By Jack Queen and Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A juror was excused on Thursday from Donald Trump’s criminal trial after saying she felt intimidated because some aspects of her identity had been made public, the judge overseeing the case said.
The juror told the court that family, friends and colleagues had contacted her after deducing through press accounts that she was on the jury.
“I don’t believe at this point that I can be fair and unbiased, and let the outside influences not affect my decision-making in the courtroom,” said the juror, who had been one of seven selected earlier this week.
Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, told news outlets not to report where prospective jurors said they worked.
“We just lost what probably would have been a very good juror,” Merchan said.
Six jurors remained.
The decision highlighted the extraordinary pressures around the first criminal trial ever of a former U.S. president.
Trump, the Republican presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 election, says, without providing evidence, that the trial is part of a broad-ranging effort by allies of Democratic President Joe Biden to hobble his candidacy. Aside from this case, he is a defendant in three other criminal prosecutions.
Trump has criticized witnesses and court officials involved in the case and their relatives, prompting Merchan to impose a partial gag order on him. Merchan has also directed that jurors’ identities remain private.
Prosecutors say Trump has violated the gag order multiple times over the past week, and have asked Merchan to impose fines or other penalties.
On Thursday, prosecutor Christopher Conroy pointed to posts about former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who is expected to be a star prosecution witness in the trial, and a post saying undercover liberal activists had been lying to the judge to try to get on the jury.
Emil Bove, one of Trump’s lawyers, said those posts “do not establish any willful violations” of the gag order.
Trump is a divisive figure in U.S. politics, and many of those being screened to serve on the jury have said they would not be capable of assessing his guilt or innocence.
Lawyers on Thursday will continue searching for jurors to decide Trump’s fate in the trial.
They are tasked with finding New Yorkers who can be fair to the Republican presidential candidate in heavily Democratic Manhattan, where the businessman-turned-politician made his name as a real estate tycoon back in the ’80s.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for allegedly falsifying records to cover up hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump denies having sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
The trial began on Monday. Jurors selected so far include a software engineer and two corporate lawyers. The judge has said the identities of the 12 jurors and six alternates will remain anonymous except to Trump, his lawyers and prosecutors.
Opening statements could take place on Monday if the full jury is seated this week.
A guilty verdict would not bar Trump from office, but half of independent voters and one in four Republicans say they would not vote for him if he were convicted, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on April 8.
The same poll found that 64% of registered voters thought the hush money charges were at least “somewhat serious.”
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks, and Trump could potentially be convicted and sentenced before the election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in three other criminal cases, but the New York trial could be the only one he faces before the election.
Trial dates have not yet been set for cases in Georgia and Washington that charge him with trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden, and another case in Florida that charges him with mishandling classified documents.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Luc Cohen in New York; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Lisa Shumaker and Jonathan Oatis)
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