How Much Do We Really Know About the Trump Jury?

The first week of former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial has concluded, and a full jury has been chosen — twelve jurors and six alternates. Beginning next week, they’ll put to the test Trump’s contention that he can’t get a fair trial in liberal Manhattan.

What we’ve learned after a week filled almost entirely with the process of jury selection is that the jurors appear to represent a reasonable cross section of the kind of people you generally find in Manhattan.

There’s a salesperson from West Harlem, an engineer from the Upper West Side, a businessperson from Murray Hill, two lawyers, two people who work in education and two people who work in finance. That’s in addition to a health care worker, a product manager and a tech worker. Many of them get their news from their hometown paper, The New York Times. Three are married without kids. (Who can afford them in New York these days?) And many of them come from elsewhere: Ohio, Oregon, California, even Ireland.

One juror, who was seated after Trump’s legal team had used up all of their peremptory challenges, says that she “doesn’t like [Trump’s] persona, how he presents himself in public.” But she made sure to add, eliciting laughs in court, that “I don’t like some of my co-workers, but I don’t try to sabotage their work.”

Based solely on the demographic makeup of these jurors, they largely code as Democratic voters.

That’s no surprise. Manhattan voted in favor of President Joe Biden over Trump by 87 percent to 12 percent. It has one of the most liberal jury pools in the country. While all of the jurors (and the alternates) say that they can be impartial and unbiased about the facts of the case, many are sure to know and have some opinion of Trump (not only as the former president, but also as a former famous Manhattanite himself) that might get in the way.

His legal team is acutely aware of it. During jury selection, Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche repeatedly brought up potential jurors’ old social media posts that appeared to be pro-Democrat or anti-Trump in an attempt to dismiss them for cause, allowing Blanche to save his precious peremptory challenges.

Trump’s last experience with a Manhattan jury didn’t go so well. At the conclusion of his defamation case against E. Jean Carroll in January, Trump was ordered by the jury to pay $83.3 million in damages.

This latest group of 12 is certainly different from the group of nine that hit Trump in the wallet. And a criminal trial is altogether different and higher stakes than a civil one. But there are already clear signs that the former president doesn’t trust them to be any different.

Not long after his indictment last year, Trump complained about it on social media. “Very unfair venue, with some areas that voted 1% Republican. This case should be moved to nearby Staten Island—would be a very fair and secure location for the trial,” he posted on Truth Social, referring to the most Republican borough of New York City.

Today, he again took to Truth Social, this time to attack the judge and prosecutor. “Judge Merchan is ‘railroading’ me, at breakneck speed, in order to completely satisfy his ‘friends.’ Additionally, he has ‘GAGGED’ me so that I cannot talk about the most important of topics, including his totally disqualifying conflict of interest, and taking away my Constitutional Right of Free Speech.”

Every single day this week, Trump has suggested the trial is rigged, the judge has conflicts of interest, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is corrupt and more. He hasn’t provided evidence to back up any of these claims, but that’s not the point. The posts are there to dismiss the trial as unserious and signal to his supporters that he’s being tried solely as a political tactic. While Trump’s legal team will be forced to win in court, Trump is fighting a bigger political war on the trial.

In response, prosecutors are asking Judge Merchan to hold Trump in contempt for violating the gag order that prohibits him from commenting on witnesses, jurors and other people involved in the case. Merchan has scheduled a hearing for next week where Trump will have to show cause as to why he shouldn’t be held in contempt.

We’ve only just finished jury selection — Trump is going to have a lot more thoughts as the trial begins in front of the jury next week. But in a Manhattan courtroom, he’s far from his base. As opening statements begin Monday and witnesses are called over the next few weeks, Trump and his legal team will have to play to a group of 12 people who might not be walking into the courtroom as his biggest fans. That will dictate their strategy. And unless Trump testifies, which appears unlikely, he’ll be forced to do something that doesn’t come easy to him — sit in silence.

The following article first appeared in POLITICO Nightly.