Potential jurors for Trump’s NYC ‘hush money’ trial will be asked if they’re in QAnon or Antifa — but not about political alignments

Potential jurors at Donald Trump’s Manhattan “hush money” trial won’t be asked outright about their political leanings — but will be asked if they’re part of QAnon, the Proud Boys or Antifa.

Would-be panelists at the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president will be asked to say out loud if they belong to the extremist groups — one of 42 questions that Manhattanites will answer once jury selection kicks off April 15.

Prospective jurors will also be asked to say under oath whether they have attended a Trump campaign event or rally, and whether they follow Trump or any “anti-Trump group” on social media, according to an order late Monday from Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

The panelists will also answer what news outlets they watch or read, including Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, The Post and the Wall Street Journal.

Jurors will also be asked whether they “have any strong opinions or firmly held beliefs about former
President Donald Trump” that interferes with their ability to be “fair and impartial.”

Lawyers for both Trump and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office won’t get to ask jurors directly what political party they ascribe to, but the “answer to that question may easily be gleaned from the responses to the other questions,” Merchan noted.

Jury selection in the case — in which Trump is accused of covering up payments made before the 2016 election to keep porn star Stormy Daniels from going public about her alleged tryst with him — is expected to take several days, if not weeks.

Attorneys for both sides have unlimited chances to boot jurors for what’s called “cause.” But they’ve agreed not to remove any juror based purely on their political party, which is in line with how previous politically charged cases in New York have been handled.

Jurors will only be removed for “cause” if they are found to be not qualified, or if they have a “state of mind that is likely to preclude them from rendering an impartial verdict based upon the evidence,” the judge said.

Both sides will get the same amount of chances to object to certain jurors without citing a specific reason, but the number of so-called “peremptory challenges” they’ll get is still being worked out.

Trump, 77, has argued that he cannot get a fair trial in Democrat-leaning Manhattan, which he lost in landslides in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

But out of a borough of 1.6 million people, the court only needs 12 jurors and six alternates, who have been vetted and agree to be fair and impartial, for opening statements to begin.

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records, which each carry a potential prison sentence of up to four years.

He has pleaded not guilty.