Former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker on Newsmax on Wednesday was questioned if "there may be some sleeper cells" among potential jurors in former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York City over alleged attempts to conceal payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
On Tuesday, the first seven jurors were seated in the trial in which he is accused of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to Daniels. Those seven jurors include an attorney and a civil litigator, which Whitaker told "American Agenda" could be "helpful" for their fellow jurors.
Whitaker said, "Typically when you're trying a case, a rule of thumb is you don't want lawyers on a jury because they are too experienced," and "they know too much maybe [about] this case and how bogus the legal theories are. Those lawyers might add some helpful analysis for their fellow jurors."
He added that "the real problem" with the jury selection process, in this case, is that over 50 potential jurors, more than half of the 96 prospective jurors who were considered during that day, were excused after they admitted to being biased against Trump.
Whitaker questioned if "there may be some sleeper cells in these jurors," who might "claim they don't have bias, claim that they don't think Donald Trump is already guilty in their minds," in order to get seated on the jury.
He said, "Those are going to be sussed out through further due diligence, [and] through further investigation. Even after a jury is sat, I would expect Trump's team to continue to learn more and more about these jurors."
Whitaker added, "And extra six alternates is going to be important because I think you could see a couple [jurors] get kicked out during the trial."
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