Former President Donald Trump just touched the third rail during his hush money trial as prosecutors executed a powerful courtroom chess move, a former prosecutor told CNN Tuesday.
Karen Agnifilo, an ex-assistant district attorney in the borough where Trump faces his first criminal trial, appeared on the network to discuss the stern warning that a muttering and glaring Trump received from Judge Juan Merchan.
"The third rail is if anyone starts to make the jury feel any kind of intimidation whatsoever, the jury has to be protected at all costs and not just for safety reasons," Agnifilo explained.
"You want to make sure that their verdict is not influenced by anything other than the evidence in the facts of the case — so you saw that Donald Trump touched that third rail."
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Merchan will likely continue to monitor Trump's behavior closely and respond swiftly and sternly should he touch the third rail again, the former prosecutor said.
"You'll see that over and over again, Agnifilo said. "Trump can make comments about the judge, about the court, about the D.A., but you do anything involving the jurors you're going to see a very swift reaction."
In Agnifilo's eyes, Trump's bombast stood in stark opposition to what she described as Assistant District Attorney Josh Steinglass subtle gamesmanship during jury selection.
Agnifilo then explained a quirk of jury selection rules that allows the defense and prosecutors to request an unlimited number of jurors be excused for a specific reason (for cause) but limits each side to 10 "peremptory " removals, or removals lawyers can request without a reason.
"You don't want to waste your peremptory," Agnifilo said. Which, she explained is why, "the prosecutor here did something very interesting."
The Manhattan district attorney's office didn't challenge the first 12 jurors, ultimately landing the defense with 12 difficult decisions, Agnifilo explained.
"That's a chess move on their part because it forces...the defense," she explained. " They only have ten challenges. If they don't like those jurors, and they don't get any for cause challenges, you could have two jurors right there."
Agnifilo believes this forcing of the hand will essentially make impossible Trump's primary tactic in each of his four criminal cases: delay.
"We're going to have a jury this week," she predicted. "It's going much faster than I thought."
