The defense successfully challenged a man who said he owns a minority stake in the company that produced Michael Cohen's "Mea Culpa" podcast and said he has a "fairly negative" opinion of former President Trump based on his "negative, divisive rhetoric."

The judge confronted the man with several social media posts, including one referring to Trump with the words "sociopathic incompetence" and another saying of Trump, "I do believe that he is actually the devil."

The judge asked if that reflected his opinion. "I would say it's not far off base," the man replied, and he was immediately excused.

Judge Merchan excused a retired teacher who attended what he considered to be a women's rights rally near the United Nations but that the defense considered to be an anti-Trump rally.

"I did go there because I wanted to take pictures," he said.

The judge confronted him with his social media post of a sign from the rally with a comment that said. "My sentiments exactly."

Merchan said he wasn't sure those sentiments were anti-Trump sentiments, but said he had concerns about the nature of the rally, which, in one post, the man suggested was a "massive anti-Trump rally."

Alternate Juror No. 3 is an audio professional who offered to assist Judge Merchan with a microphone that kept cutting out. He expressed his opinion that "Donald Trump is a man, just like I am."

He said growth results from correcting their prior wrongful actions. "Every man should respond to their wrongdoings if found," he said. "If there is evidence found against a man, there should be consequences."

Alternate Juror No. 4 is a woman who said "I have no really strong opinions about President Trump."

She is married with two boys that she likes to take to Knicks games and Rubik's Cube speed competitions. She has been a contract specialist for 20 years, currently employed at a publicly traded fintech company.

The woman who participated in the Women's March and said Trump enabled homophobic and racist comments was excused. The judge called it "the safer course."

The has seated three more alternate jurors, joining the alternate juror who was seated Thursday. Two more are still needed.

One of the new alternates is a woman originally from Spain who said she has no strong opinions about former President Trump.

The woman said she is not on social media and doesn't watch the news besides skimming through headlines. She said her husband will inform her of the news and that "I don't really go in depth into anything"

The defense was trying to eliminate the young woman who said she heard Trump followers express homophobic and racist things at the boxing gym.

"It's almost like they're devout to him," the woman said of Trump's followers. She is currently being questioned by the judge to assess her views and her ability to be fair and impartial.

In June of 2016, as the National Enquirer evaluated the merits of Karen McDougal's claim of a year-long affair with Trump, Trump's attorney Michael Cohen instructed Pecker to purchase her story -- and suggested that Trump would compensate the company for the cost, according to Pecker.

Pecker recalled from the stand a conversation he had with Cohen, in which Cohen told him, "You should go ahead and buy this story."

"So I said to him … 'Who's going to pay for it?'' Pecker testified, saying Cohen replied, "'Don't worry, I'm your friend, the boss will take care of it.'"

Pecker said he interpreted that to mean that if the National Enquirer purchased the story, Trump or the Trump Organization would reimburse him.

Picking up on his testimony from Tuesday, Pecker said that when he spoke with Trump about McDougal's story, he recalled that Trump called McDougal "a nice girl" and asked Pecker what he should do about it.

"I think you should buy this story and take it off the market," Pecker said, explaining that he "believed the story was true. I think that it would be embarrassing to himself and also to his campaign."

During her negotiations with the National Enquirer, McDougal represented that "she didn't want to be the next Monica Lewinsky," Pecker said.