Real questions on whether Trump 'can control his temper' for even one day at trial: expert
April 15, 2024
Jury selection begins Monday in Donald Trump's criminal trial, and MSNBC's Lisa Rubin expects outbursts right off the bat from the first former president to ever be tried for crimes.
Court officials expect about 500 new jurors each day to be available, with about 100 brought at a time into judge Juan Mechan's courtroom for vetting, and Rubin told "Morning Joe" that she anticipates that procedural issues will delay that first batch from being vetted.
"A lot of what I'll be looking for is what happens before the first prospective juror walks into the courtroom," Rubin said. "We understand that because, over the weekend, Trump was on his Truth Social account making numerous posts about prospective witnesses, there could be this morning some discussion about the posts and what the consequences could be for any violation of the gag order."
The judge may dismiss any prospective jurors he believes should not serve on the panel and Trump's attorneys get 10 peremptory strikes they can use to remove a juror from the pool without stating a reason, and Rubin expects his team to ask for additional clarity on determining who will serve on the jury.
"We also expect, based on correspondence that Trump's lawyers sent late last week," Rubin said, "that they could say to Judge Merchan, 'Hey, we know you finalized the jury selections and protocol for selecting the jury, but we still don't think it is fair because you're going to allow anybody who says they're unable to serve to walk away scot-free, and that's not good enough for us for appellate purposes. We need to be able to distinguish between the person who says, I'm unable to serve because I have a 3-month-old at home and the person who says, I can't serve because I couldn't possibly be fair and impartial here.' Look for the morning proceedings to take up a good and healthy amount of time this morning."
Rubin also expects Trump's lawyers to challenge the gag order limiting his comments on jurors and witnesses in the case, and she anticipates that the former president might act out in the courtroom.
"Of course, where the gag order is at issue, you know that the former president is very impassioned about that," she said. "I'm also looking to see, can he control his temper even in this first day of trial?"
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