His impeccable appearance, his courtesy and his calm tone deceive no one: Judge Juan Merchan, who is leading the proceedings at Donald Trump’s trial in New York, intends to ensure that the rules of law are respected by all the protagonists.
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On several occasions, since the start of the trial on Monday, this native of Bogota, capital of Colombia, but who grew up in the New York district of Queens, has wanted to apologize to potential jurors for the time they have spent waiting or delays on scheduled times.
Known to be particularly particular about punctuality, the judge scolded the ex-president’s lawyers for returning late from a break.
“Are you almost finished?” he later said to a prosecutor who was finishing questioning the pre-selected jurors before discreetly checking his watch during questions from the defense.
To the point that at the end of the second day, Tuesday, Donald Trump accused the judge of “rushing the trial”.
After a sluggish start, seven of the twelve required jurors were finally selected in two days, opening the prospect of the jury being constituted during the week and therefore the opening of the debates on the merits on Monday.
The fiercely anti-Trump conservative lawyer George Conway credited Juan Merchan, a graduate of Hofstra University, near New York, with this result, still considered improbable a few days ago.
“The judge sped up the process by immediately asking everyone, ‘If you can’t be impartial, raise your hand,’” which made it possible to eliminate two-thirds of the potential jurors without further formality, he said. – he emphasized Wednesday on the MSNBC channel.
A week before the start of the trial, the magistrate announced that potential jurors who declared themselves incapable of being impartial or attending until the end would be exempted without having to provide justification.
“Judge who does not let himself be fooled”
John Coffee, a professor at Columbia University Law School, said he was “surprised that they have already selected seven jurors,” seeing it as confirmation of “the general impression that Judge Juan Merchan is a judge who does not “is not fooled and does not tolerate disruption or delay.”
“He will make the trains leave on time, but that will not have much impact on Trump’s statements to the media outside of court,” he told AFP.
When it comes to ensuring order reigns in the courtroom, the magistrate in any case raised his voice on Tuesday to send a warning shot to Donald Trump. He criticized her for having “muttered” a few words to one of the potential jurors while she was explaining some of her publications on social networks.
“I will not allow jurors to be intimidated in my court,” warned the judge, calling on the defense lawyers to restrain their client.
During the debates, Juan Merchan mentioned a probable duration of six weeks for the trial.
To a potential juror, ultimately selected, a computer engineer who was worried about a possible scheduling conflict due to her sister’s wedding in September, he responded with a touch of humor.
“If we are still here in September, it will be a big problem,” he said, to laughter from the audience.
