- A full jury has now been selected to sit on the criminal tax-fraud trial of Donald Trump's business.
- A quarter of the 12-person panel has openly said they're not fans of the former president.
A full jury has now been selected to sit on the New York criminal tax-fraud trial of Donald Trump's international real-estate company — and a quarter of the panel has openly said they're not fans of the former president.
By Thursday afternoon, on day three of jury selection in the high-profile trial playing out in New York Supreme Court in lower Manhattan, four women and eight men were chosen to serve on the 12-person panel.
Three of those people have expressed their disfavor of Trump during questioning by prosecutors and defense attorneys in the courtroom, but said that they could be fair and impartial as jurors.
One man who would become juror No. 8 called Trump "narcissistic" on Thursday.
"Honestly, I used to think he was funny before he was president," the man said in court of Trump, 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," he said.
Defense attorneys for Trump's namesake business — the Trump Organization — tried to get the man dismissed, but New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Manuel Merchan ultimately allowed the man to sit on the panel.
"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."
A lead prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, told the judge on Thursday that if every prospective juror who disliked the former president was excused from the case then there wouldn't be a jury.
"This is not about Donald Trump," but about his business, said Hoffinger, who is chief investigator for the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
Two women who were chosen to sit on the jury on Tuesday said in court that they didn't like how Trump ran the country. A man chosen for the jury on Thursday called Trump a "narcissist." All three were sworn in after promising to be fair and impartial jurors.
"I didn't vote for him," said one of the Trump detractors chosen Tuesday, a self-employed book editor. "And I would have gone for some different Supreme Court justices" than the three Trump picked, she added.
In addressing juror prospects on Thursday, Trump Organization lawyer William Brennan said, "We've heard a lot of opinions and the majority were not favorable to the former president of the United States."
He added, "The money question here is do you have strong opinions about the former president?" a question that prompted 11 of 18 of those questioned to raise their hands.
One man was excused from the jury pool on Thursday after saying that Trump literally made him sick to his guts.
Other jurors were dismissed Thursday after calling Trump a "demonstrative liar," "a scam artist" and "fundamentally guided by a diagnosable personality disorder."
The jury in the case 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.
Trump is not on trial in the case. His company, which is facing multiple counts of conspiracy, scheme to defraud, falsifying business records, and criminal tax fraud, has pleaded not guilty.