EXPLAINER: What’s known about jurors at kidnap-plot trial?

By MICHAEL TARM
AP Legal Affairs Writer

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A foster care director, a plastics plant manager and an IT employee are among the 12 jurors and four alternates hearing testimony at the trial of four men charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. For security reasons, the presiding federal judge only let attorneys see jurors’ names. But jurors discussed their backgrounds during the public portion of jury selection. Knowledge of the case didn’t lead to automatic disqualification, but those who said they didn’t obsess over the news were more likely to be picked. So were those who said they didn’t have strong feelings about Whitmer. The 50-plus juror candidates were drawn from a 22-county section of western Michigan that’s largely Republican and conservative.