Todd Blanche, an attorney for Donald Trump, revealed that the former president was “very much involved” in jury selection after one dozen New Yorkers found him guilty of all 34 charges in his hush money trial on Thursday.
“Were you satisfied with jury selection and was the former president involved in that in any way?” asked Fox News’ Jesse Watters.
“I mean, very much involved. He was right there with the whole team talking about the potential jurors,” Blanche replied.
He continued, “Look, was I satisfied? We put a motion [for an acquittal] in because we said we could not get a fair jury in Manhattan. And that’s not a —I’m not being disparaging to the jurors, man, they were great. They showed up on time every day. They were committed. They paid attention. But, we’re in a situation where we had a very limited number of people we could strike.”
Blanche’s remarks arrive after the New York jury found Trump guilty of dozens of felony charges of falsifying business records to cover up allegations of an alleged sexual encounter with adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump, following the historic verdict, told reporters outside the courtroom that it was a “rigged trial” by a “conflicted judge who is corrupt.”
Jury selection kicked off with a pool of more than 500 potential jurors last month and, as that number whittled down in the process, dozens of the potential jurors were rejected after they revealed they didn’t think they’d be impartial.
Blanche, in his interview with Watters, said an “overwhelming” number of potential jurors had a “very strong,” negative opinion of Trump.
He likened the experience to if Watters went on trial and saw half the room leave if the judge asked whether they have a “strong view” of the host.
“Ok, so, that’s what we were dealing with,” Blanche said.
“And look, that’s not a reflection of the jury pool, that’s not even a reflection of the judge. That’s just the reality of New York City.”
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