Former Trump attorney Bill Brennan recently expressed worry about people who already have a political opinion on former President Donald Trump getting on the jury in his hush money criminal trial in Manhattan.
During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday, in which he weighed in how Trump can get a fair trial, Brennan pointed to the difficulty ahead of Trump’s legal team as they try to remove those with prejudices against the former president from becoming jurors on the case to avoid bias.
“Well, I’ll tell ya Jake, when we were doing it, and Judge Merchan is a very serious man, he’s very smart,” he stated. “He’s extremely courteous. I mean, I’m not getting into people’s biases or prejudice, I’m not qualified to do that. I can tell you having spent several weeks with the man, he’s a gentleman and he gave us as much time as we needed.”
Recalling a 2022 tax fraud case against the Trump Organization, in which he represented the company, he pointed to how a potential juror, who said she hates Trump but claimed she could be fair, was not booted out of the jury selection process.
“We had a lady come up as a prospective juror. I’ve been picking juries for about 35 years. She looked good to me, a lady in her mid-40s of Irish extraction. She spoke with a brogue, she worked in an Irish pub, and in our questionnaire, questions 29 and 30 said, ‘Do you have any former — do you have any strong feelings about the former president and if so, would they affect your ability to be fair?’” he said.
“And she checked them. So I said, ‘Well, ma’am, would they be positive or negative feelings?’ And she says, ‘Oh, I despise that man.’ And I said, I guess it was late in the day, and I said, ‘Oh, come on, don’t sugarcoat things for me. Speak your mind.’ She says, ‘Oh, speak me mind? I hate him!’” she added.
According to Brennan, Merchan did not excuse the woman from the jury selection process immediately despite her position on Trump.
“And I looked over at Judge Merchan, expecting him to meet my gaze and dismiss her, and he said, ‘Well, wait a minute.’ He’s got his robe on and the pomp and circumstance of the courtroom. [He said] ‘if I instructed you in the law, could you put those feelings aside and be fair?’ And she said like most people say when they see the judge in that robe, ‘Sure, judge,’” he added.
Merchan did not remove the woman still, according to Brennan, until he found a different way to get her out of the jury selection process.
For Brennan, jurors like that woman are not the ones that pose the greatest danger, as she answered the questions and made her views known.
“The dangerous jurors are the one who answers no questions, and you just have a gut feeling. That’s the juror that I worry about, the juror who has some type of ulterior motive to get on that case to settle a score,” he explained.
Ex-Trump Bill Brennan attorney recalls a potential juror from a tax fraud case against the Trump Organization in 2022 who said she 'Hates Trump' and claims she was NOT a 'dangerous juror'
‘Well, ma’am, would they be positive or negative feelings?’ And she says, ‘Oh, I despise… pic.twitter.com/MZU6RHbByA
— Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) April 16, 2024
After two days of the trial, seven jurors have been sworn in, while dozens of potential jurors have been excused for lack of impartiality. A foreperson, who will be charged with overseeing jury deliberations, has also been chosen.
The process will continue on Thursday, as five more jurors need to be selected to fill up the 12-seat bench. Six alternates will also be picked.