Twelve jurors and six alternates have been empaneled to sit in judgment of Donald Trump in his hush-money trial, but a legal expert worries that might not be enough.
Jury selection proceeded more quickly last week than many observers expected, although one juror dropped out citing personal safety concerns and another was dismissed after prosecutors raised concerns about his credibility, and legal analyst Danny Cevallos told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that more jurors might be necessary.
"I think juror attrition could be a real problem in this case," Cevallos said. "I mean, just do that math. Last week, we lost two jurors before the trial even began. When you think about it, you do lose jurors during a trial. I lost them – they fell asleep, they don't follow the judge's orders, but you don't normally lose a juror after the moment they're selected and between that and the time that the trial actually begins because, ordinarily, nothing happens during that time. But in this case, you have an example where a juror goes home, they start really thinking about their duty and what this is going to entail, they come back and say, 'You know what, I don't want to do this anymore.'"
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Cevallos compared the ex-president's trial to an organized crime case, which some jurors are afraid to take part in due to concerns for their own safety.
"By the way, that's also something that happens from time to time," Cevallos said. "I've had it in organized crime cases. You have jurors who come up to the judge and say, 'I'll do anything – please, I do not want to be on this jury, I'm afraid.' That's not obviously the same situation here, but you do have jurors who are going to have second thoughts."
"The question becomes, will six alternates will enough to cover this trial?" Cevallos added. "I hope so, but if what we've seen so far, if that's the rate of loss of jurors, two before we even start the trial, that could be a real problem. That could lead to a mistrial, which is, I think, the defense's view, is a win. Even though it doesn't mean you start the trial again in a year or something like that. Normally, the court schedules the retrial as soon as they possibly can, but, yeah, juror attrition is going to be a real issue in this case."
Opening statements are scheduled to begin Monday morning, and Cevallos expects the trial to move briskly.
"Look for an hour from the prosecution and probably less from the defense, because all they're doing today is offering a preview," Cevallos said. "You'll hear this probably many times. The evidence will show that dot, dot, dot. The evidence will show that dot, dot, dot. It's really just a promise to the jurors of what the facts will show. If you're the defense, you do not want to be making a lot of promises. For example, you will not hear the words, 'You're going to hear from the defendant himself,' because if you make that promise, nobody is going to forget it."
"I expect, the prosecution will try to focus on what they've already seated the jury on, which is, you'll hear from some people that are not that credible," he added. "But they're not credible because they're Donald Trump's friends. On the defense side, you'll probably hear a version of, try to keep an open mind, the evidence is not all in. We don't have the burden. Just sort of the standard fare, but you're not going to see anything as flashy, anything as dramatic, as exciting as we're going to see during closing arguments. This is only going to be a preview, and it will not take the entire day at all."
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