Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters
Former President Donald Trump’s persistent threats—and those of his most vicious followers—have prompted a New York federal judge to take the remarkable step of keeping the American public from ever finding out the names of the jurors who will decide whether the real estate tycoon raped the journalist E. Jean Carroll decades ago.
“If jurors’ identities were disclosed, there would be a strong likelihood of unwanted media attention to the jurors, influence attempts, and/or of harassment or worse of jurors by supporters of Mr. Trump,” U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote on Thursday.
The judge noted how several MAGA-loyal insurrectionists who violently attacked Congress on Jan. 6, 2021—and later got caught—have themselves argued in court that they were there at Trump’s behest. He also elaborated on Trump’s long history of stoking tensions by targeting the justice system.