the first week of former president Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial in New York City has come to a close and it's been an eventful week just as the announcement was made that the jury panel was confirmed a man outside set himself on fire only 50 feet away from the courthouse NYPD responded quickly and that man is now in critical condition the incident may change security access to the areas outside the courthouse but inside the court proceedings continued after 12 jurors and six alternates were finalized the jury selection process has left many wondering though just how impartial jurors can actually be in this case given the high-profile nature of the defendant and whether it was possible to weed out any hidden motives that jurors may have it's also led to concerns about the safety of these jurors as the former president continues to defy a gag order placed on him by judge Juan Maran Trump calling that gag order unfair this morning prosecutors are expected to begin laying out their case against the former president on Monday and this jury now carries the burden of deciding the fate of Donald Trump and whether he could be the first US president to face jail time I'm joined Now by former Federal prosecutor Chris gion to talk about all of it Chris Kion great to have you with us as always now we see right now a jury panel confirmed and arguments could start as early as Monday is this the speed that you would have expected the jury selection process to take I I personally thought it would take anywhere between one and two weeks so it's a lot faster than I anticipated um but I guess the court and the judge in particular is doing a good job of EX expediently facilitating the review of each of the juries so they got a jury in the box that's a great start in less than a in less than a week yeah it has been it has felt pretty quick now I will mention judge Maran has admonished some members of the media for um putting out identifying features of the the jurors we are not going to do that but I can say that there's a a real mix of backgrounds here we see attorneys Educators therapists um do you feel confident that the prosecution that the defense attorneys have been able to find a jury panel that's actually unbiased that they've been able to possibly weed out any potential biases that exist I I think that that each party they can only operate on what the answer is for each of the jurors that were that were put on the jury had said you know they're going to be sworn in they'll be under oath to carry out their duties faithfully and impartially and part of those duties is to listen to the evidence and consider it and remain fair and impartial and and judge the case only on the evidence presented so I have to presume that the criminal justice system is going to work that is our system it's the best one in the world and um you can only you got to believe that each of those jurors what they told the court what they told the the parties representing um both the defendant M president Trump and and of course the city that they're going to ring true to that oath that they're going to take so yeah Hope Springs Eternal we did see wer criticize the judge for not stopping or interceding in his dismissal is that par for the course in the court proceedings should the judge have intervened if one side or the other wanted to dismiss I I you know the judge kind of controls that courtroom like a referee um and and you know he can decide whether or not he wants to do something like that and I don't see anything offensive or improper about that I think the real challenge is um you're really trying to size up each of the jurors before they're put on the in the Box you you want to size them up and ensure that they're going to review that evidence faithfully and impartially so arguments could start on Monday uh the judge has not ordered the prosecution to identify who their first witnesses will be and he says they make a good case that Trump has been tweeting about the witnesses and so it could come as as a surprise to the defense how un conventional have these Court proceedings been so far do you expect them to continue to be unconventional well just by by the very nature of it that this is the first time a a former president and a presidential candidate is being criminally prosecuted everything is unprecedented yeah so I I you know everything they're kind of breaking new ground as you go forward each day um it it's a standard practice to be able to disclose uh Witnesses and you know an exhibit list um but it's not mandated to require under New York State practice so it's discretionary on the part of the the District Attorney's office and they've chosen not to do that um so you know the judge doesn't really have a role in whether he he can force that and this could be the first time that we see a former president who faces criminal charges who could be found guilty what could that look like for him if he is found guilty well the penalties could range you know from you know a heavy fine up to incarceration um in practice I there's a lot there is lot of case precedents on a prosecution like this it would be difficult for me to Envision if there is a conviction that it would carry some kind of a jail time especially for a former president the District Attorney's Office carries the burden of proving the case Beyond A Reasonable Doubt and it requires unanimity in the jury it just takes one juror to disagree to to hang that jury or alternatively all the jury all the jury members could agree that the District Attorney's Office hasn't made their case so it's it's up in the air it sure is Chris GI great to have you on as always thank you hey likewise have a good weekend [Music]