Donald Trump warns against intimidating jurors in hush money trial

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money trial has issued a stern warning to the former US president, telling him not to intimidate jurors.

The warning came on the second day of jury selection in the trial, when attorneys grilled jurors about their social media posts, political views and personal lives.

Trump looked on in court as his lawyers urged Judge Juan Merchan to remove a potential juror because of her social media posts following her 2020 election defeat.

But as the judge asked the woman about her posts, Trump spoke loudly and gestured, to which Mr. Mercha responded.

“I don’t know what he was saying, but I could hear it and he was gesturing. He was speaking in the direction of the jurors,” Mr Merchan said. “I will not tolerate this. I will not tolerate any juror being intimidated in the courtroom.”

The first seven jurors, including an information technology worker, an English teacher, an oncology nurse, a sales professional, a software engineer and two attorneys, were selected late Tuesday.

Eleven people still must be sworn in before opening statements begin as early as next week in the first criminal trial against the former commander in chief.

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass addressed Trump’s notoriety head-on, telling prospective jurors that lawyers were not looking for someone who had “been living under a rock for the last eight years.” They just need to keep an open mind.

“This case has nothing to do with your personal politics — it’s not a referendum on the Trump presidency, it’s not a popularity contest, it’s not about who you’re going to vote for in November. We don’t care. This case is about whether this person It’s illegal,” he said.

On his way out of the courthouse, Trump stopped in the hallway to complain about the case to reporters, accusing the judge of “rushing” the trial.

“We’re going to continue to fight this judge,” said Trump, who had tried unsuccessfully to have the judge removed from the case.

So far, dozens of potential jurors have been removed from service because they said they were unable to be impartial or because of other commitments.

Trump’s lawyers have challenged a handful of people over social media posts, including one who was fired over a 2017 post about Trump that said, “Lock him up!”

The case is the first of four criminal cases against Trump to go to trial and may be the only one to reach a verdict before voters decide whether to elect the Republican presidential nominee.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, allegedly to prevent salacious stories about his sex life that he said were false from circulating during the 2016 campaign.

The trial is expected to last at least six weeks.

The charges center on a $130,000 payment made by Trump’s company to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen. He paid the money on Trump’s behalf to stop porn actor Stormy Daniels from publicly claiming she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade ago. Trump has denied that the encounter took place.

Prosecutors said the payments to Cohen were incorrectly recorded as attorney fees. Prosecutors said the money was part of a plan to bury damaging stories that Trump feared could help his opponents in the 2016 campaign, especially since Trump’s reputation was in jeopardy at the time over his comments about women. got damage.

Trump acknowledged repaying Cohen the money and said the move was an effort to prevent Daniels from speaking out about the alleged encounter. But Trump said it had nothing to do with the campaign. He hinted on Tuesday that his legal team would mount a defense, telling reporters, “I paid the attorney fees and recorded them as legal expenses.”

In court documents filed on Tuesday, prosecutors urged a judge to fine Trump $3,000 for social media posts they said violated a gag order restricting him from speaking publicly about witnesses. In the post, Trump called Cohen and Daniels “two despicable guys whose lies and distortions have cost our country dearly!”

Prosecutors wrote that the judge should have advised Trump to comply with the gag order and warned him that further violations could be punished not only with additional fines but also with jail time.

If convicted of falsifying business records, Trump faces up to four years in prison.

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