Five more alternate jurors were selected on Friday in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in New York, with opening arguments likely to begin on Monday in the first-ever criminal case against a former U.S. president.

A jury of seven men and five women appeared on Thursday to hear evidence in the case. The jury included two lawyers, six business employees, two people working in the education field, a health care worker and an engineer. None of them have been identified.

Some jurors acknowledged to New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchant and Trump’s defense attorneys that they had expressed negative views of the 77-year-old former president in recent years, but all said they could Opinion aside, give the case a fair trial. . Some said they paid little attention to the day’s news.

One alternate juror was also selected Thursday, and five more were added Friday, after Murchin, prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers asked 22 potential jurors about their personal backgrounds and opinions. Perceptions of Trump (usually negative posts on social media).

Several prospective jurors became emotional as they answered 42 questions posed to the panel, telling Merchan the ordeal was more difficult than they expected. He exempted them from jury duty.

The former president sat quietly as some prospective jurors stood beside him and expressed their blunt opinions about him.

One woman said her complaint was not about his policies but how his rhetoric gave people “permission to act on their own negative impulses.”

Six alternate jurors will hear testimony at the trial and can replace any juror who is unable to witness the trial until a verdict is reached. If an alternate juror replaces a regular juror in a potentially six-week trial, the alternate would only participate in jury deliberations and help decide the verdict.

The case mainly involves allegations that Trump, the 45th President of the United States, conspired to conceal hush money payments to two women to cover up their allegations of extramarital affairs with him before he successfully ran for the White House in 2016.

Prosecutors say Trump sought to continually leak information about his private life to voters just before the vote eight years ago.

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

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

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 plans to hold a hearing next week on prosecutors’ request to hold Trump in contempt of court and impose fines. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Ultimately, Trump 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 faces Democratic President Joe Biden for the second consecutive election cycle. On a day off from the trial, Trump will travel to North Carolina for a rally on Saturday night.

Charge description

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. It comes less than four months after Trump’s wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron, who is now 18.

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.

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. However, the hush money trial may be the only one that takes place before the November election.

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 until after the election.

If he wins, he may seek to have the federal charges dismissed. Regardless, if Trump takes power again, he will not be tried during his presidency.