Juror Calls Donald Trump 'Very Selfish And Self Serving'

A juror in Donald Trump's hush money case has said that she finds him very selfish and that he is not her "cup of tea".

She was allowed into the jury as juror No. 11 despite objections from Trump's lawyers, who wanted Judge Juan Merchan to disqualify her.

"He just seems very selfish and self-serving so I don't really appreciate that in any public servant," she said. "I don't know him as a person; so I don't know how he is in terms of his integrity. It's just not my cup of tea."

The woman was one of the five final jurors added to the jury on April 18.

She made her comments about Trump during the jury selection process, when potential jurors have to answer questions from prosecution and defense lawyers about their political and social background.

Trump's charges are a Class E felony, which means that, under New York law, prosecution and defense are each allowed to "peremptorily" eliminate 10 potential jurors without having to explain why.

They then have an unlimited amount of eliminations "for cause" if they can prove to the judge that the potential juror is biased.

The Trump team had used up their 10 challenges and so had to request that Merchan remove the woman, arguing that she clearly does not like Trump's "persona."

Merchan told them he would not do so.

The woman is employed by a multinational clothing company. She is not originally from New York, is single and doesn't have children.

During the selection process, she said she doesn't really follow the news but sometimes looks at headlines and reads publications from the clothing industry.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is the first former president in United States history to stand trial in a criminal case. He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.

The prosecution seeks to prove that before the 2016 presidential election, Trump paid, or discussed paying, two women—adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal—not to disclose his alleged affairs with them.

As part of the "pattern of behavior" narrative to back up those claims, prosecutors allege that a payment was made to a former Trump Tower doorman who claimed to know that Trump allegedly fathered a child with another woman.

Prosecutors say National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc. bought the rights to the doorman's story following an agreement between its then-CEO David Pecker and Trump to look out for negative stories about the then-presidential candidate. Trump has denied all the allegations and says he is the target of a political witch hunt.

Newsweek sought email comment from Trump's attorney on Friday.

New York University law professor, Stephen Gillers, told Newsweek that Judge Merchan only has limited power to remove potential jurors once they have sworn to be impartial.

"A potential juror has a right to sit unless challenged for cause or peremptorily," he said. "If we allow trial judges freely to reject a juror's pledge to follow the law, we give judges too much power to shape the jury.

"Merchan's authority is quite limited. All that mattered to him was whether [the woman] could be trusted to follow her oath. A challenge for cause would have required him to conclude that despite her assurance that she could, she would not."

Gillers said juror No. 11 would have "had to say under oath that she could put her views about Trump's character aside and vote based only on the evidence and the judge's instructions on the law."

"The law presumes that jurors can abide by their oaths when they say they can. And in our experience, people do honor their oaths regardless of how they feel about the litigants. If she had it in for Trump, she could have chosen to be less candid," he said.