Judge scolds Trump for 'muttering' at prospective juror
As jury selection resumed for the afternoon session, Judge Juan Merchan scolded former President Trump over his audible "muttering" while a prospective juror was speaking.
"Your client was audibly muttering something," the judge told Trump's attorneys. "He was speaking in the direction of the juror. I will not tolerate that. I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom. I want to make that crystal clear. Take a minute and speak to your client."
The interaction occurred after Trump's defense attorney sought to immediately strike potential jurors for cause based on social media posts that he said contradicted their assertions of fairness.
"There's a number of the jurors that we have social media posts for very much contrary to the answers that they gave," defense attorney Todd Blanche said.
Blanche pointed to a woman who he said has a "series of extraordinarily hostile Facebook posts."
One of the posts read, "So I've been in the middle of the ocean for the last few weeks. What's going on?"
Another post included a video of people celebrating near Manhattan's 96th Street and the words, "Full-on dance party at 96 Street."
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Judge Merchan seemed baffled. "Show me the bias," the judge said. "I'm trying to understand. How does this call into question what the juror said when that juror was answering questions?"
Blanche insisted the post, a day after the 2020 election, was a celebration of Trump's loss.
"This is ridiculous," prosecutor Josh Steinglass said.
The judge determined "there are enough questions here" to allow the defense to question the woman about her posts.
"I think I went to the car to alternate-side parking or something like that and there were people dancing in the street," the woman said, adding that it reminded her of the pandemic-era cheer for health workers.
"I understand that bias exists," the woman said. "The job of the juror is to understand the facts of the trial."
When the woman left the room, that's when the judge scolded Trump.