Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Trump Jury Selection Speeds Ahead
Donald Trump has become the first former US president to face criminal trial. The trial began yesterday in Manhattan. The charges stem from the hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels to keep her from telling her story before the 2016 election. Mr. Trump is alleged to have falsified more than 30 business records including invoices and checks to cover this up. The Trump legal team has been dreading this trial because it is pretty easy to explain, it is full of salacious behavior and the DA has the documents that tell the story. They have tried to delay at every opportunity, but jury selection has begun, and there is every change that process will be done by Friday. Accountability has begun.
As in all of these cases, Mr. Trump has tried to put off the day of reckoning indefinitely. He has had some luck, such as the judge in the stolen documents case being completely on his side. He has managed to get the Supreme Court to delay things with an idiotic claim of immunity which the politicians on the court have accepted as worthy of consideration. He has had some help in Georgia from a prosecutorial team that has romantic complications. This trial, however, has only been delayed by a month because the federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York delayed delivering documents they had in their possession.
Yet the question must be why? Delay, as they say, favors the defense, but one must ask whether there is anything to that if the defendant is innocent? Would not Mr. Trump score heavily if the case went to trial and he won acquittal? His legal woes in New York would be gone, and he would have the political capital of a falsely accused man to work with. It would probably win him the election. But he still delays. One is prepared to deduce from that a guilty conscience.
In any case, the jury will consist of 12 Manhattan residents and 6 alternates also from that island. The Trump team has complained that Mr. Trump cannot get a fail trial in New York City because the people there hate him. That is demonstrably untrue; a majority is not all. Gotham Magazine reported Biden won Manhattan by 84.5%-14.5%. That means there are literally tens of thousands of people who voted for Mr. Trump in the potential jury pool. They need just one juror to withhold a vote for conviction to get a mistrial. One believes the DA has no stomach to retry him. The political price would be devastating.
As of the close of business today, no fewer than 7 jurors have been impaneled. Each side is allowed 10 strikes, that is vetoes, over prospective jurors. They do not have to give a reason why. Once those are gone, each side may ask the judge to strike a juror but a cause must be given and must be accepted. Mr. Trump has already complained that he wants unlimited strikes without cause. The man just does not know the rules.
Even without those strikes, about 50 citizens were excused because they said they really did not think they could be fair and impartial. This speaks to the validity of the whole process. It is likely that some of those people just did not want to serve on a jury, or at least on this jury. And it makes sense not to require someone to serve if they do not want to. Someone willing makes a better assayer of facts. They will more likely pay attention and think about it all. At the same time, some of those people were telling the gods hones truth. They should be excused for the sake of the process.
Naturally, if convicted, Mr. Trump will appeal, and his team is working hard to create grounds for an appeal. Nitpicking about the jury will figure in that. As of now, however, it looks like an appeal based solely on that will be rejected.
Let the games commence.
© Copyright 2024 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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