Trump hush money trial resumes with jury selection after day off

Jury selection is set to resume in former President Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York City after a break in action Wednesday.

With seven jurors already having been selected from a pool of 96, the schedule for Thursday will focus largely on questioning potential jurors in a second group of the same size to see whether they can be fair and impartial when it comes to Trump. The judge has said he hopes to have 12 jurors, as well as alternates, selected by the end of Friday.

Prosecutors and lawyers for Trump will have less opportunity to dismiss potential jurors going forward, because both used six of their 10 peremptory challenges Tuesday.

While both sides can make an unlimited number of challenges for cause, it is up to the judge to decide whether to grant those challenges and strike those jurors. State Judge Juan Merchan dismissed two jurors for cause Tuesday, one of whom had posted a “lock him up” message about Trump on Facebook, but he denied some other challenges.

Trump bemoaned the number of challenges he can make Wednesday.

“I thought STRIKES were supposed to be ‘unlimited’ when we were picking our jury? I was then told we only had 10, not nearly enough when we were purposely given the 2nd Worst Venue in the Country,” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, before he blasted the case as “election interference.”

Under New York law, defendants charged with lower-level felonies like Trump are entitled to only 10 peremptory strikes.

The scheduled day off Wednesday followed some fireworks in the Manhattan courtroom, where Merchan chided Trump for appearing to speak to one of the potential jurors who was being questioned about a Facebook post in which she had apparently celebrated Joe Biden's 2020