Could a stealth juror derail Trump’s trial?

A full jury has been sworn in to hear evidence and decide the guilt or innocence of former President Donald Trump in his hush money trial.

Twelve jurors and six alternates have been seated following a jury selection process that lasted a week.

Mr Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in the case after he allegedly instructed his then-fixer, now-witness for the prosecution Michael Cohen to pay off adult actor Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 election to remain quiet about her claim that she had an affair with Mr Trump in 2006.

During jury selection, one of the top priorities for both sides in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial was to root out potential “stealth jurors” – those who claim to be impartial but who hide theirbiases to get on a jury and possibly derail a trial.

Jurors are supposed to be impartial. A number of prospective jurors were dismissed from the proceedings simply because they felt they could not be neutral while sitting in judgment of the former president.

Steve Duffy, from Trial Behavior Consulting, tells The Independent that stealth jurors “fully have an opinion … but [are] trying to get on the jury”.

“I have no doubt that there are jurors in the pool on both sides, who really want to be on the jury [but] have a very strong opinion, either for or against him, and are deliberately not saying anything to try to get on,” Mr Duffy argues during the jury selection process. “The way you figure out who those people are is with background research, which … both sides are undoubtedly doing.”

Manhattan prosecutors posed several questions to jurors in the first week of the trial. Among them: can they follow the facts and the evidence and the judge’s instructions, and can