On Tuesday, seven jurors were selected to serve on the panel tasked with determining former President Donald Trump’s culpability or innocence in the New York hush money case, underscoring the challenging and contentious nature of the jury selection process.

Trump’s legal team meticulously examined the social media activity of potential jurors in an attempt to identify any bias against Trump, even scrutinizing multiple jurors about their posts as they sought to disqualify them from the jury for partiality.

That action led Judge Juan Merchan to firmly rebuke Trump for his behavior towards the initial juror queried about her social media activity. It served as a swift admonishment, signaling zero tolerance for any endeavors to intimidate jurors – an issue that remained dormant for the remainder of the day but undoubtedly casts a shadow over the historic criminal trial, marking the first involving a former US president.

On Wednesday, as anticipated for the six-week trial period, the courtroom remains dim. However, jury selection is set to recommence on Thursday, with a fresh pool of 96 potential jurors who may ultimately serve on the panel.

Here are the takeaways from day 2 of the Trump hush money trial:

We have (more than half) a jury

Thus far, the jury selection process has resulted in the appointment of four men and three women to serve on the jury tasked with deliberating over 34 counts of falsifying business records against Trump.

The role of jury foreperson has been assumed by a man originally from Ireland, employed in sales in New York City, who essentially acts as the spokesperson for the panel.

Of the seven selected jurors, five hold at least a college degree, with two among them being lawyers.

During the selection process on Tuesday, all but one of the empaneled jurors indicated their awareness of Trump facing charges in other criminal cases. The sole exception was a woman among the 18 jurors questioned, who stated she was unaware of the additional charges.

None of the selected jurors expressed notably strong opinions about Trump or politics.

Trump’s lawyers scrutinize jurors’ social media

After the attorneys completed the interrogation of the initial 18 jurors in the voir dire process, both parties were granted the opportunity to request the judge to dismiss jurors for cause.

The removal of jurors for cause holds significance as each side is permitted to exercise a total of 10 preemptory challenges, allowing them to dismiss jurors without providing a reason. Jurors dismissed for cause by the judge do not contribute to the count of those 10 challenges.

The Trump team requested the judge to dismiss five jurors for cause, citing purported anti-Trump social media content and asserting that these jurors harbored unfair bias against the former president.

Although the jurors’ identities remain undisclosed to the public in this case, the attorneys were provided with the names of the initial pool of 96 prospective jurors on Monday. This enabled Trump’s team to scrutinize their publicly available social media posts in preparation for their challenges before the judge.