A New York City judge dismissed a handful of potential jurors he believed could potentially be biased in former President Donald Trump's New York City alleged rape trial Tuesday, including two people who admitted donating to candidates as well as another juror who was unvaccinated.
On Tuesday, juries were selected to evaluate whether anything occurred between Trump and his accuser, journalist E. Jean Carroll, when the former president allegedly raped her in the dressing room of a New York City department store in the mid-1990s.
According to a write-up by The Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed several prospective jurors from the pool of nearly four dozen both sides believed were compromised in some way based on a series of 82 questions posed to the group.
One dismissed New Yorker, Pagliery wrote, was unvaccinated. Another claimed to have donated to the political campaigns of Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Several others openly admitted they couldn't judge the case fairly.
Most interviewed, however, were aware of Trump's legal troubles, leaving both sides with a pool of nine jurors the Beast characterized as having "notable media diets."
One, a 37-year-old library employee, said he's informed by "Google, anything on the internet." Another claimed "social media is my news outlet," while one 55-year-old woman claimed she'll "watch anything." Several said they primarily watch CNN, while another said he was a fan of conservative-leaning podcaster Tim Pool, who portrays himself on the air as a "disaffected leftist."
For Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct numerous times throughout his lifetime, the stakes of the trial could be high.
Carroll, a former writer for Elle, claims Trump defamed her character after denying sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in New York City in the mid-1990s, including insulting her appearance. (Trump, who was not in attendance Tuesday, insists the incident "never happened," saying Carroll was "not his type.")
If he loses, Trump could be forced to pay an "astronomical sum" to his accuser, experts told Newsweek on Tuesday.
"I've seen these cases settled for hundreds of thousands, or tens of millions," Attorney Jamie White, who specializes in representing victims of sexual abuse, told Newsweek earlier in the day Tuesday. "I think that her allegations of the assault, and also the harm it's caused her are substantial, and a jury could come back with a very large number."
Newsweek has reached out to Trump's office for comment.
Correction 4/26/23, 10:45 a.m. ET: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Jose Pagliery.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Nick Reynolds is a senior politics reporter at Newsweek. A native of Central New York, he previously worked as a ... Read more
