Potential jurors quizzed about feelings on Donald Trump in first Capitol-related trial

Numerous potential jurors were questioned at length by a Brooklyn Federal Court judge and defense attorneys Monday about their negative feelings toward the former president and whether or not it would bias them in the trial of a Queens man accused of threatening to slaughter prominent Democrats and espousing racist and anti-Semitic views.

While Brendan Hunt, 37, is on trial for threatening remarks he allegedly made toward Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, none of the jurors expressed strong feelings about the Democratic trio on the first day of jury selection.

Instead juror after juror raised their hand to say they had some thoughts about the Trump administration — and they weren’t positive.

“I’m not a fan of Donald Trump. I can’t stand him,” one potential juror said.

“I feel the same way. Anything that has to do with Donald Trump, I don’t think I could be, like, fair,” said another right after.

“I share the same perspective,” said another from the same pool.

“I think he’s a white supremacist. I don’t care for any of his opinions or a lot of his politics,” said yet another.

“I feel he could have done more to prevent what happened on Jan. 6th. So, you know, it might be a result of his decisions that we’re here today,” said a fifth.

But negative feelings toward Trump alone weren’t enough to boot potential jurors from the pool. Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Pamela Chen called some of them back privately to question them about whether their animus toward the former president would preclude them from being fair and weighing all the evidence against Hunt before coming to a verdict.

Opening statements in Hunt’s trial could start as soon as Tuesday in what is believed to be the first Capitol-riot related federal trial in the country, though he was not at the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Two days after the Capitol riots, however, Hunt called for Trump supporters to go back to Washington and “show up with our guns,” prosecutors said.

“We need to go back to the U.S. Capitol when all of the senators and a lot of the representatives are back there, and this time we have to show up with our guns. And we need to slaughter these motherf-----s,” he said in an 88-second social media video titled “Kill your senators,” according to court papers.

The jury pool was also grilled about their feelings on the storming of the Capitol, which many said they found abhorrent. One potential juror said a coworker’s son had been at the Capitol for the rally, though he did not enter the Capitol building.

Hunt works for the state court system as court analyst, though he has been suspended from his job since his arrest. His father is a retired Queens Family Court judge, John Hunt.