Social media searches play central role at jury selection for Trump’s first criminal trial

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and JAKE OFFENHARTZ
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The jury selection process at the historic criminal trial of former President Donald Trump can already credit modern technology for shaping the eventual panel. Several potential jurors whose social media footprints raised alarms have been cut. One of them was a man dismissed after lawyers found a 2017 online post about Trump that said, “Lock him up!” In all, a dozen jurors were seated by end of day Thursday for the New York trial over a prosecutor’s claim Trump falsified business records to hide a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign. Trump denies it. Jury selection to finish the selection of six alternates resumes Friday for the trial of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.