Trump' s team only had a very limited number of juror challenges, here is the relevant N.Y. law"
"
Criminal Procedure Law Section 270.25
- peremptory challenge of an individual juror
1.
A peremptory challenge is an objection to a prospective juror for which no reason need be assigned. Upon any peremptory challenge, the court must exclude the person challenged from service.
2.
Each party must be allowed the following number of peremptory challenges:
(a)
Twenty for the regular jurors if the highest crime charged is a class A felony, and two for each alternate juror to be selected.
(b)
Fifteen for the regular jurors if the highest crime charged is a class B or class C felony, and two for each alternate juror to be selected.
(c)
Ten for the regular jurors in all other cases, and two for each alternate juror to be selected.
3.
When two or more defendants are tried jointly, the number of peremptory challenges prescribed in subdivision two is not multiplied by the number of defendants, but such defendants are to be treated as a single party. In any such case, a peremptory challenge by one or more defendants must be allowed if a majority of the defendants join in such challenge. Otherwise, it must be disallowed.
Source: Section 270.25 — Trial jury; peremptory challenge of an individual juror, <a rel="nofollow" href="
NYS Open Legislation | NYSenate.gov">
NYS Open Legislation | NYSenate.gov</a> (updated Sep. 22, 2014; accessed Jun. 21, 2025)."
So Trump's team only had TEN preemptory challenges, and the judge precluded using voting records and social media posts as causes for challenges for cause. Here is a poll from Best Places.com showing the distrubution of votes inthe last presidential election:
"
New York County, NY is very liberal. In New York County, NY 86.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election,
12.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining
1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, New York (Manhattan) county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 86.4% to 12.2%.
New York (Manhattan) county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000."
So Trump's team could only remove TEN people Here is an excerpt from the jury selection from CNN:
"
About 100 prospective jurors at a time will be brought into Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom to be vetted.
Twelve jurors will make up the panel that will ultimately consider the 34 counts of falsifying business records against Trump. Six alternates will also hear the case in case a juror on the main panel needs to be replaced.
Prospective jurors can be dismissed by the judge for cause if he finds they shouldn’t serve on the panel. Prosecutors and Trump’s defense team will also get 10 peremptory strikes they can use to remove a juror from the pool, no questions asked.
Court officials expect about 500 new jurors to appear each day to be available for the selection process, though some of those individuals will also be pulled to other cases in the court system."
