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National News See other National News Articles Title: Mar-a-Lago Jury Selection Will Be a MAGA Country Minefield Mar-a-Lago Jury Selection Will Be a MAGA Country Minefield STACK THE DECK Jose Pagliery Published Jul. 11, 2023 4:34AM EDT Illustration of an adapted and weighted scales of justice using a #1 MAGA fan foam finger to balance on The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified documents trial is taking steps that could stock the jury box with the former president’s supporters. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon has set the upcoming trial to open on Aug. 14 at her tiny satellite courthouse in the northern reaches of her district, which stretches from the tropical Florida Keys to the citrus groves halfway up the state. That decision means Trump’s jurors are set to be drawn from the most brightly red corner of a vast court district, plucked from a community that leans heavily Republican—instead of the highly populous and more Democratic urban areas further south. Cannon, the Trump-nominated judge who court officials said was selected at random to hear the case, is the only one of the Southern District of Florida’s 26 active judges assigned in Fort Pierce. If her palm tree-lined courthouse in that city is the site of what may be the most politically significant trial in American history, the proceedings will take place 70 miles north of the oceanside mansion where Trump amassed sensitive national security documents without permission—even though the West Palm Beach federal courthouse is down the street. The trial would also be a full 130 miles north of the federal courthouse in Miami, where a grand jury charged Trump with 37 felony counts stemming from alleged mishandling of classified documents. Several Miami lawyers, some of whom asked to remain anonymous because they have active cases before Cannon, noted that Trump’s chances to win what otherwise appears to be an insurmountable criminal case increase the further north he goes. “You drive around, and you’ll see ‘Trump’ flags and ‘Make America Great Again’ flying in front of houses,” said Paul Bernard, a criminal defense lawyer in Fort Pierce. “With Trump’s trial down this way, he’s going to have a bunch of supporters—and they’re going to make their way onto the jury panel.” According to local court rules, federal trials in the Fort Pierce division draw jurors from five counties: Highlands, Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie. It’s solidly MAGA country: all five counties voted heavily in favor of Trump in the 2020 election he ultimately lost, with Okeechobee topping out at 72 percent. Across the board, the former president nabbed 62 percent of the vote on average. In increasingly Republican South Florida, Trump already had a good shot at landing a favorable jury. Although Miami-Dade County still leans blue, it has swung heavily toward the GOP, and right-wing extremist groups like the Proud Boys have permeated official party organizations there. Even Democratic strongholds like Broward and Palm Beach counties have become redder in the Trump years. Cannon’s decision to keep the trial in her satellite courthouse isn’t exactly odd, given that she is based there—though the chaos likely to come with such a historic and sensitive trial is almost certainly better suited to the larger courthouses in Miami and West Palm Beach. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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