related, due to the possible repercussions of taking time off to attend a trial that could last six to eight weeks.
Once the first round of questions had passed, the remaining potential jurors were subjected to new questions from defense and prosecution attorneys, who had ten opportunities to discard jurors without the need for explanations.
That process was repeated twice, and elimination opportunities were used by both sides: Trump's legal team vetoed six potential jurors and the prosecution vetoed another six.
The judge said at the end of the day that he is “hopeful” that on Thursday and Friday – there is no session on Wednesdays – the rest of the jurors will be selected and everything will be ready to “start on Monday, April 22, in the morning.” with an unprecedented criminal trial.