A 12-member jury entered Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in New York on Thursday, the first criminal case against a former US president.

Seven men and five women were selected to consider allegations that the 45th president conspired to pay hush money to two women in 2016, just before his successful bid for the White House, to cover up their alleged extramarital affairs with him .

Prosecutors say Trump tried to continually leak information about his private life to voters in the run-up to the vote eight years ago.

But Trump, who served as president from 2017 to 2021 and is the Republican presidential nominee in the Nov. 5 election, has denied the incident and all 34 felony counts in the indictment filed against him a year ago.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Melchan said opening arguments in the case could begin Monday morning and the trial could last six weeks.

Merkel, prosecutors and Trump’s defense attorneys spent more than three days this week asking potential jurors what they thought of Trump.

As the 12th juror was selected, Merchant declared: “We have our jury.”

The judge and attorneys asked jurors how they read the day’s news, where they work and whether they could fairly judge Trump, 77, a New York celebrity and real estate mogul who entered politics in 2015.

Dozens of potential jurors, whose names came from voter registration lists in the heavily Democratic city that voted strongly against Trump in the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, immediately told Merchin there was nothing they could do. He made a fair decision and was fired.

Merchin dismissed some potential jurors who he believed would not be able to fairly judge the case based on their answers in court or social media posts that disparaged Trump.

Both prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers have 10 peremptory challenges available that they can use to exclude jurors they don’t like from the jury pool.

The ten-challenge rule kicks in at the end of jury selection, working against Trump.

When one potential juror was asked what she thought of Trump, she said she didn’t have a strong opinion of him but added, “I don’t like his personality, I don’t like how he behaves in public ”

She continued: “I don’t like some of my colleagues, but I won’t try to undermine their work.”

Trump’s lawyers tried to keep her off the jury, questioning her selection “for cause,” but Murchin denied their challenge.

By then, Trump’s lawyers had shaken off the peremptory challenges and she was a member of a jury that had been sworn in by Murchin.

Seven jurors had been selected when proceedings concluded on Tuesday, but two jurors were excluded from the case Thursday. One of the oncology nurses told Mocha that her friends told her she had almost been identified because of “public reports about her.”

Merchan exempted her from jury duty while asking the media to limit coverage of potential jurors’ employment and their appearance.

In the second case, a man identified only as Juror No. 4 was removed from service without a public explanation after prosecutors told the prosecutors he might have been involved in his own case during questioning earlier this week. Background answered deceptively.

Prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers crowded in front of Murchin and held inaudible discussions with jurors before Murchin dismissed him.

After several hours of questioning Thursday, seven more jurors and one of up to six alternates were selected. Merchant said he may select five more alternates on Friday.

Alternate jurors will hear testimony in the case but will only participate in deciding the case if one of the 12 jurors becomes incapacitated or is dismissed for some reason.

Although the names of potential jurors are not being released to protect their identities and safety, attorneys have a list. Trump supporters pored over the names to see what anti-Trump social media messages they might have posted in recent years.

Trump has frequently attacked Merchin in social media posts as he seeks to regain the presidency and has called the case “election interference.”

Prosecutors argued that Trump repeatedly violated Merchin’s gag order, which bars him from disparaging key players in the case, even though the judge excluded himself from the order.

Merchant is scheduled to hold a hearing next week to hear prosecutors’ arguments calling for Trump to be held in contempt of court and fined, although Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

The former president watched the proceedings from the dock, flanked by his attorneys, taking notes and occasionally glancing at prospective jurors. On Monday and Tuesday, he seemed to doze off at times and then become alert again.

Ultimately, he could go to court to defend himself, depending on how he and his lawyers view prosecutors’ evidence.

The case will almost certainly limit Trump’s time on the campaign trail as he must appear in court.

Allegations against Trump

Trump is accused of hiding $130,000 in hush money from porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to prevent her from speaking out about a one-night tryst with him a decade ago at a celebrity golf tournament. statement. Trump’s wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron, now 18. More than four months later.

In a second example, the indictment says former Playboy Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal said she had a months-long affair with Trump, and a tabloid publisher told She paid $150,000 to buy the rights to her story and then, at Trump’s urging, killed the article.

Trump denies both incidents and all 34 charges he faces in the New York case, including that he directed one-time political fixer and convicted perjurer Michael Cohen to make payments to Daniels before he His fees were repaid over a year in 2017 – while Cohen’s monthly stipend was labeled as legal expenses in Trump’s business records.

“I paid my attorney’s fees and chalked them up to legal fees. That’s what it is,” Trump told reporters when he arrived at the trial on Tuesday.

Tampering with company books would be considered a misdemeanor, but to convict Trump of a more serious felony, prosecutors would have to convince jurors that he committed underlying crimes such as trying to influence by withholding information about the matters involved The results of the 2016 election came from the voters.

The hush money payments are not illegal, and Trump may claim they were paid simply to avoid disclosure of a personally damaging moment in his life, rather than to try to influence the 2016 election.

The 12-member jury must decide unanimously on guilt or innocence. If jurors cannot agree among themselves, a so-called “hung jury” results, leaving prosecutors to decide whether to seek a new trial.

Each charge carries a potential four-year prison sentence, although Trump is sure to appeal any guilty verdict and sentence.

The New York case is one of four unprecedented criminal indictments Trump faces, involving 88 charges, all of which he denies.

Two other indictments — one state and one federal — accuse him of illegally trying to reverse losses in 2020, while a third accuses him of illegally converting hundreds of millions of dollars into cash at the end of his presidential term. A highly classified national security document was brought to his Florida beachfront estate. and then refused investigators’ requests to return them.

No firm trial date has been set in any of the three cases, and Trump has sought to delay the start date until after the election

If he wins, he may seek to have the federal charges dismissed. In any case, if he were to take power again, he would not be tried during his presidency.