'That would worry me': expert raises alarm about juror who finds Trump 'fascinating'
A New Yorker paneled Tuesday during jury selection in former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial has alarm bells ringing for one legal expert following the case.
The juror in question is an IT consultant who told the court he found former President Donald Trump "fascinating and mysterious,” and said that he also found it “interesting” that Trump “walks into a room, and he sets people off one way or another," according to a CBS News report.
"I would have struck that juror immediately if I was the prosecutor," said former federal prosecutor Elie Honig. "I'm not sure, and we can always second guess after the fact, but that one would have jumped off the page to me as a strike."
Honig, appearing on CNN's "The Situation Room" Tuesday night, admitted it's possible to infer too much, because he wasn't physically in the courtroom.
"I mean, look, Donald Trump, whatever anyone may say, Donald Trump is enormously charismatic; I guess charismatic can be positive or negative and that would worry me... but this is not going to wind up in a Not Guilty verdict," Honig said.
"You need to all 12 to say not guilty."
The anonymous Manhattanites could find themselves at the center of a historic trial in which Trump stands accused of fudging business records to cover payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Trump has pleaded not guilty.
The second day of jury selection involved prosecutors and the defense grilling the jury pool about their personal lives, politics, news sources they favor and social media posts.
The IT worker who finds Trump fascinating joins an English teacher, an oncology nurse, a sales professional, a software engineer and two lawyers, reports show.
Eleven more jurors need to be sworn in before opening statements get underway against the presumptive Republican nominee.
Honig suspects Trump's legal team hope to win over one or two rogue jurors who, like the IT consultant, find him "fascinating" enough to raise their hands and cast doubt.
"What Trump is playing for here as a hung jury and what people have to understand is, 11-to-one is a hung jury, so I want a wild card if I'm Trump's team," Honig said.
"I want someone on that jury who's enamored with Trump; who finds him fascinating, who finds him charismatic — and that ["fascinating"] comment would definitely worry me from the prosecutor's perspective."