Trump trial juror excused due to concerns over identity and impartiality: Live updates

Now we’re hearing concerns about juror #4, who was directed to be at the courthouse at 9.15am and is still not here.

Here’s what we know about him:

Juror 4: An IT consultant from Puerto Rico who has lived in New York City for 40 years. He has been married a “long time” and has two grandchildren. He joked that he has “no spare time” and his family is his hobby.

“I find him fascinating,” he said of Mr Trump on Tuesday. “He walks into a room and he sets people off. I find that really interesting. … Certainly he makes things interesting.”

ADA Joshua Steinglass says they think he may be the same person who was arrested in the 1990s in Westchester for tearing down political advertisements. It also seems that his wife was previously accused or involved in a corruption inquiry and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with… ta-da… the Manhattan DA’s office.

So they want to ask him about that stuff to see if: 1) If he’s the same guy, in which he would’ve lied about one of the questions on the survey about interactions with law enforcement and the criminal justice system, and 2) what to do about him.

Alex Woodward reports from the courthouse:

Prosecutors are asking for the judge to sign off on another contempt motion, saying Donald Trump violated the gag order seven more times this week.

They also point to last night’s post: “‘They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury,’ Jesse Watters.”

This came after the judge warned Trump in person on Tuesday about intimidating jurors.

The Maryland Democrat once more knocked it out of the park yesterday as he called on James Comer to finally show his hand in the spurious House impeachment inquiry into the president, strongly suspecting the chair is bluffing and has absolutely nothing to play.

Proceedings take a step backwards first thing on Thursday.

Juror #2 who was seated on Tuesday has been excused.

Ariana Baio reports from the courthouse:

Judge Merchan begins by going over preliminary matters. Apparently, Juror #2 called to convey concerns that she cannot be impartial. She says that after leaving court yesterday, her identity became known to her friends, family and colleagues who figure out who she was.

She is excused from jury duty.

Here’s what we know about her:

A native New Yorker and an oncology nurse who lives with her fiance in the Upper East Side. She enjoys spending time with family and friends and taking her dog to the park and gets her news from The New York Times, CNN, and Google. On Tuesday, she said that “nobody is above the law”.

“I’m here to hear the facts, both sides,” she said.

Ariana Baio is reporting for The Independent from court:

Jury selection will begin momentarily, attorneys have just sat down and we are waiting on Judge Juan Merchan

Donald Trump is also seated with Todd Blanche talking to him.

The second panel of 96 jurors was sworn in on Tuesday, so things should get moving pretty quickly this morning.

Joy Reid was singing the praises of Alvin Bragg yesterday, who has become the first person in American history to bring a president to trial and has stood up to plenty of personal abuse from the defendant in the process.

Here’s what she had to say about him.

Here’s the defendant setting out with a heavy heart for the Manhattan Criminal Court a little while ago, anticipating another long day of having to stay awake.

Here’s one late-night host standing up for another over the defendant’s repeated attacks on Kimmel.

In case you missed it, the latest instalment of that feud came yesterday when Trump ranted about his enemy “stumbling through” announcing the winner of the Best Picture Oscar last month.

While Kimmel did host the event, that award was actually handed out by the legendary actor Al Pacino.

Oliver O’Connell has more.

Democrats in the upper chamber of Congress voted on Wednesday to end impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden’s director of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, without trial in a move that enraged their Republican colleagues, who had been seeking a high-profile scalp as they sought to pin the blame for America’s southern border illegal immigration struggles on the Biden administration.