But the ritual of choosing the jury got off to a slow start as more than half of the first group of 96 potential jurors raised their hands to say they could not be fair to Mr. Trump, demonstrating the challenges of picking an impartial panel in a city where the defendant is widely loathed. The judge immediately excused them.
It’s a possibility. What will happen later in the selection process is that the lawyers for both sides will ask additional questions of potential jurors, and see if they can find reason to believe they might be biased. They’ll get to toss out anybody were they can show bias, and a remove some number of jurors because they just feel like it. Eventually, there will be 12 jurors and a few alternates chosen.