Donald Trump will get juror names at New York criminal trial but they'll be anonymous to the public (2024)
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump will be allowed to know the names of jurors at his upcoming New York hush-money criminal trial. The public will not.
Manhattan Judge Juan Manuel Merchan ruled Thursday to keep the yet-to-be-picked jury anonymous, with limited exceptions for the former president, his defense lawyers, prosecutors, jury consultants and legal staffs.
Only Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors will be allowed to know the addresses of the jurors’ homes and workplaces, Merchan said. Trump could risk forfeiting access to the names if he were to disclose them publicly.
Jury selection is slated to begin March 25.
The ruling, in response to a request from prosecutors, applies not only to jurors seated for the trial, but also prospective jurors who may be summoned to court but don’t make the cut, the judge said.
It stops short of having a fully anonymous jury, as was the case in both of Trump’s recent federal civil trials involving the writer E. Jean Carroll. In those trials, not even Trump nor his lawyers knew the jurors’ names.
Jurors’ names are typically public record, but courts sometimes allow exceptions to protect the jury, most notably in cases involving terrorism, organized crime or when there’s been prior jury tampering.
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Despite the restrictions, Merchan said has no plans to close the courtroom for jury selection or at any other time in the trial.
“Access to the courtroom by the public and the press will not be tempered in any way as a result of these protective measures,” Merchan wrote in a seven-page ruling.
Trump is accused in the hush-money case of falsifying internal records kept by his company to hide the nature of payments to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid p*rn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 as part of an effort during Trump’s 2016 campaign to bury claims he’d had extramarital sexual encounters.
Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, is charged in New York with 34 counts of falsifying business records, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, though there is no guarantee that a conviction would result in jail time. Barring a last-minute delay, it will be the first of his four criminal cases to go to trial.
Last week, amid a slew of pretrial requests, the Manhattan district attorney’s office asked Merchan to restrict access to juror names and keep them from the public, citing what it said was Trump’s “extensive history of attacking jurors in other proceedings.”
Among other things, prosecutors noted that Trump had made social media posts saying the jury that convicted his former adviser Roger Stone of obstructing a congressional investigation and other charges in 2020 was “totally biased,” “tainted,” and “DISGRACEFUL!”
They also noted that he’d posted about the grand jury that indicted him in New York and referred to the special grand jury in Georgia that investigated his efforts to subvert his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden as “an illegal Kangaroo Court” and “a ‘Special’ get Trump Grand Jury.”
Putting guardrails up around access to juror names in the hush-money case and barring Trump from disseminating them were necessary steps to “minimize obstacles to jury selection, and protect juror safety,” prosecutors said.
Trump’s lawyers said they agreed with keeping jurors’ names from the public, but for different reasons. They cited what they called “extremely prejudicial pretrial media attention associated with this case” and disputed the prosecution’s characterization of his previous comments about jurors.
Prosecutors “do not identify a single example where President Trump mentioned — let alone attacked or harassed — any juror by name,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a response Monday. The only examples they cited were instances where those jurors identified themselves publicly and discussed their work as jurors with the media, Trump’s lawyers said.
Along with limiting access to juror names, prosecutors wanted Merchan to warn Trump that he’ll lose that privilege if he discloses names publicly or engages in harassing or disruptive conduct that threatens the safety or integrity of jurors.
Merchan said he’ll rule on that when he decides on the prosecution’s request for a gag order that would bar Trump from making public statements about jurors, witnesses and others involved in the case.
Donald Trump will get juror names at New York criminal trial but they'll be anonymous to the public. NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump will be allowed to know the names of jurors at his upcoming New York hush-money
hush-money
Hush money is a term for an arrangement in which one person or party offers another an attractive sum of money or other enticement, in exchange for remaining silent about some illegal, stigmatized, or shameful behavior, action, or other fact about the person or party who has made the offer.
An anonymous jury is a type of jury that a court may empanel in a criminal trial; if one is used, then information that might otherwise identify jurors is withheld from the parties, the pub- lic, or some combination thereof, for varying lengths of time.
Potential jurors are randomly selected from lists of registered voters, holders of drivers' licenses or ID's issued by the Division of Motor Vehicles, New York State income tax filers, recipients of unemployment insurance or family assistance, and from volunteers.
Commonly known as a "gag order," the judge's decision is actually called an order "restricting extrajudicial statements" — statements made outside of court. “As the name of the order indicates, it only applies to extrajudicial statements,” Merchan said.
Sometimes the juror names are given to the court, but not to the media or even the parties in the case. Sometimes the par- ties' lawyers are given access to juror infor- mation but it is withheld from the public record and the media.
An innominate jury, also known as an anonymous jury, is a jury whose members are kept anonymous by court order. This may be requested by the prosecution or defense in order to protect the jury from the media, potential jury tampering, or social pressure to return a particular verdict.
Most civil trials in New York use only six jurors instead of the typical 12 in a criminal case. In order to make a decision in a criminal case, jurors usually need to believe the case “beyond a reasonable doubt,” and all 12 of them need to agree. In a civil case, the standard is much lower.
Jurors are selected to listen to the facts of the case and to determine if the defendant committed the crime. Twelve jurors are selected randomly from the jury pool (also called the “venire”), a list of potential jurors compiled from voter registration records of people living in the Federal district.
The king established jury trials in early 8th century CE, and decided on the number 12, purportedly saying, “For as Christ and his 12 apostles were finally to judge the world, so human tribunals should be composed of the king and 12 wise men,” with the King holding court and acting as judge.
I'm over 70; why am I still being called for jury duty? There is no maximum age limit for jury service. It is illegal to automatically exclude any age group including seniors.
If you have a medical condition that prevents you from serving please submit a statement from a licensed medical professional which includes the following: A diagnosis of your mental or physical condition A prognosis of how long the condition is expected to exist A conclusion stating that you are incapable of serving ...
During a trial, gag orders are issued by a judge to prohibit individuals from publicly speaking about an ongoing case. Gag orders often grab headlines during high-profile cases, such as when one was ordered in Donald Trump's election interference case.
In Allen, the court held that “there are at least three constitutionally permissible ways for a trial judge to handle an obstreperous defendant like Allen: (1) bind and gag him, thereby keeping him present; (2) cite him for contempt; (3) take him out of the courtroom until he promises to conduct himself properly.” 397 ...
Gag orders are restrictions on what preliminary information about a trial can be released to the public and, in some instances, limits on what participants in a trial can say about it, when they can say it, and who they say it to. They are one tool used by judges to protect against trial interference.
In some cases, with extenuating circ*mstances, the identity of certain people involved can remain confidential. However, it would be unconstitutional for a witness to remain anonymous during a court trial.
Since their relatively recent beginnings in 1977, when the first completely anonymous jury was empaneled in a federal court in New York, anonymous juries have been used across a litany of cases: organized crime, terrorism, murder, sports scandals, police killings, and even gubernatorial corruption.
Most federal appellate courts have based the decision for an anonymous jury on some combination of the following five factors: (1) the defendant's involvement in organized crime; (2) the defendant's participation in a group with the capacity to harm jurors; (3) the defendant's past attempts to interfere with the ...
They may have limited use of their phones, but only under the watchful eyes of bailiffs or court personnel. They are also not allowed to discuss the case with anyone except for their fellow jurors – and only then when it is time to deliberate.
Introduction: My name is Kareem Mueller DO, I am a vivacious, super, thoughtful, excited, handsome, beautiful, combative person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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