The Trump trial venue might yield a conservative jury pool.
The Trump trial venue might yield a conservative jury pool.
The jury would be made up primarily of residents of counties that Donald Trump easily won in his prior campaigns, if Judge Aileen Cannon keeps to her original decision to place the trial in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Judge Aileen M. Cannon set the stage for the trial to be held with a local jury pool made up primarily of counties that Mr. Trump easily won in his two previous campaigns when she took over the case arising from the former president Donald J. Trump’s indictment for endangering national security secrets.
She indicated that the trial would be held at Fort Pierce, Florida, near the northernmost tip of the Southern District of Florida, in the federal courthouse where she typically sits. One swing county and four other heavily red counties that Mr. Trump carried by significant percentages in both 2016 and 2020 make up the region that supplies prospective jurors to that courthouse.
However, the fact that the trial is anticipated to draw jurors who live in areas that tilt Republican has attracted the attention of Mr. Trump’s allies and veterans of Florida courts. She left open the possibility that the trial could be moved, and political leanings are not necessarily indicative of how a jury will decide.
According to John Morgan, a trial lawyer who created a sizable personal injury practise, “it’s been a very conservative venue for plaintiffs’ lawyers for years.” He remarked of the numerous counties feeding into Fort Pierce, “It is solid, solid Trump country.”
According to the county’s election results, Mr. Trump received 71.5 percent of the vote in Okeechobee County, a rural area where just over 16,000 individuals cast ballots in the 2020 election. With more than 52,000 voters casting ballots in Highlands County, a rural area, Mr. Trump won with 66.8% of the vote.
More than 98,000 people cast ballots in Martin County, where Mr. Trump received 61.8 percent of the vote. More than 97,000 votes were cast in Indian River County, which includes Vero Beach, and Mr. Trump received 60.2% of them.
There is only one swing county, St. Lucie County, where around 172,000 votes were cast. According to the data, Mr. Trump narrowly defeated President Biden there in 2020 with 50.4 percent of the vote cast. He also narrowly won the county in 2016.
In the Fort Pierce courthouse, there weren’t many significant or politically sensitive cases, according to departing Florida state attorney Dave Aronberg for Palm Beach County. He concurred that the Fort Pierce counties offer a “much more conservative jury pool,” but he proposed that some potential jurors might be selected from the more politically diverse St. Lucie county.
The trial and all associated hearings will likely take place in Fort Pierce, roughly 120 miles north of Miami along the east coast of Florida, according to Judge Cannon, who was chosen by Mr. Trump in 2020, who revealed this in an order on Tuesday.
The option of eventually shifting the trial was left open by her ruling, which stated that “modifications” could “be made as necessary as this matter proceeds.”
Given the surge of interest in the case, the trial of a former president who is now the front-runner for the Republican nominee in 2024 is expected to require significant security and logistical concerns.
This month’s arraignment of Mr. Trump took held at the sprawling Miami federal courthouse complex, most likely because the duty magistrate charged with pre-trial proceedings was headquartered there. But now that Judge Cannon will be handling the case’s remaining proceedings, it is within her discretion to transfer it to Fort Pierce, one of the four communities with a federal courthouse in the Southern District of Florida. (Courthouses are located in counties that Mr. Biden won in 2020 in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach.)
Judge Cannon’s residence is the Fort Pierce courthouse, which is close to the water and on a busy state roadway. She is the only district judge who works out of the structure.
The mishandling of secret documents by Mr. Trump was the subject of months-long investigations by the Justice Department, the special counsel, Jack Smith, and a grand jury in Washington. The former president and his followers would have undoubtedly questioned the impartiality of the jury pool in the city if the case had been tried there.Many of the rioters accused of taking part in the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021 attempted to have their cases moved from Washington by arguing that the city’s people were mostly liberal.
But not a single one of the several attempts to relocate the trials received a judge’s consent. Additionally, Florida, which Mr. Trump won twice, is a better location for this specific defendant, something that Mr. Trump’s advisers are fully aware of.
Judge Cannon’s ruling allowing flexibility, according to Mr. Aronberg, might be a precursor of future changes.
“I’m not convinced this case is going to go in Fort Pierce,” he said, foreseeing a probable transfer to West Palm Beach, placing it in the county where Mr. Trump resides and where the allegedly inappropriate sensitive records were kept after he left office.
