- Opening statements in Donald Trump’s first criminal are set to begin Monday.
- The former president’s family has not attended this past week’s jury selection.
- But their presence, especially Melania’s, could have a powerful impact, legal experts say.
Donald Trump enters his first criminal trial every day flanked by lawyers, court officers, Secret Service members, and political advisors.
But not his wife and children.
Melania Trump and the former president’s children have not attended this past week as seven men and five women were chosen as jurors for his historic Manhattan hush-money trial.
And while it’s not uncommon for family members of defendants to sit out the slogging jury-selection process, legal experts say their presence — especially that of Melania Trump — could have a strong positive impact on jurors once opening statements begin Monday.
‘No question that Melania is the most important’
“There’s no question that Melania is the most important family member to be there,” Mark Bederow, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, told Business Insider.
Bederow explained that Melania Trump’s courtroom support could be “potentially very powerful” given the salacious nature of the hush-money case against Trump.
Making Trump at least look like a wholesome, beloved husband and father might help him.
“Certainly, if Melania were there supporting him, that potentially sends a message that ‘I support him, I’m OK, I believe, perhaps, this didn’t happen,'” Bederow said. “I think that can only have a positive impact on the jury.”
This is especially important in a trial where the words “porn actress” and “extra-marital affair” will be lobbed at Trump by prosecutors.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office say Trump falsified 34 business records to disguise a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The payment to buy Daniels’ silence over an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with a married Trump was part of an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 election, according to prosecutors.
Jill Huntley Taylor, a jury consultant, told BI that the presence of Trump’s family will likely magnify the jurors’ other impressions of the case.
If the jurors are inclined to side with Trump, thinking the case is lousy, then they’d understand why his family didn’t show up, she said. If they side against Trump, they might wonder why none of his family members are supporting him.
“Trump doesn’t want to be there,” Huntley Taylor said. “I could see jurors, if they’re favoring him thinking, ‘Well, he’s not going to make his family be there.’ And I can see jurors who are not favoring him thinking, ‘Well, wouldn’t your family want to support you in this while you’re on trial?'”
His family — or lack thereof
Courtrooms are, by design, “sensory deprivation tanks,” joked Julia Vitullo-Martin, a criminal justice consultant and former director for the Citizens Jury Project, an initiative of the Vera Institute of Justice.
So when there’s downtime in the courtroom, jurors, who don’t have their electronics, have little else to do but study the defendant and whoever is with them.
“So you look around, and you assess the defendant’s demeanor, his clothes, his family — or his lack thereof,” Vitullo-Martin said.
Jurors have sworn they will judge Trump’s…
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