Donald Trump's co-defendants in the Georgia racketeering case are reportedly trying to pollute the jury pool ahead of their impending trial.
The former president's campaign lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro are slated to stand trial this month in Atlanta, with jury selection starting Friday and expected to drag out for weeks because their legal defense team is expected to focus on a paralyzing question, reported The Daily Beast.
"Prosecutors and defense lawyers are trying to settle a fundamental question: How do you agree on a dozen fair-minded jurors when the Fulton County District Attorney claims that every Georgian was victimized by a plot to deny their vote?" wrote investigative reporter Jose Pagliery.
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
A pretrial hearing Monday demonstrated how difficult answering that question might be, and the pair's attorneys want to conduct a highly irregular "Gallup poll" to survey how potential jurors "feel" about all the individuals who took part in Trump's effort to overturn his election loss in the state, and they want to measure emotional reactions to the ex-president and his allies.
“These are attitudinal type questions," said Powell's attorney Brian Rafferty. "We would be able to use to test if they can in fact be fair and impartial."
However, as Fulton Superior Court judge Scott McAffee reminded them, long-standing rules prohibit lawyers from essentially asking jurors how they would judge a case before they hear any evidence.
“We always had a hard line in the sand... we don’t tell jurors to tell us how you’ll vote,” McAfee said. “Part of the role a questionnaire does is... to hone in on what matters… that doesn’t throw out the general standards you’re allowed to ask jurors, period.”
“We’re not supposed to be asking jurors to give their opinions up front,” the judge added.
The hearing signaled that Trump's co-defendants plan to employ the same disruptive strategies as the former president in his growing number of legal battles.
"I think it would be a mistake for any of us to treat this like a normal case," said Chesebro's attorney Scott Grubman. "I think the realities are really going to have to start sinking in here. This is not an ordinary case. It’s not because of anything we did. It’s because of how they charged it."
However, assistant district attorney Alex Bernick argued that the case's unusual parameters were even more of a reason to stick to the rules and precedent.
“He wants you to disregard the case law just because it’s a high-profile case," Bernick said. "We have to follow the law here."
