This is what Trump’s defence team is looking for in hush money jurors

About 6,000 jurors have been sent subpoenas and about 1,500 were called to appear on Monday by the Manhattan Criminal Courts for former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

They will be whittled down to just 12 individuals to make up the jury in the case.

Mr Trump is facing 34 class E felony counts of falsifying business records following accusations that he filed hush money paid to adult actor Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair as legal expenses after reimbursing then-fixer and now-witness for the prosecution Michael Cohen.

Both the defence and the prosecution are working to strike prospective jurors that they see as biased against them. It’s a process of elimination. The defence will be looking to remove those with negative views of Mr Trump and the opposite is true for the prosecution – they will be trying to remove anyone who may be a Trump supporter.

“What you’re focused on is getting rid of people because that’s all you can do,” Steve Duffy at Trial Behavior Consulting tells The Independent. “When we work with attorneys on jury selection, I often refer to it as opposite day.”

“You’re actually trying to find the people who hate you so that you can get rid of them,” he adds.

What the attorneys are focusing on is finding the problematic jurors for their side and getting rid of them via for-cause challenges by establishing their bias or using peremptory strikes.

Mr Trump’s team would undoubtedly want 12 Maga supporters in the jury box and the prosecution may want those who despise the former president to be seated. But because of how the system is set up, that’s unlikely to take place.

Both parties can use for-cause challenges – which means that they may argue for the removal of a juror, usually because they’re