After two days of jury selection in his first criminal trial, Donald Trump is expressing some confusion about the selection process. He complained Wednesday on Truth Social that he thought that “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.”
Putting aside the offbeat capitalization and venue grousing, let’s clear up the rules that anyone sitting in a Manhattan courtroom and paying attention to their own trial should surely understand. Seven jurors have been picked so far and selection resumes Thursday.
First, the strikes are unlimited for the so-called for cause challenges, meaning those for people who can’t be fair or are otherwise unqualified to serve.
Second, the “only 10” complaint is about a straightforward application of the law, which gives each side 10 of what are called peremptory strikes in prosecutions for “E”-level felonies, like the falsifying business records charges Trump is fighting (he has pleaded not guilty). Each side also gets two such strikes for alternate jurors on top of the regular 12-person jury. Both sides can use peremptory strikes to cut potential jurors without giving a reason (but not for illegal reasons, such as race).
So whatever the former president was “told” about having 10 peremptory strikes, that’s not a Trump trial innovation but rather the law. He, his lawyers and anyone else curious enough to check could have done so (and probably did) long before this week. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump cases and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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