After days of jury selection, the court has finally chosen all 12 jurors and 6 alternate jurors who will decide the fate of Donald Trump in his historic criminal trial.
The selection of all 18 jurors came not without setbacks, as judge Juan Merchan dismissed two seated jurors earlier this week over identity and credibility concerns.
With the jury bench now full, the trial is expected to move towards opening statements next week.
Donald Trump has yet again decried the proceedings in New York as a “witch hunt”, a term the former president has returned to repeatedly to describe his legal troubles.
“This is really a concerted witch hunt, very simple,” Trump said to reporters on Friday afternoon after the trial wrapped for the day.
The former president complained of his treatment in New York, criticizing the judges who heard his earlier New York civil fraud trial and defamation case, and describing the hush money trial as an “outrage” designed to hurt his campaign for the White House.
Trump has routinely used his legal troubles to rally supporters and spread conspiracy theories.
Reuters has more details about the 12 jurors and six alternates who have been selected in Trump’s hush money trial, which will be the first criminal trial in history of a former US president
There are seven men and five women on the jury. They are mostly employed in white-collar professions and the jury includes two corporate lawyers, a software engineer, a speech therapist and an English teacher. Most are not native New Yorkers, and instead hail from across the United States and countries such as Ireland and Lebanon.
The Guardian has more information on the jury:
Here is where the day stands:
After days of jury selection, the court has finally chosen all 12 jurors and 6 alternate jurors who will decide the fate of Donald Trump in his historic criminal trial. The selection of all 18 jurors came not without setbacks, as judge Juan Merchan dismissed two seated jurors earlier this week over identity and credibility concerns.
Judge Juan Merchan told Donald Trump’s defense team – which has repeatedly challenged and re-challenged rulings he has made – to stop trying to have another bite at the apple. “At this point, what’s happened is defense is literally targeting individual decisions, one by one by one by one, and filing pre-motion letters,” Merchan said, adding that opening statements are going to happen on Monday morning.
The prosecutors previously submitted documents indicating that they wanted to ask Donald Trump about a variety of trials should he testify, to challenge his credibility as a witness. These include sexual assault accuser E. Jean Carroll’s defamation cases against him. As the hearing progressed, Trump’s attorney Emil Bove said that asking Trump about the verdict in Carroll’s cases on cross-examination would be “unacceptable.”
A man set himself on fire outside the Manhattan criminal court where Donald Trump’s criminal trial was under way. The man has been identified as Maxwell Azarello who was born in 1987. According to his driver’s license, he is from St Augustine, Florida.
Maxwell Azarello has been described as a “conspiracy theorist” by police and had pamphlets on scene which police described as “propaganda-based.” He is in critical condition at Weill Cornell’s burn unit.
House Democrats came to the rescue of Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker, in a rare move for a committee that normally votes along party lines, in order to save the Ukraine aid legislation from rightwing rebels. Johnson now looks set to push forward this weekend on a $95bn aid bill for Kyiv, Israel, Taiwan and other allies, which has stalled in the House after passing the Senate.
Court has ended for the day.
It will resume on Monday when opening statements are expected to take place.
Judge Juan Merchan is telling Donald Trump’s defense team – which has repeatedly challenged and re-challenged rulings he has made – to stop trying to have another bite at the apple.
“At this point, what’s happened is defense is literally targeting individual decisions, one by one by one by one, and filing pre-motion letters,” Merchan said.
“As the people suggested a minute ago, that has to end. There comes a point when you accept my rulings,” Merchan said, adding that proceedings were not going to be bogged down.
“We’re going to have opening statements Monday morning,” Merchan said, “This trial is starting.”
The prosecutors previously submitted documents indicating that they wanted to ask Donald Trump about a variety of trials should he testify, to challenge his credibility as a witness.
These include sexual assault accuser E. Jean Carroll’s defamation cases against him. As the hearing progressed, Trump’s attorney Emil Bove said that asking Trump about the verdict in Carroll’s cases on cross-examination would be “unacceptable.”
Bove, who reiterated Trump’s denial of Carroll’s claim and said it “very much did not happen,” said the allegations were “too far back in time” to be used in any potential challenge to Trump’s credibility.
Moreover, Bove argued, “To bring up Ms Carroll’s allegations at this trial sort of pushes the salaciousness on to another level. This is a case about documents.”
The prosecution insisted: “That’s critical, critical evidence that the jury ought to be able to consider…if he testifies.”
Right now, the prosecution and defense are squaring off over what Donald Trump could be asked by prosecutors during cross-examination if he took the witness stand.
“We do have a vehicle identified that’s connected to him. We’re currently searching that car,” police said.
“We do not believe this was targeting any particular person or a particular group. We just right now labelled him as a sort of conspiracy theorist and we’ll go from there but the investigation will continue,” police added.
“All of his social media is going to be scrubbed. Obviously we didn’t know him prior to this incident,” police said.
Police added, “As of right now, he’s very critical. His condition is not good” and went on to say that they did not see any criminal history of Maxwell Azarello in New York.
Police also said Maxwell Azarello did not breach security protocols but noted, “Of course we’re going to review our security protocols.”
“We’ll talk with our federal partners and we’ll make decisions if we need to tighten up security. Maybe we’ll shut down the park. That is something that will determine once we talk with all our partners,” police added.
Speaking about the pamphlets found at the scene, police said that the “pamphlets seem to be propaganda-based, almost like a conspiracy theory type of pamphlets.”
Police added that they spoke to Maxwell Azarello’s family members who said that they were unaware “that he was even in New York.”
Police also said they believe Azarello arrived in New York “some time earlier in the week.”
NYPD is now briefing the press about the man who is in the Weill Cornell burn unit in critical condition.
The man has been identified as Maxwell Azarello who was born in 1987. According to his driver’s license, he is from St Augustine, Florida.
According to police, the accelerant that was used “appears to be some kind of alcohol-based substance that’s used for cleaning.”
New York police is set to deliver a press conference soon on the latest incident outside the courthouse involving the man who appeared to have set himself on fire.
We will bring you the latest updates.
“Court officers rushed to aid the man, one of the was injured” from smoke inhalation, a court official said.
The injured officer was taken to the hospital.
Court will continue as scheduled.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
