MAGA lawyers set out to 'pollute the jury' in Atlanta election trials: report
In Atlanta, jury selection will soon be underway in the criminal trials of two co-defendants in Fulton County District Attorney's criminal indictment of former President Donald Trump: Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, both lawyers who represented Trump after the 2020 election.
In a report published on October 17, the Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery describes the efforts of MAGA lawyers to "pollute the jury" in those trials.
"Friday marks the start of what promises to be an arduous and protracted jury selection, one that could take weeks because prosecutors and defense lawyers are trying to settle a fundamental question: How do you agree on a dozen fair-minded jurors when the Fulton County district attorney claims that every Georgian was victimized by a plot to deny their vote?" Pagliery explains. "A pre-trial hearing on Monday showed just how difficult it'll be — and how defense lawyers drafting a questionnaire for all potential jurors are already explicitly asking the judge to break the rules."
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?
Pagliery adds, "In a case already denounced by Trump loyalists as nothing more than partisan politics, Powell and Chesebro's lawyers want to conduct what the judge deemed a highly irregular 'Gallup poll' to gauge how jurors 'feel' about everyone who took part in the attempt to flip the 2020 election results. Stranger still, the defense team wants to ask — point blank — reactions to statements that elicit deeply sectarian biases, such as: MAGA Republicans are radicals and white supremacists, and Trump tried to steal the election and take away my vote."
Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, according to Pagliery, "reminded everyone that there are longstanding rules that prohibit — for obvious reasons — essentially asking a juror how they'll judge a case before they even hear any of the evidence."
"McAfee seemed particularly uncomfortable with the way the defense lawyers want to list potential witnesses and all 19 defendants in the case — everyone ranging from the former president to a relatively unknown U.S. Marine who's involved with Black Voices for Trump — and ask prospective jurors how they feel about these people," Pagliery notes. "The options apparently ranged from 'very unfavorable' to 'very favorable,' prompting the judge to deride it as a 'Gallup poll.'"
READ MORE: Fani Willis fires back after Kenneth Chesebro asks court to suppress fake elector docs
The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required).
