QAnon in, political party out: Judge finalizes juror questionnaire for Trump hush-money case
Jury selection in the case begins next week.
By ERICA ORDEN
04/08/2024
Prospective jurors for former President Donald Trump’s upcoming criminal trial in Manhattan won’t be asked if they are a Republican or a Democrat, but they will be questioned about whether they are a member of the Proud Boys or the QAnon movement.
The judge overseeing Trump’s trial, set to begin April 15, on Monday unveiled the list of 42 questions he will use to select 12 jurors to decide the former president’s fate on charges that he falsified business records in order to conceal the nature of a hush money payment to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election.
In a seven-page order, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said he would ask the questions only of jurors who haven’t initially self-identified as unable to be fair and impartial and who don’t have another reason to believe they can’t serve on the jury.
And though Trump’s lawyers had urged Merchan to probe prospective jurors about their political affiliations, he rejected that request. But, as he noted in his order, “the answer to that question may easily be gleaned from the responses to the other questions.”
That’s because Merchan will ask prospective jurors whether they have worked for the Trump campaign, presidential administration or any other political entity affiliated with Trump; whether they’ve ever attended a Trump rally or campaign event; and whether they follow Trump on social media or subscribe to any of his newsletters or email listservs.
Prospective jurors must also answer a similar series of questions about their interactions with “anti-Trump” groups, although the questionnaire doesn’t define or provide examples of such groups.
And perhaps most significantly, prospective jurors must disclose whether they have ever been a member of the QAnon movement, the Proud Boys, the Oathkeepers, the Three Percenters, the Boogaloo Boys or Antifa. The judge who oversaw both of the federal civil trials between Trump and the writer E. Jean Carroll posed a similar question during those jury selection processes.
Merchan will also ask prospective jurors more broadly about their feelings about Trump being on trial, including asking them whether they have any “strong opinions or firmly held beliefs” about whether a former president may be criminally charged in state court, and whether they have opinions “about how Mr. Trump is being treated in this case.”
And they must disclose whether their media diet includes any of about a dozen sources, including Fox News, Newsmax, Truth Social or TikTok.
Merchan had previously ruled that he will take measures to protect the identity of jurors by ordering that prosecutors and defense attorneys not disclose their names publicly. The judge took that step after prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg argued that Trump has repeatedly threatened or verbally attacked people involved in legal proceedings against him.
In Monday’s order, Merchan said he would instruct jurors that their names wouldn’t be made public, but that “you must not draw any inferences, in favor of or against either party, as a result of this Order.”
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