It is less impressive than you might think, such a criminal trial against a former US president. The courthouse in southern Manhattan has seen its best days. The doors could use a lick of paint, the linoleum floor looks like it has lasted a few decades. Daylight barely penetrates and the wooden benches in the courtroom are so hard that some reporters came to the ‘trial of the century’ with a pillow under their arm.
Twelve ordinary New Yorkers will decide. This is how jury trials work in the US: citizens will determine whether Trump is guilty of covering up payments to a porn star during election times. They are five women and seven men, from all over Manhattan. The judge asks if they want pen and paper to take notes when the first witness is about to make a statement. Most raise their hands. It is so cold in the courtroom that some have kept their coats on.
There is a corporate lawyer who loves running, a recent college graduate who develops software for Disney, a second lawyer who enjoys spending time in nature with his children, and a young English teacher who shares an apartment with her in the famous black neighborhood of Harlem. brother. The jurors have had to swear that they can be impartial and fair.
Such people are not easy to find when the suspect is a controversial former president. The court had selected as many as 500 people and called them for ‘jury duty’, as it is called, in order to select twelve jurors plus six alternates. Among the first people who walked into the courtroom for screening, at least half immediately indicated that they were unsuitable because of strong opinions.
Seven year old Facebook post
But there were also dozens of New Yorkers who felt they could view the evidence without prejudice. One by one they came to speak to the judge, prosecutor and lawyers. What media do you follow, they wanted to know. What do u do for a living? Have you ever had trouble with the law? Have you ever worked for Mr. Trump or campaigned for him? Have you read his books? Or a book by one of the witnesses?
Trump’s lawyers were not allowed to ask who the jury candidates would vote for. It is inevitable that they have an opinion about one of the most talked about politicians in the world. The point is that they can put aside views and, after some instruction from the judge, make a decision based on the law and the evidence. “We don’t expect you to have been living under a rock for the past few years,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Steinglass also said.
Crude political messages on social media are an objection to being allowed to judge the man who became famous with rude messages on social media. Prospective juror B38, for example, was a middle-aged man. He works as a creative director for a clothing company and loves cooking. Married, no children, but a dog. He said he did not have a clear opinion about Trump. “He was president, and I agreed with some of the things he did and disagreed with other things.”
But Trump’s lawyer discovered a seven-year-old Facebook post. “Good news!!”, B38 had written, when a judge prevented Trump from imposing an entry ban on citizens of Muslim countries. That must have been one of those things that B38 disagreed with, because he wrote: “Vote him out and lock him up!”
The man said he did not remember the message, assured that he could forget ‘previous feelings’, but was sent home.
Take a nap
Trump himself listened to it all quietly. I’ve never seen him so timid. I observed him at bombastic rallies, dignified handshaking moments in the Oval Office and in bitter debates, always ready to lash out at a critic. Now he sits looking gloomy and sullen into space, apparently so tired that he sometimes closes his eyes. At one point he even appears to be taking a nap (the suspect does get a comfortable chair). For once, the man who invariably chooses the attack cannot do much else in that dingy courthouse but sit still and listen.
