A man originally from Ireland has been selected to serve as jury foreperson for US President Donald Trump’s criminal trial which began in New York City this week.
The man originally from Ireland, Juror B400, reportedly lives in West Harlem and works in sales though he previously worked as a waiter. He has some third-level education, is married, and has no children.
He enjoys "anything outdoors" and normally gets his news from the New York Times, Daily Mail, Fox News, and MSNBC.
The man from Ireland was one of seven jurors who had been selected as of Thursday evening. According to CBS News, the jury so far includes four men and three women who are all residents of Manhattan and range from young to middle age.
Aside from the man from Ireland who works in sales, the jurors are an IT worker, an English teacher, an oncology nurse, a software engineer, and two lawyers.
The jury is anonymous.
Jury selection began on Monday and was set to continue on Thursday after a day off on Wednesday. Ultimately, the jury will consist of 12 members and six alternates.
More than half of the initial group of 96 jurors were dismissed on Monday after indicating that they could not be impartial. As the New York Times notes, others had returned on Tuesday only to change their minds.
According to the Associated Press on Tuesday, Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told would-be jurors that attorneys were not looking for people who had been “living under a rock for the past eight years.” They just needed to keep an open mind.
“This case has nothing to do with your personal politics … it’s not a referendum on the Trump presidency or a popularity contest or who you’re going to vote for in November," Steinglass said.
"We don’t care. This case is about whether this man broke the law."
In April 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the indictment of Trump "for falsifying New York business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election."
The District Attorney's office said at the time: "During the election, Trump and others employed a 'catch and kill' scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects.
"Trump then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws."
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for this year's US Presidential election and the first former US President to face trial on criminal charges, has pleaded not guilty to the 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree.
If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.
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