NEW YORK (AP) – The judge in donald trumpin silent money trial ordered the media on Thursday not to report where potential jurors worked and to exercise caution when revealing information about those who will try the former president.
Judge Juan Merchan acted after a juror was dismissed when she expressed concerns about being “outed” for her role in the case after details about her became publicly known.
The actions highlighted the difficulties involved in trying to maintain the anonymity of jurors in a case that has generated great interest and heated opinions, while lawyers need to analyze as much information as possible in a public courtroom to determine who to choose.
Despite the setback, 12 jurors were seated until the end of Thursday for the historic trial over a secret $130,000 payment just before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels to stop her from going public with her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump years earlier. Trump denied the meeting.
The dismissed juror told Merchan that friends, colleagues and family had contacted her to ask if she was on the case. “I do not believe that at this time I can be fair and impartial and allow outside influences to not affect my decision-making in court,” she said.
Merchan directed reporters not to report when potential jurors tell the court their specific workplaces, past or present. This put journalists in the difficult position of not reporting something they heard in open court, and some media organizations were considering whether they should protest this responsibility being placed on them.
Even if this specific information was not released, there was some concern that enough information about potential jurors would be released for people to identify them anyway.
As an example of what is happening, Politico on Thursday identified one potential juror as “a woman who lives in Manhattan and works as an asset manager.” She grew up in England and Hong Kong and lives with a self-employed boyfriend.
Another potential juror was identified as “an attorney for a major media company who lives in Gramercy Park.”
On Fox News Channel Wednesday night, host Jesse Watters did a segment with a jury consultant, revealing details about the people who served on the jury and asking whether some were “stealth liberals” who would be willing to convict Trump.
“This nurse scares me if I’m Trump,” he said. “She is from the Upper East Side, has a master’s degree, is not married, has no children, lives with her fiancé and gets her news from The New York Times and CNN.”
In addition to his order on employment history, Merchan said he was asking the media to “simply apply common sense and refrain from writing about anything that has to do with, for example, physical descriptions.”
He said there was “really no need” for the media to mention a widely circulated rumor that a juror speaks with an Irish accent.
Anonymous juries have existed for a long time, especially in terrorism and mafia cases or when there is a history of jury tampering. They have been ordered more frequently over the past two decades with the growing influence of social media and the anonymous hate speech that is sometimes associated with it. Typically, courtroom artists are told that they are not allowed to draw any juror’s face in their sketches; New York Courts do not allow video coverage of the trials.
During the Trump defamation trial In Manhattan federal court earlier this year, jurors had tightened protection of their identities by a security-conscious judge who routinely did not allow anyone in his courtroom to have a cell phone, even if it was turned off. . Jurors were transported to and from the courtroom by the US Marshals Service and were isolated from the public during breaks in the trial.
In this case, when asked about themselves during jury selection, potential jurors often gave vague answers that would have made it nearly impossible to determine much about themselves.
Following the ruling in that case, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered the anonymous jury not to disclose the identities of any of the people they served with and advised jurors not to publicize their service. So far, none have come forward publicly.
New York criminal defense attorney Ron Kuby said New York state law requires trial lawyers to receive the names of jurors, even when they are anonymous. However, he said, the right could be overridden by the need to protect juror safety.
As for the media, he said the judge cannot control what is reported, but can severely restrict what reporters see and hear if necessary.
“There are actions the judge could take. Courts have extraordinary powers to protect jurors from tampering and intimidation. That’s really where a court’s power is at its peak,” Kuby said.
He said the ability of lawyers present at Trump’s trial to research jurors’ social media history was important.
“Both sides have an interest in preventing sleeping jurors who have their own agenda from serving on the jury,” he said.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, said the difficulty in trying Trump is weeding out people with extreme views.
“Everyone across the country knows who Donald Trump is,” Rahmani said. “Some think he is a criminal traitor and rebel. Others think he is a hero. You don’t have many people in the mix.”
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Associated Press writers Michael R. Sisak and Jake Offenhartz contributed to this report.
