On March 14th, 2024, Judge Juan M. Merchan was in his office in new york. The judge warned the media that the identity information of jurors in Trump's hush money trial might be leaked. Seth Wenig/AP/File CNN& mdash； On Thursday, the judge in the historic criminal trial of former President Donald Trump in Manhattan accused the information reported by the media of possibly identifying the jurors gathered in this high-profile case. Juan Melman, the judge of the Supreme Court of New York, who is in charge of supervising the trial, told the news media to pay attention to their reports on jurors and banned the media from reporting the work place of jurors. Earlier, a juror was fired for fear that part of his identity would be made public by the news media.
The juror told the judge that after people around her asked her if she was a juror in the case, she was worried that she could not be fair.
According to a joint report from the court, the judge said, "I instructed the media to use common sense and not to write anything related to physical description, which is unnecessary and meaningless."
In the highly politicized atmosphere before the 2024 general election, the concern for the safety of potential jurors is the primary issue in the first criminal trial of the former president.
When former US President Donald Trump was tried in a Manhattan court, his lawyers Emile Bowie (right) and Todd Branch (left) were by his side. Judge Juan Merchan (see foreground on the right) presided over the criminal trial. "We just lost a juror who might be very good," Merchan added. "The first thing she said was that she was afraid and intimidated by the media." Many news media published stories about jurors, including some general information about those who were selected to participate in the trial. But some media, including Fox News Channel, NBC, ABC, Politics and New York Post, went further and reported the specific employer of at least one juror.
Merchan said on Thursday that he agreed with Trump's lawyer that information about potential jurors' employers is important, but he would instruct to delete these answers from the court records and ask the media not to report them.
"This has become a problem," Merchan said.
Jeffrey Toobin, a former federal prosecutor, told CNN that Merchan could defy the court if the news media released the identity information of jurors.
"The First Amendment almost completely forbids telling people in advance what they can't publish," Tubin said. "The First Amendment does not prohibit people from being punished for what they publish."
Tubin said that the media has an "unshirkable" responsibility to keep this process going, leave the jury alone, and balance the public's right to know.
"It is important to realize that the public has a strong interest in everything in this trial, including the composition of the jury, but this can be achieved by maintaining anonymity," Tubin added.
This is a developing story and will be updated.