Selection will begin on Monday in Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial, and will fail on many levels to vet jurors properly, the scholar said.
The process of selecting jurors and alternates for the criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, on charges related to allegedly falsified business records connected to a “hush money” payment, is highly unlikely to result in a jury that will weigh the evidence and render a verdict objectively, a legal expert has told The Epoch Times.
An April 8 letter from Judge Juan Merchan to defense lawyer Todd Blanche and government prosecutor Joshua Steinglass presents, in full, the questionnaire that prospective jurors in People v. Trump will need to answer during the vetting process beginning on April 15.
While some of the questions on the form directly address potential political biases and animosities on the part of respondents, it conspicuously fails to account for personal and political agendas that jurors are likely to bring with them into the courtroom, making a fair trial an impossibility.
That’s the view of Harvey Kushner—who has experience in some of the highest-profile cases in New York’s history.
He is chair of the criminal justice department at Long Island University in Brookville, New York, has worked with and trained federal law enforcement in anti-terrorism efforts, has provided expert testimony to the Department of Homeland Security and other federal entities, and has provided advice on voir-dire—the juror-vetting process—in high-profile cases.
“This was a monumental case to begin with. When you look at the issues that jury selection in Manhattan raises, I don’t think you can find such a case in the history of the country,” Mr. Kushner told The Epoch Times.
“This shouldn’t play a part, but if you look at the breakdown of Democrats to Republicans voting, New York City skews about 90 percent to 10 percent, or 80 percent to 20 percent at best,” he added.
Requests Shot Down
President Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly asked for a postponement of the trial because the prosecution withheld some 100,000 documents until late in the game making it impossible for them to review the evidence properly before the trial.
