About the Jury and Child Trump
Trump's criminal election interference trial (a/k/a hush-money trial) begins today. Jury selection is the first major item of business.
"The moment Trump shows up in the courtroom on Monday will be one of unfathomable drama and a test for members of the pool of citizens who will be vetted for service on a jury like none other in American history. “He’s the most famous person in the world. And when you’ve come face-to-face with somebody that’s got that kind of charisma, that kind of power, it tends to be intimidating, it tends to be shocking, it tends to be exciting,” Robert Hirschhorn, a jury and trial consultant, said on CNN on Friday."
I believe this is true. People have emotional reactions when they encounter famous and powerful people. Years ago, when I was working with then famous MN Gov. Jesse Ventura, I saw this again and again. Crowds gather just to look at famous people wherever they appear. If one walks into a restaurant unannounced, everyone in the room shifts their attention to him or her. The cameras immediately come out and people scramble to capture their brush with fame. Encountering a famous and powerful person is exactly as Hischhorn says above, "... it tends to be intimidating, it tends to be shocking, it tends to be exciting.”
But that effect is not lasting. After you're in the room with a famous person for a while, the person remains very much in mind, but the emotions stabilize. After they are selected, these jurors will be in the room with Trump, all day, four days a week, for a few weeks. The experience will stop being unique. Juror attention will be not on celebrity Trump but on felony criminal defendant Trump, who will quickly become a familiar sight.
In the E. Gene Carroll and New York civil fraud trials, Trump was not required to attend. He could enter and exit the proceedings at will. In those trials, jurors had the same initial experience Hischhorn described, but even with Trump's limited exposure to the jury, his childish courtroom antics did not play well. The jurors were not intimidated after they heard the facts and saw Trump's courtroom behavior. They were not intimidated by his ceaseless efforts to taint the jury pool. They gave no deference to Trump because he was Trump. Instead, the jurors severely punished Trump for the crimes with which he was charged.
In the felony criminal trial that begins today, Trump does not have the freedom to come and go. He is required to attend every minute the court is in session. Trump will be trapped in this courtroom, which will frustrate him. I expect his antics will be worse as a result, and they will be on display all day, every day, the court is in session.
This is not an impromptu press conference. It is not Truth Social. This is not a friendly interview on a conservative news outlet. This is a criminal trial where witnesses will testify against Trump, documentary evidence will be presented, and Trump will be powerless to bully, lie to, intimidate, or politicize the jury. If the judge allows it, he will be free to act like a child as he sits powerless at the defense table.
Trump will be forced to sit silently and helplessly as he watches the jurors take in the info and form their opinions. That will be very difficult for him to do without expressing a childish response of some sort. And those responses will work against him.
