Former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori said he is “worried” about the safety of the jurors who will be seated in former President Trump’s hush money trial.
Khardori told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that some of the jurors may be concerned about the amount of personal information being made public about them. The first seven jurors were picked Tuesday to serve on the trial after the judge, Trump’s defense team and prosecutors narrowed down the pool.
“I am wondering if some of them are a little unhappy with the amount of information that has been made public about them,” he told Blitzer on “The Situation Room” Tuesday evening. “Now, this is not the fault of the media. I want to be very clear about this.”
“Responsibility to guard all of this very specific information that we’re learning resides with the DA’s office and with the judge,” he continued. “I’m a little surprised that we are learning all of this because I do not think this jury is going to remain anonymous necessarily … if they keep this up.”
When asked if he was worried about the jurors’ safety, Khardori said he is.
“Yeah, I’m worried about their safety. I mean, it’s up to them if they want to write a book after all this is said and done, but that’s their option,” he replied. “They shouldn’t be outed this way. They’re not supposed to be outed this way.”
His comments come after the second day of Trump’s historic trial, the first criminal trial of a sitting or former president, wrapped up in New York. Details about the potential jurors were revealed during the questioning, including what news outlets they read, where they work and what they do during their free time.
Judge Juan Merchan warned Trump against intimidating jurors Tuesday, saying he would not put up with it.
“I won’t tolerate that,” Merchan said. “I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom. I want to make that crystal clear.”
The warning comes as the former president has launched attacks against the family members of judges across his legal cases, and the family members of other political foes. He is facing an expanded gag order in the hush money case, which prevents him from attacking the judge’s family, witnesses and jurors.
There will be 12 jurors picked with six alternates for the former president’s trial that is expected to take six to eight weeks.
The trial is centered on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to reimbursements Trump made to his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to stay quiet about an alleged affair.