A prosecutor in the Trump Org trial says if they excused every juror who disliked Trump 'we wouldn't be able to get a jury at all'

• A prosecutor in the trial of Donald Trump's business said there wouldn't have been a jury if all who disliked Trump were excused.
• "This is not about Donald Trump," but about his business, lead prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said.

A prosecutor in the New York criminal tax-fraud trial of Donald Trump's international real-estate company said on Thursday that if every prospective juror who disliked the former president was excused from the case then there wouldn't be a jury.

"If we were to strike every juror who had a negative opinion about Donald Trump, we wouldn't be able to get a jury at all," lead prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, told New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Manuel Merchan on the third day of jury selection in the high-profile Manhattan trial.

"This is not about Donald Trump," but about his business, said Hoffinger, who is chief investigator for the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

Defense attorneys for Trump's namesake business — the Trump Organization — had tried to get a juror booted off the panel because he called the Republican businessman-turned-politician "narcissistic" during questioning.

"Honestly, I used to think he was funny before he was president," the man who would become juror No. 8 said in court, adding, "Then he started acting a little crazy and narcissistic."

"That's the only reason I didn't like him as president — not so much policy," the man said.

The judge ultimately allowed the man to sit on the 12-person jury in the state Supreme Court case.

"In this case, the juror also indicated that he kind of thought [Trump] was funny," Merchan said. "He kind of liked him. He disagreed about how he conducted himself as a president … not about him overall."

As of Thursday afternoon, all 12 jurors were selected to serve on the panel that will determine if the Trump Organization defrauded tax authorities by paying executives some of their compensation off the books, in the form of untaxed perks like free apartments and cars.

The jury includes a man who said Trump "started acting a little crazy an dnarcissistic" after he was elected, and "two women who said they didn't like how Trump ran the country. All three promised to be fair and impartial jurors.

Trump, who is not on trial in the case, has ripped the charges against his sprawling business as a "political witch hunt."

The Trump Organization has pleaded not guilty.