The jury that will decide whether Donald Trump is guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records is made up of seven men and five women who live in Manhattan. They work jobs in various fields, including education, finance, the legal profession and business, and each was summoned at random to serve as a part of the jury of Trump’s peers in a case that could decide whether the former president goes to jail.
One juror said she listens to religious podcasts while another listens to ones on behavioral psychology. Multiple jurors said in their jury questionnaire that they got their news from a number of media sources, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, Fox News and CNN. One follows Trump on his social media network, TruthSocial, and has read his book The Art of the Deal, while another said she didn’t “like his persona, how he presents himself in public.”
The panel of 12 jurors, along with one alternate, was finalized on Thursday. On Friday, lawyers for both sides then selected five more alternates who can fill in if one of the 12 jurors becomes ill or is unable to complete what is estimated to be a six-week trial.
Last month, Judge Juan Merchan ruled that the lawyers in the case would be allowed to know the identities of the jurors, but out of safety concerns they would not be allowed to reveal that information publicly. During jury selection, Trump’s lawyers asked several jurors about posts they had made on social media, and some prospective jurors were dismissed because of them. One juror was also dismissed after she told Merchan that aspects of her identity had already been revealed by the media.
Merchan also asked news organizations covering the trial not to report where jurors worked.
“There’s a reason why this is an anonymous jury, and we’ve taken the measures we have taken,” Merchan said in comments directed at the press. “It kind of defeats the purpose of that when so much information is put out there.”
The threats posed to jurors, court employees, witnesses and prosecutors in the civil and criminal cases that have been brought against Trump have been well documented. In order to protect the anonymity of the jurors, Yahoo News will not be reporting on their places of employment but will attempt to provide a basic understanding of the makeup of the jury that will render what could prove one of the most consequential verdicts in U.S. history.
While anonymous juries are somewhat rare in the U.S., in 2021, out of 100,000 jury trials in the country, just a dozen kept the identities of jurors hidden from the public, USA Today reported.
During the trial, members of the jury are prohibited from speaking about the case, but after a verdict is rendered, they are free to talk to the media about their experience or share information with others. Doing so, however, carries risks.
After the anonymous jury in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against Trump awarded her $83.3 million, the judge in the case cautioned the jury about sharing their stories.
“My advice to you is that you never disclose that you were on this jury,” Judge Lewis Kaplan said.
