Current Events > Trump Juror quits over fears of being outed after Fox News' Jesse Watters attack

(+) Yeah! (+)

By the end of Tuesday, seven jurors had been selected to determine whether Donald Trump should be the first president ever convicted of a crime. By Thursday morning, when the Manhattan trial resumed, there were just six.
According to Judge Juan Merchan, the juror was excused after later expressing doubt that she could remain fair and impartial. In particular, she said that friends and family had already reached out to ask if she was serving on the jury.
Those calls came after numerous media outlets reported potentially identifying biographical information about the woman, including her job and the neighborhood she called home. Fox News Jesse Watters highlighted the juror's details while reading through public pool notes about the selected members. "This nurse scares me if I'm Trump," Watters said.
Other outlets including NBC News, CNN, CBS News, and ABC News also publicized details about the juror, including additional identifying information.
Watters has alleged without evidence that "liberal activists" are lying to get on the jury, a claim that Trump himself has repeated on Truth Social, potentially violating a gag order.
Jury selection is continuing Thursday. Trump is facing charges that he falsified business records to cover up a hush payment and affair with Stormy Daniels to unlawfully influence the 2016 election. He has pleaded not guilty.
Judge Merchan implored journalists to be more careful going forward, asking that they exercise "common sense" before reporting jurors' biographical information, NBC News reported.
"Jurors are real people with families, lives, and jobs," tweeted former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. "If one juror came forward and vocally expressed concern about her safety, that concern is likely in the mind of the *other* jurors. Their safety must be ensured in order for our legal system to work."

The fact that Fox didn't immediately get shut down by the government over this is telling me everything I need to know about how this whole thing is going to go.

how is that not intimidation?

how is that not intimidation?

I don't understand how they ever plan to try and select unbiased jurors

like surely at this point everyone in the country is extremely biased one way or another on trump

Oh, it absolutely is.

The problem here is that the government doesn't have the stones to enforce even the most basic of laws against the wealthy and the powerful, and that will be what ultimately kills us as a society.

they don't. both sides plan on getting a jury that they think will help them win

I'm pretty sure she can sue Watters for that bs.

The worst part was it was that her "friends and family" found out that made her scared. Like WTF???

I don't understand how they ever plan to try and select unbiased jurors

like surely at this point everyone in the country is extremely biased one way or another on trump

As much as I would like to see Trump in jail, or even just officially declared guilty, I would absolutely fucking not serve on the jury in his trial. His followers are too fucking crazy.

Godspeed to the ones brave enough to do their duty against the monster.

This isn't just a problem with Faux News. It's a larger problem affecting at least the media and the judicial system. The facts that could have outed this juror were widely reported, so that's a strike on the media as a whole. The trial is a circus, and there is a media feeding frenzy. The judicial system is not equipped to deal with either a circus act or a rich and powerful defendant, and the problem is greatly magnified when the rich defendant is a lifelong media whore.

Fucked up. Whoever the jurors end up being, they have to be under the most rigorous security. Literally just hotel to court and back to hotel, cause no way you can let these people go back to their homes.

As much as I would like to see Trump in jail, or even just officially declared guilty, I would absolutely fucking not serve on the jury in his trial. His followers are too fucking crazy.

Godspeed to the ones brave enough to do their duty against the monster.

This isn't just a problem with Faux News. It's a larger problem affecting at least the media and the judicial system. The facts that could have outed this juror were widely reported, so that's a strike on the media as a whole. The trial is a circus, and there is a media feeding frenzy. The judicial system is not equipped to deal with either a circus act or a rich and powerful defendant, and the problem is greatly magnified when the rich defendant is a lifelong media whore.

Other outlets including NBC News, CNN, CBS News, and ABC News also publicized details about the juror, including additional identifying information.

This isn't just a problem with Faux News. It's a larger problem affecting at least the media and the judicial system. The facts that could have outed this juror were widely reported, so that's a strike on the media as a whole. The trial is a circus, and there is a media feeding frenzy. The judicial system is not equipped to deal with either a circus act or a rich and powerful defendant, and the problem is greatly magnified when the rich defendant is a lifelong media whore.

So it wasn't just Watters, who is a literal human bag of shit, doing this. Every media outlet is making this, and all of his trials, a circus.

The worst part was it was that her "friends and family" found out that made her scared. Like WTF???

This isn't just a problem with Faux News. It's a larger problem affecting at least the media and the judicial system. The facts that could have outed this juror were widely reported, so that's a strike on the media as a whole. The trial is a circus, and there is a media feeding frenzy. The judicial system is not equipped to deal with either a circus act or a rich and powerful defendant, and the problem is greatly magnified when the rich defendant is a lifelong media whore.

Jury tampering is a slam dunk felony, but I'll be shocked if anything whatsoever happens

The fact that Fox didn't immediately get shut down by the government over this is telling me everything I need to know about how this whole thing is going to go.

Imagine getting the letter for jury duty and its for Trump, absolutely wild. I would see it through.

Imagine getting the letter for jury duty and its for Trump, absolutely wild. I would see it through.

I've heard it explained that it's definitely in the spirit of jury tampering, however NY law says it must be directed at an individual who is on the jury for it to be illegal.

so you just gotta threaten to kill all 12 jurors instead of juror #4?

I'd get dismissed because I wouldn't be able to resist insulting Trump in front of that entire court room

"Sure, I have an open mind about Trump. I'm not sure exactly how many crimes he's committed because I can't count that high, and I'm a mathematician."

I read through the questionnaire, and the one where it asks if you have an opinion of how he's been treated so far pre-trial would probably be my breaking point. I'd have to give a lot of "I'm not certain" or "I don't recall" answers before that though.