Special counsel Jack Smith does not want potential jurors to be asked how they voted in the 2020 presidential election — but he does want the court to ask them whether or not they feel that President Joe Biden’s Justice Department has treated former President Donald Trump “fairly.”
According to a report published Thursday by The Washington Examiner, attorneys for the former president had called for jurors to be asked about their political party affiliations in addition to whether or not they cast a vote in 2020.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon asked for both Smith’s team and Trump’s to submit a jury questionnaire — which would allow the court to pre-screen potential jurors and rule out those who could not view the case in an objective manner — by Wednesday, and it was immediately clear that the two sides were at loggerheads over a few of the possible questions.
Among the questions that the special counsel and his team objected to were the following:
- Are you registered to vote?
- If you answered “yes” to the prior question, are you registered with a particular party affiliation?
- Did you vote in the 2020 presidential election?
Smith’s team also nixed a question regarding whether or not potential jurors held a negative view of politicians, but agreed along with the Trump team to go ahead with questions about whether they held negative opinions of police officers, the FBI, or judges and other court officers.
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The two parties also butted heads when it came to asking jurors about personal media consumption habits. Trump’s team asked that jurors rank media outlets — from the one they went to most to the one they went to least — while Smith’s team objected, asking jurors to simply “check all that apply” when given a list of media outlets.
Trump’s team also noted objections to several questions, including the following:
- Have you read about or heard about the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at the Mar-a-Lago Club in August 2022?
- Have you seen, read about, or heard about any statements by Mr. Trump about this investigation?
Trump’s team also objected to a question regarding whether jurors believed the former president was “being treated unfairly by the court system,” saying that if that question were included — instead of a simple “yes” or “no” — respondents should be permitted to answer “I don’t know.”
Smith also objected to several other questions presented by Trump’s attorneys — most notably: “An indictment is not evidence. It is a document that sets forth the charges made against a defendant; it is an accusation. It may not be considered as any evidence whatsoever of a defendant’s guilt. Can you think of any reason that would interfere with your ability to follow and apply this principle of law?”