Jake Tapper Cracks Up At Ex-Trump Lawyer’s Trump Jury Selection Anecdote
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Criminal defense attorney Bill Brennan’s story about jury selection in a previous trial of former President Donald Trump’s business had CNN’s Jake Tapper laughing on Monday.
During a discussion on how Trump’s legal team could get a fair jury for the presumptive GOP nominee’s hush money trial in largely Democratic New York, Brennan recalled the time a prospective juror declared her hatred for Trump at the Trump Organization’s 2022 criminal tax fraud trial in which Brennan represented Trump’s company.
“I’ve been picking juries for about 35 years” and the woman “in her mid-40s of Irish extraction” looked a good prospect for the jury, Brennan told Tapper.
“She spoke with a brogue, she worked in an Irish pub and in our questionnaire, questions 29 and 30 said, ’Do you have any strong feelings about the former president and if so, would they affect your ability to be fair?’” he recalled.
The woman checked those answers.
So, Brennan asked if her feelings toward Trump were positive or negative.
Brennan then jumped into an Irish accent to replay her response.
“Oh, I despise that man,” she said.
Brennan asked her not to “sugarcoat things” and “speak your mind.”
“Oh, speak me mind? I hate him,” she replied, Brennan recalled in the accent.
Tapper kept laughing at the story.
Former Trump criminal defense attorney Bill Brennan says he’s worried about people getting on the jury who have “ulterior motives” and are looking to “settle a score” against Trump. pic.twitter.com/BFiDzJDUcm
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) April 16, 2024
“I was floored,” Brennan told Tapper of the exchange.
The woman eventually made it to the second round of questioning because she claimed she could put her hatred of Trump to the side when instructed by the judge, said Brennan.
It was in stark contrast to other potential jurors who may have “some type of ulterior motive to get on that case to settle a score” and so therefore don’t answer the questions as rigorously as they should, he added.