Several potential jurors were bounced from the John Liu campaign-finance trial yesterday after expressing strong opinions about the Democratic mayoral hopeful — mostly negative.
One prospective panelist, former reporter James Bieber, said he thought Liu was “not above board.”
Another blasted the embattled comptroller’s televised reaction to the fraud charges against ex-campaign treasurer Jia “Jenny” Hou and fund-raiser Xing Wu “Oliver” Pan.
“I didn’t like the way he deflected the questions that were asked, and I had the opinion he was probably involved,” James Fuchs said during questioning by the judge.
Karen Wong, a nonpracticing lawyer from Scarsdale, admitted donating about $50 to Liu’s campaign, but said she no longer supported him.
“As an Asian-American, I think it’s great he’s running for higher office, but it’s been tainted by these investigations,” Wong said.
Chinatown print-shop owner Subhas Prashad was booted after saying he met Liu a couple of times and thought he was “a pretty stand-up guy.”
“He wouldn’t tolerate whatever this case was about,” Prashad insisted.
Also yesterday, a prosecutor said one of Liu’s aides had backed out of an immunity deal and the prosecutor expects her to perjure herself when she takes the witness stand.
Former spokeswoman Sharon Lee has admitted soliciting campaign contributions from her mother and aunt and offering to illegally reimburse them, prosecutor Justin Anderson said.
But Lee recently told the feds she will testify that she didn’t coordinate her actions with Liu’s campaign, a contention Anderson said would be proven false.
Meanwhile, Liu, who was wiretapped by the FBI but hasn’t been charged, told reporters he was “happy the trial is here.”
“The outcome of the trial will hopefully be truth in terms of what has actually happened and what did not happen, but no matter what, my campaign for mayor goes full-steam ahead,” he said.