Trump’s 'overplayed' witch hunt claims may have destroyed best chance with jurors: experts

It's not impossible for Donald Trump to face a fair trial in his criminal cases, according to jury experts – but he may have already overplayed one hand in his defense.

Federal prosecutors have asked the Washington, D.C., federal court, where he faces trial for attempts to overturn the 2020 election, to set limits on how Trump's legal team conducts jury research, and two experts who conduct those studies agreed the former president's lawyers may be able to secure a favorable outcome if they put in the work ahead of time, reported Politico.

“Jurors always surprise us, and they always fixate on something that you would never have expected them to fixate on,” said D.C.-based jury consultant Leslie Ellis.

Trump's lawyers have strongly objected to the proposed limits, which prosecutors say are necessary to prevent them from tainting the jury pool. Ellis and fellow jury consultant Aref Jabbour said they would propose his legal team conduct paid focus groups of jury-eligible adults to find out what defenses resonate – a practice similar to that used by tobacco companies did to craft their cases.

“You’re letting them help you craft how you put your case together, and you will find points that they find interesting and compelling, regardless of who the defendant is,” Ellis said.

A hung jury seems to be the most likely victory Trump could win in the election interference case, but Ellis and Jabour agreed his legal team should look for jurors who had a family member go to prison or know someone wrongly accused of a crime.

“If people think law enforcement overreaches — if people think the government goes too far — you could find a whole lot of people who voted for [President Joe] Biden but still think prosecutors in the government overreach and over-prosecute," Ellis said.

But the former president may have already weakened that defense strategy.

“They may have overplayed the ‘witch hunt’ arguments,” Ellis said. “They’re going to have to figure out how to still make that compelling to people who just sort of roll their eyes when they hear it anymore. He could be in a boy-who-cried-wolf situation because everything is a witch hunt.’”