April 20, 2024 - Epoch Times
10:47
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| Right here in New York City, the first criminal trial of a former sitting U.S. | |
| president is officially underway. | |
| This is, of course, the so-called hush money, Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen case. | |
| And so, amidst the backdrop of a total media circus, Protesters from both sides waving flags and banners. | |
| And a man even burning himself alive right there outside the courthouse. | |
| Well, for the past week, the jury selection process has been playing itself out. | |
| And what's been happening, at least according to the reporters who are in the courthouse, is that potential jurors have been getting turned away left and right. | |
| Out of the original 96 people who were on the panel, 48 of them, meaning half, were excused right away for saying that they were not able to be fair and impartial. | |
| The remaining 48 were then looked at one by one. | |
| Both the prosecutors, as well as Trump's legal defense team, they were both able to ask these potential jurors questions, look for bias, and dismiss the ones that they did not like. | |
| Now right off the rip, President Trump is obviously at a disadvantage here. | |
| That's because since this case is being pushed forward in Manhattan by the Manhattan District Attorney, the jury pool was limited to the island of Manhattan alone, meaning that no one from Brooklyn, Queens, or Staten Island was eligible to sit on this particular jury. | |
| And the reason this matters, of course, is because Manhattan is one of the absolute bluest areas in the whole country. | |
| In the year 2020, Joe Biden won Manhattan with 85% of the vote. | |
| And even if you zoomed into the election results and looked at it granularly, there was not a single block or not even a single street in Manhattan that chose Trump over Biden. | |
| Basically, Manhattan is totally blue without any conservative enclaves. | |
| And so, amidst this type of a demographic, finding 12 random people who can be truly unbiased in a case that involves not only the former Republican president, but also the current presumptive Republican nominee for president, is difficult to say the least. | |
| However, the case had to move forward, and as such, after four days, the entire 12-person jury was finalized. | |
| And so, let's go through what we know about these 12 individuals who have been essentially put in charge of deciding President Trump's legal fate in this particular case. | |
| Now, of course, we don't know all the details about these jurors, because after all, their identities do have to be kept anonymous, but there are quite a few things that we do know about each one of them based on reporting from the actual courthouse. | |
| To start with, juror number one, who is also the foreman, he is a married man living in West Harlem, and he works in sales. | |
| He enjoys general outdoor activities, and he gets his news from a combination of the New York Times, Fox News, as well as MSNBC. | |
| And he said that despite having heard about some of President Trump's other criminal cases, well, juror number one claims to not have any opinion about the president himself. | |
| Then there is juror number two, a married man who lives in Hell's Kitchen and he works in finance. | |
| This man's hobbies include hiking, listening to music, as well as going to concerts. | |
| When asked, he said that he does follow President Trump's posts on both Twitter as well as Truth Social, and he also follows other people in the Trump orbit, such as Michael Cohen as well as Ms. | |
| Kellyanne Conway. | |
| And when asked about it, juror number two, he said that he believes President Trump had done some good for the country, although he added that it quote-unquote goes both ways, whatever that means. | |
| Next up is juror number three, a man who works as a corporate lawyer and lives in the neighborhood of Chelsea. | |
| This man's hobbies include things like hiking and running, and he gets his news from the New York Times as well as the Wall Street Journal. | |
| And when he was asked about it, juror number three, he mentioned that he was not very familiar with President Trump's other criminal cases. | |
| Although, I'll mention that given the fact that this man is a lawyer, well, it's unclear what not very familiar actually means. | |
| Perhaps he does know a lot about the other cases, but only that, since he's a lawyer, his threshold for being familiar with a case is higher than a lot of people outside of the legal profession. | |
| Regardless, next up is juror number four, a man who works as a security engineer and lives over on the Upper West Side. | |
| This man's hobbies include woodworking as well as metalworking. | |
| Other than that, very little personal details are known about this particular juror. | |
| The only notable thing is that when he was asked about whether or not he had strong feelings regarding President Trump, he said, quote, no, not really. | |
| So take that for what you will. | |
| Next up is juror number five, a woman who works as a teacher and lives over in Harlem with her boyfriend. | |
| Her hobbies include things like writing, watching theater, as well as traveling. | |
| And when asked about it, she said that she doesn't really care for news and she tries to avoid political conversations in general. | |
| However, when asked directly about President Trump himself, she said that he appreciates his candid style, adding that quote, President Trump speaks his mind. | |
| I would rather that in a person than someone who's in office and you don't know what they're doing behind the scenes. | |
| Then you have juror number six, a woman who works in the technology sector and lives over in the Chelsea neighborhood. | |
| She said that she gets her news from the New York Times and that generally she has very different beliefs from President Trump, but she added that this is a quote unquote free country. | |
| Then next up you have juror number seven, who is a lawyer living on the Upper East Side. | |
| He said that he gets his news generally from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, as well as the Washington Post. | |
| He also claims to have no opinion on the character of President Trump, adding that he agreed with some of Trump's policies while he was in office, while disagreeing with some of the others. | |
| Next up is juror number eight, a man who works as a wealth manager and lives on the Upper East Side. | |
| On his free time, this man enjoys skiing, fly fishing, as well as practicing yoga, and he says that he gets his news from the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, as well as the BBC. | |
| Then there is juror number 9, a woman who works as a speech therapist and lives on the Upper East Side. | |
| She gets her news from CNN, and that's pretty much all we know about this particular juror. | |
| Next up is juror number 10, who is a businessman living in the Murray Hill neighborhood. | |
| This man's hobbies include listening to podcasts on behavioral psychology, and he says that he gets his news generally from the New York Times. | |
| Then you have juror number 11, who is a woman working as a product manager and living in Upper Manhattan. | |
| Now, not much is known about her except for the fact that when asked, she said this regarding President Trump. | |
| Quote, Apparently, the other jury candidates laughed when she made that joke. | |
| And then lastly, you have juror number 12, a woman who works as a physical therapist and lives over on the Upper East Side. | |
| Her hobbies include things like hiking, listening to music, and listening to religious podcasts, although it's unclear which religion. | |
| Now, besides these actual jurors, there are also alternates, but very little is known about them. | |
| And so, there you have it. | |
| The jury of 12 peers assembled to determine whether President Trump is guilty or not in this particular case. | |
| Although, it is worth mentioning that even for the jurors who said that they can be impartial, it's not exactly clear whether that's the case. | |
| Evidenced by the fact that one juror who initially said she could be impartial, but then later changed her mind as she was leaving the court, she gave an impromptu interview saying the following. | |
| Can you share your opinion of the former president and why you felt that you could be unbiased? | |
| I'm not a fan. | |
| During COVID-19, I lived with someone who was immunocompromised, and I think his handling of COVID-19 was abysmal. | |
| I also have a sister who was adopted from China, and the comments he made about China when he was running for president made her very anxious, and therefore made me angry. | |
| Policies being supported that regard women and reproductive health that I do not agree with and I think all of that needs to be addressed. | |
| And so given all that, what do you think? | |
| Do you think that this motley crew of Manhattan dwellers can truly deliver an unbiased verdict? | |
| I'd love to know your thoughts. | |
| Please leave them in the comment section below. | |
| I'll be reading through them later tonight as well as over the weekend. | |
| And also, as you're making your way down there to the comment section, take a super quick detour to smash those like and subscribe buttons so that this content can reach ever more people via the YouTube algorithm. | |
| Alright, just to pause here for a super quick moment. | |
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| And then, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. | |
| Stay informed. |
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