Donald J. Trump is a creature of social media. And the lawyers representing him in his criminal trial in Manhattan showed themselves to be savvy at using it during jury selection this week to try to get some prospective jurors dismissed.
Mr. Trump’s defense lawyers, Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles, managed to dig up old social media posts by a number of prospective jurors that attacked the former president, creating fascinating exchanges with people who had to explain, under oath, comments that were often years-old.
While Mr. Trump’s team succeeded in getting some prospective jurors removed, Day 3 of jury selection ended on Thursday with a full panel of 12 jurors in the case, which could move to opening arguments on Monday.
In one lengthy exchange on Thursday, Ms. Necheles highlighted a series of posts by a woman that were highly critical of Mr. Trump and the Republican Party, leading the woman to apologize in court in front of the former president.
In posts written over a span of years, Ms. Necheles said, the woman suggested that Mr. Trump was a liar, that the GOP was a cult and that the former president “is an anathema” to everything she knows. The defense lawyers sought to have her removed, and the judge in the case, Juan M. Merchan, asked her about the posts.
The woman read aloud one of them, which called Mr. Trump racist, sexist and narcissist. She stopped reading — “Oops. That sounds bad,” she said and apologized.
Justice Merchan dismissed the woman for cause, a victory for Mr. Trump’s lawyers who also had several prospective jurors removed during jury selection on Tuesday over their social media posts.
Both the defense lawyers and prosecutors started jury selection on Monday with 10 opportunities each to strike a prospective juror from the trial without explanation, in what is known a peremptory challenge. By Thursday, Mr. Trump’s legal team only had four opportunities remaining.
When the team asked prospective jurors about their posts, some of them defended their posts by arguing they were reposts, a tactic also used by Mr. Trump to deflect criticism of some of his online comments.
On Tuesday, Mr. Blanche asked a woman about a video she posted on Facebook of people celebrating the results of the 2020 presidential election, when Mr. Trump lost to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
“I very, very strongly believe that regardless of my thoughts about anyone or anything or political feelings or convictions, that the job of a juror is to understand the facts of the trial and to be the judge of those facts,” the woman said.
While she was responding to Mr. Blanche, Mr. Trump began to mutter and gesture — which caught the attention of the judge. “I won’t tolerate that,” Justice Merchan said, before saying that he found that the woman could be fair and denying the defense’s request to dismiss her for cause.
