The first criminal trial of a former U.S. president begins as Trump vie for the White House, creating a compelling split-screen spectacle: the presumptive Republican nominee running for office while serving as a criminal defendant.
He melded those roles last year by presenting himself to supporters on the campaign trail and on social media as a target of politically motivated prosecutions aimed at damaging his candidacy.
“This is a hoax. This is a witch hunt. It’s going on and it will go on forever,” Trump said after leaving the courtroom, where he sat with his lawyers at the defense table.
The trial amounts to a reckoning for Trump, who faces four indictments accusing him of crimes ranging from hoarding classified documents to conspiring to overturn the election.
The political stakes are less clear, however, because a conviction would not prevent him from becoming president and the charges in this case date back several years and are considered less serious than the conduct behind the other three indictments.
The day began with pretrial arguments, including around the fines Trump could face, before moving into jury selection in the afternoon, where both sides will decide who might be chosen to decide the legal fate of the former and possibly future U.S. president.
After the first jurors, 96 in total, were called into the courtroom, Trump craned his neck to look back at them and whispered to his lawyers as they entered the jury box.
“You are about to have a jury trial. The institution of the jury trial is one of the cornerstones of our justice system,” Judge Juan Melchan told jurors, adding, “The name of this case is National People’s New York vs. Donald Trump Trump.”
Trump’s notoriety would make the process of selecting 12 jurors and six alternates a near-herculean task in any year, but it may be especially challenging now, having grown up and become the A hotly contested presidential election is unfolding in this heavily Democratic city where celebrities won the White House decades ago.
Only about a third of the first panel of 96 potential jurors remains after a judge exempted some members, underscoring the difficulties. More than half were excused after telling the judge they could not be fair and impartial. At least nine others were excused after raising their hands when Mocha asked if they were otherwise unable to serve.
One female juror was excused after saying she had strong views on Trump. Earlier in the questionnaire, the Harlem resident said she could remain neutral in deciding the case. But when asked if she had strong opinions about the former president, the woman responded matter-of-factly: “Yes.”
When Mocha asked her to repeat herself, she replied, “Yes, I said yes.” She was fired.
The key, Merchian wrote, is “whether prospective jurors can assure us that they will put aside any personal feelings or biases and make decisions based on the evidence and the law.”
Regardless of the outcome, Trump is determined to benefit from the proceedings, moving the case and his indictment elsewhere as a broad “law enforcement weapon” for Democratic prosecutors and officials. He insists they are plotting false accusations in hopes of derailing his presidential campaign.
He has railed against judges and prosecutors for years, a pattern of attacks that continued when he entered the courtroom on Monday after calling the case “an attack on America.”
“This is a political persecution. This is an unprecedented persecution,” he said.
The judge rejected a defense request to recuse himself from the case after Trump’s lawyers claimed he had a conflict of interest. He also said prosecutors could not play to jurors a 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording in which Trump was filmed discussing sexually assaulting women without their permission. However, prosecutors will be allowed to question witnesses about the recording, which was released in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office also asked Merchin to fine Trump $3,000 because they believe Trump’s social media posts violated a judge’s gag order restricting him from speaking publicly about witnesses. speech. Last week, he used his Truth social platform to call his former attorney Michael Cohen and adult film actor Stormy Daniels “two despicable guys whose lies and distortions have cost our country dearly.” cost!”
Trump’s attorney, Todd Branch, insisted that Trump was simply responding to witness statements.
“President Trump is not going out to target individuals. He is responding to repeated obscene, violent attacks by these witnesses,” Branch said.
Merchane is scheduled to hold a hearing on the request next week.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said the alleged fraud was an attempt to prevent salacious stories about his sex life during the 2016 campaign, which Trump said were false, from spreading.
The allegations center on a $130,000 payment from Trump’s company to Cohen a month before the election to prevent Daniels from going public about an alleged affair with the married tycoon a decade ago. sexual contact.
Prosecutors said the payments to Cohen were incorrectly recorded as attorney fees to conceal their true purpose. Trump’s lawyers said the expenses were legal fees and not a cover-up.
After decades of litigation and prosecutions, the businessman-turned-politician now faces trial where he could be sentenced to up to four years in prison if convicted, although a life sentence is also possible.
Trump’s lawyers have failed in their efforts to dismiss the hush-money case and have repeatedly sought delays, leading to a series of last-minute appeals court hearings last week.
Among other things, Trump’s lawyers have insisted that the Manhattan jury, which is overwhelmingly Democratic, has been swayed by negative publicity about Trump and that the case should be moved elsewhere.
An appeals judge rejected an emergency request to delay the trial, while a request to change venue was referred to a panel of appeals judges who will consider it in the coming weeks.
Manhattan prosecutors countered that much of the publicity stemmed from Trump’s comments and that the questioning will clarify whether prospective jurors can set aside any preconceptions they may have. Prosecutors said there was no reason to believe that 12 impartial individuals could not be found among Manhattan’s roughly 1.4 million adult residents.
Prospective jurors will only know the number because the judge has ordered that their names be kept secret from everyone except prosecutors, Trump and his legal team.
They were asked 42 questions about their backgrounds, hobbies and news habits, whether they held strong beliefs about Trump that would prevent them from being impartial, and attendance at Trump or anti-Trump rallies .
Depending on the answer, attorneys can ask the judge to exclude someone “for cause” if they meet certain criteria for being unable to serve or being impartial. Attorneys can also use “peremptory challenges” to eliminate 10 potential jurors and two potential alternates without giving a reason.
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