A dismissed juror in presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s hush money trial told MSNBC Tuesday about her “jarring” experience with Trump in court.
Jury screening for Trump’s hush money trial began Monday in Manhattan. Kara McGee, who was dismissed after being screened to be part of the potential jury pool, told MSNBC’s Vaughn Hillyard that she realized Trump was “just another guy” whose life the jury could change “forever.”
“What was that like answering questions, including some about Donald Trump, as he is sitting thirty feet from you?” Vaughn asked McGee.
“It was odd,” McGee said. “It was such an interesting experience because it’s — I had never seen him in person before, you know. And you, you see someone blown up so larger than life on the media for so many years, um — to see them in person is very jarring. Um, and, you get the sense that, ‘oh, this is just another guy.’ And also he sees me talking about him, which is bizarre.”
“Did you make eye contact with him?” the MSNBC News correspondent asked.
“Yes. Yeah,” the dismissed juror replied.
“At what point?” Vaughn asked. “When was that —”
“Uh, I believe right before I started to read off the questionnaire and right after I finished before I got up to go when I was dismissed,” McGee said.
“Did it add another level of nervousness or tension that you felt with him sitting there?” Vaughn asked.
“I think so,” McGee said. “It, it made the whole thing feel more real in a way because I guess when you’re on any jury, you have elements of that person’s future in your hands. Um, so whether it was Trump, or whether it was some stranger off the street in Manhattan who I had never heard of before, um, if you commit to sitting on the jury — you can change that person’s life forever.”
Prospective jurors were asked about their views of Trump and his treatment in the criminal proceedings. They also faced questions regarding their preferred sources of media and their sympathies or lack thereof with organizations such as the QAnon movement, Oathkeepers, Proud Boys, Boogaloo Boys, Three Percenters and Antifa. (RELATED: ‘I Hate Him’: Ex-Trump Attorney Tells CNN Irish Woman Who Went Off About Trump Not A ‘Dangerous Juror’)
Trump was charged with 34 felony counts in New York after being accused of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged “hush money” payment related to what pornographic actress Stormy Daniels claimed was extramarital affair.