your question there and then we ll reach out to have you call in as the trial unfolds. let s get to our first color. tonight. we got marcus from batavia, illinois. hey, marcus, what s your question? episodically, if the trial begins in earnest, but the jurors and ultimate began to feel intimidated. an exit what happens next? that s a really good question. i want to bring in android consult richard gabriel back in to help answer that for you. this is the big question that every attorney has and they re thinking about right? it s a big challenge. obviously, the judge, i think he s going to try to protect them as much as possible. he s already made them anonymous, but that being said, people find out about them being on the trial. so if they do feel intimidated, i think there s gonna be admonishments to the press is going to be a management is to both sides. but in the most extreme circumstance, i guess he can talk about sequestration and actually say, let s let s protect these juro
honig also jury consultant. richard gabriel is here as well. gentlemen. thank you both for being here. we know that this trial is going to begin an ally. let me begin with you, because the prosecution says they intend to call their first witness. of course, after opening statements. but on monday, but that they won t tell trump s team who that person will be until the day before. so what will the prosecution really be looking for out of whoever their first witness is going to be well, you want to start a safe and you want to start strong, laura, you don t want to you re certainly not going to put michael cohen up there. let s put it that way to start off. you want to this is your first time you re really showing any evidence to the jury. and so you want to give them somebody who establishes a bedrock foundation of your case. so i suspect it might be a witness through whom they can get in some of the financial records. for example, we know that a key part of this case was the fact
or next business day. and defense lawyers need to know that because they have a witness list with dozens and dozens of names, but they need to know who they re prepping to cross-examine on monday and because the judge doesn t trust donald trump and because maybe to some extent his lawyers are wary of what he ll do the lawyers now don t have that ability to fully prepare in advance in a very cheered on that 0.2. and i think about that as perhaps necklace was saying, look, if you tell me i can t tell my client, then it s easier for me when i tell my client i m not going to tell you because i m not sure what you re going to do with the information. richard, judge merchan is deciding which prior trump the court cases or what they call a category of like bad acts can be used as evidence at the trial. so how could evidence like this effect a jury? it s obviously not intended to prove this particular case, but it s useful nonetheless well, lauren and le, been one of the main key issues is goi
probably won t feel as intimidated. i think this is a pretty solid jury. the judge in this case is absolutely going to try to keep this jury and protect them the best you can. but there s no question that this is going to be very intense, richard, for those jurors and the alternates as well, just yesterday, we saw that two potential jurors were excused they told the judge that the trial was too stressful. one even began crying in the courtroom. so how difficult is this going to be for the jury? how higher the stakes for these 12? well, 18 individuals with the alternates well, the stakes are much higher for mr. trump, but they are there s a tremendous amount of pressure on these jurors. they are not only have to face the scrutiny, obviously, their family and some friends probably know they re gonna be on the jury and so there s that social pressure that creates that. also there s internal pressure to try to understand. okay. i ve got my opinions. i ve got my beliefs, but i ve got to
with all 12 jurors and six alternates sworn in by friday afternoon dreary consultant richard gabriel joins us now from los angeles. richard, thank you so much for joining me. this process seemed to move faster than expected. do you think that this jury is going to hold and in such an unusual high profile case, do you think that the six alternates are enough well, it remains to be seen. i mean, six alternates ordinarily for a six-week trial should be plenty but as we ve seen in all these high-profile trials crazy things can happen, and depending what happens, even on monday, whether jurors come in and go, this is too much pressure. i didn t realize this was going to be so extensive they could replace jurors even next week. so i think the judge is hoping that ll be enough. it should be enough the thing about this jury is that there s a lot of high profile people on the jury, there s lawyers, there s engineers, there s financial people who i think do feel a little bit comfortable