Jury Selection: Trump’s Mad About Not Getting Unlimited Strikes

Trump’s New York criminal trial schedule calls for Wednesdays to be an “off” day. No court. He has choices on what he wants to do this day each week during the duration of this trial. Trump can just rest up and gorge himself on “hamberders” and Diet Coke all day, he can duck over to his golf course in New Jersey and play a round and soak up some support from members, he can head out somewhere for a campaign stop, and can even huddle with his lawyers. Or he can rant about witch hunts and how unfair everything is for him. I don’t really need to tell you which of these he’s chosen to do today do I?

Newsweek has an article that for me is a howler. To be fair, while Trump has had experience in the court system until now its been civil court proceedings. Even then he seldom actually spent time in an actual courtroom since neither plaintiffs or defendants are normally required to be present. Unless they are testifying. Usually Trump’s civil cases have been resolved one way or the other without things ever getting to trial. As you know he HAS shown up in (civil) court in recent times. Once because he actually took the stand and it didn’t go well. The judge actually saved Trump (or tried to) from himself by limiting the scope of the questions he could be asked. For the most part Trump’s appearances were meant to show judges and jurors the visage of “Almighty Trump” in a “you will bow down to my will and give me a pass like has always happened before. Or else…” (To his surprise and fury it didn’t work!)

CRIMINAL court is a different matter. Oh, in theory Trump knew (because he’d been told over and over) he was going to have to be present every day. I really think he believed that because he’s ‘by god Donald J. Trump’ he could skip out sometimes when he felt he had more important (to him) things to do. When his lawyers finally got through to him and made him realize that yes, he was going to have to show up every day and sit there he was not a happy camper.

That’s funny, at least to me. What’s funnier is that he seems to have either not paid attention to, or if he did pay attention not believe his lawyers as they explained how things would work. The differences between the civil trials he’d been through and the criminal ones. And already Trump can’t believe how things are for him now that he’s a criminal defendant. He had a certain idea in mind of how things would be an reality is hitting him like a ton of bricks. Like his first meeting with Obama after the election where he (Trump) blurted out he didn’t realize the job of being President involved so much work!

Anyway, I’m sure last week his lawyers over and over spoke to him about how things would unfold this week. That the case would be called and there’d be some final rulings on various pre-trial motions. And then after that they’d dive into jury selection. Which brings me to the FUNNY part. Trump didn’t (and still doesn’t) seem to grasp the different between peremptory challenges for prospective/would be jurors and challenges for cause. As the linked article indicates somewhere along the line Trump came to believe he should get to challenge/strike as many potential jurors as he wants:

“I thought STRIKES were supposed to be ‘unlimited’ when we were picking our jury? I was then told we only had 10, not nearly enough when we were purposely given the 2nd Worst Venue in the Country,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. “Don’t worry, we have the First Worst also, as the Witch Hunt continues! ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”

Sorry Don Snoreleone (actually I’m not sorry at all) but that ain’t the way this works. Nope. The way it works in criminal courts is that each side (prosecution and defense) can strike any juror from serving for cause. Plainly put if under the state’s laws potential jurors can be (and are) excused for certain reasons. If one or more exist then either side can ask the judge to strike them from the panel.  Again, each side gets an unlimited number of challenges for cause.

Now peremptory challenges are different. As I said the number allowed varies by jurisdiction but in Trump’s case each side gets ten of them. Ten people they can ask the judge to strike without giving any reason/justification. Both sides tend to have reasons for wanting certain types of people on a jury for a given case. Frankly, they want to increase the odds of someone having an inherent bias in their favor. Many a lawyer has used peremptory challenges for nefarious reasons to “shape” a jury towards their liking.

In an ideal world there’d always be a set of jurors that are completely objective and who have heard little, if anything about the case they will hear. Reality is quite different, especially in high profile trials. Between the news itself and family, friends, co-worker and even strangers out in public they hear discussion about it. So in a perfect world you find a group of jurors that haven’t heard THAT much, who haven’t actually made up their minds, and can be objective and ONLY follow the evidence admitted and the judge’s instructions on the law before they begin deliberations.

But reality is reality. In this case if you’re Trump you want fire breathing MAGAs. If you’re the prosecution you want Never Trumpers. What the process will yield is unknown but everyone on the jury will have heard at least a fair amount about this case and have thoughts about it before the first witness is called. But getting specific about Trump, he’d complain if the trial was being held at Mar A Lago and ALL the jurors were MAGA goobers that have spent years travelling the country to his rallies like Grateful Dead fans.  He still wouldn’t like that there was a trial at all but he’d deal with it it semi-well.

One might argue Trump’s primal scream about not getting unlimited challenges/strikes is just bloviating for his MAGAs to promote the concept he’s being especially harshly treated. You know what? I think part of him really does believe HE is special and deserves special treatment no other defendant gets. That HE should be allowed to challenge as many people as he wants and not have to justify a single “get rid of him/her” to the court! Yes, his ego and sense of entitlement is, thanks to a lifetime of being over indulged is that huge.

With seven jurors already selected and sworn in I’m thinking last night it really started to hit home that by Monday we’ll be seeing witnesses testify and evidence against him produced. It had been anticipated jury selection alone would take weeks. Hell, those experts who said it would take a couple of weeks had plenty of other experts say they were being optimistic. But it’s moving right along. Once again Trump is facing a judge like Kaplan over in federal court. A judge that will put up with some antics pre-trial but once the case is actually called run a tight ship.

Judge Merchan has things well in hand, and yes it’s likely we will have twelve jurors and six alternates chosen and sworn in sometime Friday. It’s worth noting again the judge isn’t putting up with lame justifications qualifying as “cause.” Again, everyone will have knowledge of the case but what matters is that they can credibly claim to be objective and, when the time comes render a verdict based ONLY on the evidence admitted and the law as the judge instructs them.  So that means peremptory challenges are getting used up. In fact, each side has already used up six of their ten. With only four left each side is going to be careful about using up what they’ve got left. That means if anything the pace will pick UP.

So yes, Trump’s terrified that the day he’s so feared is approaching. Come Monday the first witness will be called. It makes sense I guess that he’s rage posting today.