The judge in Donald Trump’s hush money trial ordered the media on Thursday not to report on where potential jurors have worked and to be careful about revealing information about those who will sit in judgment of the former president.
Judge Juan Merchan acted after one juror was dismissed when she expressed concerns about participating in the trial after details about her became publicly known.
The names of the jurors are supposed to be a secret, but the dismissed juror told Merchan she had friends, colleagues and family members contacting her to ask whether she was on the case. “I don’t believe at this point I can be fair and unbiased and let the outside influences not affect my decision-making in the courtroom,” she said.
Merchan then directed journalists present in the courthouse not to report it when potential jurors told the court their specific workplaces, past or present. That put journalists in the difficult position of not reporting something they heard in open court.
I’m most shocked that this was ever allowed in any trial.
There are a lot of pretty obvious situations where you wouldn’t want the accused or their “associates” to be able to identify a juror (or their family or anyone they might be connected with).
It’s because the US doesn’t do secret trials. By default, everything in the courtroom is open to the public. An open, transparent justice system works really well in a functional democracy, but it’s going to seem hopelessly naïve in our current proto-facist hellscape.
Right?? How is it not just standard that juries are anonymous?