Trump smiles as potential juror says he finds him ‘fascinating’

While he craned his neck to listen to a panel of Manhattan residents who could end up delivering a verdict against him, Donald Trump heard from a group of New Yorkers put on the spot to voice their opinions about the former president.

Mr Trump – sitting with his defence attorneys in a Manhattan criminal courthouse for the second day of jury selection in hishush money case – heard from a first-round panel of potential jurors who could end up on the jury.

One man said he finds the former president “fascinating.”

“He walks into a room and he sets people off. I find that really interesting,” he said. “Certainly he makes things interesting.”

Mr Trump flashed a smile. An overflow courtoom full of reporters couldn’t help but laugh. His lead attorney Todd Blanche stood for a moment and said, “Um, all right. Thank you.”

Defense attorneys and prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office got their first chance on Tuesday to “strike” potential members of the jury pool, whittling down a pool of 500 prospective jurors to the 18 Americans who could be the first to ever find a former president guilty of a crime.

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass asked jurors whether they can put aside what they might know about the former president, stick to the facts, and determine whether Mr Trump falsified business records “to cover up an agreement to unlawfully influence the 2016 election.”

Mr Trump’s attorney told jurors that the former president deserves a “fair shake.”

“It’s easy to read something off a sheet of paper and say, ‘Yes I’m going to be fair and impartial,’” Mr Blanche said. “What I want to do is test that a little bit.”

Mr Blanche asked for jurors’ opinions of Mr Trump before they walked into the courthouse,