The jurors are back, and we're continuing with Seat 10 in the second row, which Merchan wants to get through before lunch.
One juror watches Fox News, but just to see what's going on "on all sides."
"This is so bizarre," the next potential juror begins, as she starts to answer the questionnaire. She came to New York with dreams of making it big in theater, but ended up in the legal field. Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you may land among the lawyers.
Several jurors have had a hard time holding the mic at an angle that keeps it working, resulting in the audio cutting in and out. New Yorkers are just like anyone else. We put our pants on one leg at a time and struggle with simple technology every day.
One juror mentions that her apartment was burgled once, but adds, “That has nothing to do with this…should be fine.”
The next potential juror, originally from Italy, says he has "very strong associations between Mr. Trump and Silvio Berlusconi," the former prime minister of Italy. Adds that this would make it hard to be fair and impartial. Excused without objection.
We've done it, a full jury box, ready for voir dire. But first, we're breaking for lunch. For those keeping score: -2 jurors, 0 bagels, and an incalculable number of references to lawyers and the legal profession.
There’s at least one perk of 100 Centre St: proximity to Chinatown. The press is going back through the magnetometers now, we’re set to resume at 2:15 p.m.
We're still waiting for voir dire to begin, but at lunch we got two more filings from Trump, both pre-motion letters mentioned on Tues. One is a request for limiting instructions on testimony from Cohen on his 2018 guilty plea and from David Pecker on his deal with prosecutors.
The second, another pre-motion letter, requesting that the court preclude evidence of the specific statements on the Access Hollywood tape or reserve ruling until after testimony from Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.
Per the pool, Merchan clarifies that the press are not to report jurors' answers to question 3A & 3D. 3a - Who is your current employer? 3d - Who was your prior employer? Unclear if he's back on the bench yet or not, as the video and audio is still cut in the overflow.
At 2:35 p.m. we have audio again, but still no video, and we hear Merchan say "Thank you, please be seated."