On Thursday morning, April 18, the news broke that one of the jurors who was chosen for Donald Trump's hush money/falsifying business records trial had been dismissed: an oncology nurse who expressed concerns about her ability to be fair and impartial. And there were also major concerns about another juror, who had failed to disclose that in the past, he was arrested for tearing down right-wing political posters.
With the number of seated jurors reduced, the jury selection process continues in the first criminal trial in U.S. history involving a former president.
In a report published that morning, Washington Post journalists Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey and Shayna Jacobs examine one of the things that Trump's defense team is using to dismiss prospective jurors: their social media posts.
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"Behind the scenes," the reporters explain, "Trump's defense team is scrambling to find and review potential jurors' social media accounts. And when they find ones critical of the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee, they are racing to show them to the judge to try to get those people dismissed."
Barrett, Dawsey and Jacobs add, "The turnaround time for such work is tight — lawyers on the case have been given lists of names of potential jurors, some of whom they have to start questioning in a matter of hours, according to a person familiar with the work, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal operations."
That source told the Post that because Trump's defense team believes they are dealing with a jury pool that is biased against him, they have hired a jury consulting firm to review prospective jurors' social media posts.
According to Barrett, Dawsey and Jacobs, "That is not a particularly novel strategy among wealthier defendants who can afford to pay for such work, but it is unique in that it is being applied in a case involving Trump, someone about whom millions of Americans have gossiped, joked, criticized and praised for years — meaning there is far more potential social media material for his lawyers to seize on."
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Trump attorney Todd Blanche, for example, had concerns about a woman's "series of extraordinarily hostile Facebook posts."
This examination of prospective jurors' social media posts, the reporters note, "is happening under tremendous time pressure" — as Justice Juan Merchan "is focused on moving jury selection along quickly." Merchan has indicated that he would like to see opening arguments in the trial begin on Monday, April 22, if possible.
"That digging is made more difficult by the fact that Manhattan has so many people, meaning it is more difficult to ensure they are reviewing posts from the right person with any given name," Barrett, Dawsey and Jacobs report. "In addition, any one person might use multiple social media accounts under nicknames or pseudonyms. The jury in this case is partly anonymous — their names are known to the lawyers in the case but will not be made public."
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Read the Washington Post's full report at this link (subscription required).