Judge to Trump: I Will Not Have Any Jurors Intimidated

This story has been updated with new developments. The second day of Donald Trump's hush-money trial in Manhattan ended with seven jurors selected. ABC News reports that the seven jurors chosen Tuesday include the foreperson, a man born in Ireland who works in sales. Other jurors include an oncology nurse, an attorney, a charter school teacher, an IT worker, and a software engineer who works for Disney. After the seventh juror, a civil litigator, was chosen, Judge Juan Merchan said opening arguments could begin Monday morning. The court is in recess Wednesday and another 11 jurors, including six alternates, need to be chosen on Thursday and Friday, the AP reports. The jurors selected Tuesday were told to return to court Monday morning and to put the case out of their minds in the meantime.

• Some jurors were dismissed for social media posts, including one from eight years ago, the Washington Post reports. One potential juror was dismissed for a post about Trump being locked up, but Merchan declined to dismiss a juror who had posted video of a Biden victory celebration in 2020.

• Jonah Bromwich at the New York Times wrote that as lawyers discussed a potential juror who posted a meme titled "I don't think this is what they meant by 'Orange Is the New Black," Trump appeared to be "studying the meme on a printed-out sheet of paper. He does not look amused at all."
• NBC News reports that the judge admonished Trump for "audibly" saying something in the direction of one juror while she was being questioned. "I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom," Merchan said. "I want to make this crystal clear."
• After Trump left the courtroom, he said he would continue his fight to have Merchan removed from the case, ABC reports. "We have a very conflicted, highly conflicted judge. He shouldn't be on the case," Trump said, accusing Merchan of "rushing" the trial and "doing as much as he can for the Democrats."

(More Trump hush-money trial stories.)