Slug­gish sec­ond day of Bob Menen­dez bribery tri­al as more New York­ers try to get out of jury duty

More than four dozen prospec­tive jurors have been dis­missed in Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D‑NJ) bribery tri­al over the past two days, push­ing a New York fed­er­al court’s efforts to seat a jury into its third day. 
Menen­dez spent most of Tues­day sit­ting by him­self at a defense table as jurors who claimed they could not serve were inter­viewed by Judge Sid­ney H. Stein.

Sen. Bob Menen­dez (D‑NJ), cen­ter, sits with his defense team dur­ing jury selec­tion, Mon­day, May 13, 2024, at Man­hat­tan fed­er­al court in New York. (Can­dace E. Eaton via AP)

Rea­sons ranged from med­ical trou­bles to work com­mit­ments and trav­el. Oth­ers claimed they had heard about the bribery tri­al and could not be impar­tial. 
“I’m a news junkie, and I’ve learned about the case already sig­nif­i­cant­ly. I knew it was Bob Menen­dez the sec­ond I walked in,” one juror said.
Stein said most peo­ple had hear …