It appear some of the most powerful people in the world can’t avoid good ole Jury duty, or he’s just that good of a guy. But on Wednesday, our 44th President Barack Obama returned to his hometown of Chicago, Illinois for jury duty at the Richard Daley Center, where he was greeted by tons of fans & media the Chicago Tribune reports.
“This looks like Chicago right here,” Obama said to laughter after surveying the room filled with rows of black plastic chairs, according to one of the jurors who captured it on video. “I like that.”
Obama eventually found a seat next to some random strangers and watched a decades-old juror training video hosted by a younger, Lester Holt, who now does NBC’s Nightly News. However, he wouldn't stay long as a judge dismissed Barack from the trial and sent home around noon.
A spokeswoman later released a statement saying that “President Obama believes the most important office in our democracy is that of citizen, and he considers jury duty a core obligation of citizenship.”
Like other jurors, Obama will be mailed a check for $17.20 for his day’s work, which he will reportedly return to Cook County a spokeswomen says. And, just like the other jurors who were passed over, Obama will be excused from jury duty for at least a year before being reassigned into the pool of potential jurors who are randomly selected to serve.
“I don’t know of anybody who receives a summons from me and says, ‘Oh great, I get to serve jury duty,’” Judge Evans joked. “I hope they can see that … if the former president of the United States takes his time to come, anybody ought to be willing to come.”
Fans who attended the courthouse & fellow jurors were able to capture some good pics of our favorite President, and it saddens me to know he’s no longer in control and we have the orange man running the country now.
Check out the pics from Wednesday’s jury duty (below).