Trump tri­al: Tumul­tuous day in court ends with com­plete bench of jurors

Don­ald Trump‘s third tri­al day in New York start­ed with some hic­cups and end­ed with a rush on Thurs­day when a judge empan­eled sev­en new jurors, com­plet­ing the bench of Man­hat­tan­ites who will decide the for­mer president’s fate in his hush mon­ey case.
The clos­ing hour moved more effi­cient­ly than the rest of the day. The tri­al ini­tial­ly regressed with a loss in the morn­ing of two already-empan­eled jurors, at one point Judge Juan Mer­chan lec­tured reporters, and impar­tial­i­ty ques­tions were raised repeat­ed­ly as the selec­tion process dragged on, accord­ing to reports cir­cu­lat­ed by a pool of jour­nal­ists in the court­room.
Among the jurors select­ed were an engi­neer orig­i­nal­ly from Cal­i­for­nia, an invest­ment banker who lives in Hell’s Kitchen, and a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist who enjoys ten­nis. One alter­nate was also cho­sen, and Mer­chan indi­cat­ed that he would use Fri­day to choose five more, which would com­plete the jury selec­tion phase of the tri­al.
The day had opened on …