- A prospective juror in the trial against the Trump Org said the former president made him sick.
- "I don't feel like it's a very healthy thing for me to be here," the man told a Manhattan judge.
A man summoned for jury duty in the New York criminal tax-fraud trial of former President Donald Trump's international real-estate company was excused by a judge Thursday after saying the former commander in chief made him sick to his guts.
The then-prospective juror, a middle-age man, told Justice Juan Manuel Merchan of the New York Supreme Court on day three of jury selection in the Manhattan trial that he had "strong feelings" about Trump that "turned into a very visceral feeling in my gut" overnight.
The man said he had not had feelings like that about the businessperson turned Republican politician in the two years since Trump was president.
"I don't feel like it's a very healthy thing for me to be here," the man told Merchan before he was excused.
The judge asked defense attorneys and prosecutors whether they had any objections to the man being dismissed, and they said no.
The man declined to speak with reporters after he left the courtroom.
As of Thursday afternoon, all 12 jurors were selected to serve on the panel in the high-profile state Supreme Court case.
Three of those sworn in — a full quarter of those seated — openly do not like Trump.
That includes a man who said in court that Trump is "a narcissist" and two women who said in court that they didn't like how Trump ran the country. All three were sworn in after repeatedly promising that they could still be fair and impartial jurors.
The jury will determine whether Trump's namesake business — the Trump Organization — defrauded tax authorities. The company is accused of paying executives some of their compensation off the books in the form of untaxed perks, like free apartments and cars.
The Trump Organization, which has pleaded not guilty, is facing multiple counts of conspiracy, scheme to defraud, falsifying business records, and criminal tax fraud.
Trump himself has ripped the charges against his company as a "political witch hunt."