NY Jurors Granted Anonymity In Trump Defamation Trial

The New York Times reports:

A federal judge in Manhattan ruled Friday that the jury in a forthcoming defamation trial against Donald J. Trump will be kept anonymous for the jurors’ own protection, citing the potential for harassment by the former president’s supporters.

In ordering the anonymous jury, the judge, Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court, noted Mr. Trump had twice been fined for violating a gag order issued by the New York judge overseeing a civil fraud trial in state court in response to comments Mr. Trump had made concerning the judge’s clerk.

Judge Kaplan’s ruling Friday came on the same day that the state judge, Arthur F. Engoron, said that he had gotten hundreds of “harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages” after Mr. Trump and his lawyers had criticized him.

Read the full article. Trump is appealing the $5 million judgment in Carroll’s first lawsuit. In the current suit, he is claiming “presidential immunity.”

A federal judge in Manhattan ruled Friday that the jury in a forthcoming defamation trial against Donald J. Trump will be kept anonymous for the jurors’ own protection, citing the potential for harassment by the former president’s supporters.https://t.co/g6ZfLknH1h

— NYT Metro (@NYTMetro) November 3, 2023