Trump Lawyer Alina Habba Reveals Shocking Details About Jury In His Trial
In a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, jury selection commenced in the historic criminal trial of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, marking the first such trial of an American president. As the proceedings began, a significant number of the initial jury pool were quickly excused. Over half of the first 96 prospective jurors were dismissed after expressing their doubts about their impartiality.
Amid unfolding legal dramas involving Trump, significant concerns have been raised by his legal team regarding the impartiality of jury selections. At the heart of the concerns is the involvement of individuals who may have affiliations with the Biden campaign, potentially influencing the fairness of the trial outcomes.
Alina Habba, Trump’s legal spokeswoman, voiced these concerns starkly in an interview with Benny Johnson. The conversation on Monday dove into the mechanics of jury selection and the critical issues at stake. Johnson set the tone early in the discussion, questioning the integrity of the upcoming jury pools by labeling them as “absolutely ratchet,” a sentiment that Habba echoed with concerns over potential bias.
The conversation then took a reflective turn to past legal precedents, notably the O.J. Simpson case, to illustrate their worries about juror impartiality. Johnson remarked, “We’ve just been covering OJ’s death, and there were all these jurors…they’re saying, we knew he killed everyone.” Habba alluded to the specific restrictions placed by Judge Merchan during the jury selection process, which she argued could severely impact the defense’s ability to ensure a fair trial.
“One of the things that the judge here, Judge Merchan, would not allow us to ask was whether or not they voted for a Republican or a Democrat.”
🚨BREAKING: Trump Legal Spokeswoman Alina Habba reveals there were Biden Campaign Employees included in jury selection in the E. Jean Carroll case and Biden staffers could be included on the NY Criminal Trial jury because the judge ELIMINATED questions asking about it. pic.twitter.com/nIKJJWpPxc
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 15, 2024
Further exacerbating the issue, Habba revealed that individuals currently employed by the Biden campaign were allowed in the jury pool for the E. Jean Carroll case—a situation she found deeply problematic. “There’s people that when I was doing the jury selection in the Carroll case, were working currently for the Biden campaign. And I didn’t want those people sitting on a jury for President Trump.”
Trump faces 34 state charges of falsifying business records in connection to a pre-2016 election “hush money” payment made by his attorney to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges, denouncing the case as a Democratic plot to block his potential return to the White House. The trial is the first of four criminal cases against Trump to reach this stage.
The dialogue also touched upon the broader strategies employed by legal teams to form juries that might be sympathetic to their clients. Habba candidly admitted the tactical nature of such preparations, “You know, I mean, that’s my job as a lawyer is to make sure that I get the absolute best jury pool I’m going to get. And by the way, don’t think that the DA team isn’t gonna do the exact same thing.”
As Trump’s legal challenges continue, the composition of the jury remains a pivotal element that could significantly influence the proceedings and their outcomes in these landmark cases.