The first batch of potential jurors has been sworn in by the judge, Juan Merchan.
This makes Donald Trump the first US president, former or president, to stand trial.
Since they’re sworn in, the trial has officially started.
Speaking to a press pool outside the courtroom on Monday, Trump repeatedly called the trial a “scam” and stated it was preventing him from attending his son’s high school graduation, appearing at a supreme court hearing, and campaigning for the upcoming presidential election.
“If you read all of the legal pundits or the legal scholars today, there’s not one that I’ve seen that said, this is a case it should be brought or tried,” he said. “It’s a scam. It’s a political witch-hunt. It continues, and it continues forever. And we’re not going to be given a fair trial. It’s a very, very sad thing.”
Trump opened his remarks to the pool with complaints about his son’s graduation ceremony, which the former president’s legal team requested a day off to attend. Although the judge has yet to make an official ruling on the matter, Trump acted as though it had been denied.
“As you know, my son is graduating from high school and it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son,” he said. “I was looking forward to that graduation, with his mother and father there, and it looks like the judge does not allow me to escape this scam.”
Trump claimed he may not be able to travel to Washington DC for a supreme court hearing to decide whether he should be awarded presidential immunity exempting him from criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He also said his inability to campaign in key states before the presidential election due to the trial would ultimately benefit Democrats.
“These are very complex things, and he’s not going to allow me to leave here for a half a day to go to DC and go before the United States supreme court, because he thinks he’s superior to the supreme court,” Trump said.
Trump did not answer reporters’ questions.
Merchan told prospective jurors that the court would adjourn for the day, and that they should return early tomorrow so he can start at 9.30am ET.
Earlier, the judge admonished the defense team for returning late from the afternoon break.
The morning was taken up by proceedings. The atmosphere in the courtroom appeared calm, with Donald Trump at times appearing to doze off during proceedings. Much of the courtroom was left empty to allow room for jurors.
Jury selection did not start until later in the afternoon, and if the activity outside the courthouse was any indication, it will take lawyers a few days to select an unbiased group of New Yorkers who will ultimately decide the outcome of the trial.
Outside of the courthouse, multiple news channels were doing wall-to-wall coverage of the trial.
A few people holding what appeared to be jury ID slips – which jurors are sent in the mail and told to bring with them the day they are summoned to court – were let into the line of people entering the building. Some, looking bewildered, stopped to take pictures of the scene before entering the courthouse.
Jury duty in America can often be a banal affair, a day spent in a courthouse filling out forms and telling lawyers when you’ve scheduled your next vacation.
But for those New Yorkers summoned to the state courthouse on Monday, it was a day when the ordinary became extraordinary. They arrived to a frenetic scene of loud protest and high security in downtown Manhattan – a sure sign that Donald Trump was yet again in court.
Though the procedures that played out in the courtroom at 100 Centre St were banal, their significance was pure history: the first US president facing criminal charges at trial. Not only that, but it comes at a time when Trump is all but guaranteed to be his party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election.
Police closed off the block in front of the courthouse to pedestrians, requiring people to show press or court badges to get onto the street to the building. That didn’t stop passersby, including double-decker tour buses heading downtown, from stopping to ogle at the spectacle.
Court is back in session, and the jury selection process will continue.
Donald Trump did not respond to questions as he returned to the courtroom.
The court is taking a short recess.
Donald Trump watched as the prospective jurors filed out of the room. He then rose and left the courtroom.
He did not answer questions nor give a wave or thumbs up as he walked past reporters.
One excused prospective juror made clear their feelings as they left.
“I just couldn’t do it,” they were overheard saying, according to a pool reporter.
Judge Merchan has begun calling individual jurors to answer questions from the 42-point questionnaire they were given.
It begins by asking basic biographical information about where prospective jurors live, their marital status, occupation and hobbies, as well as their sources of news.
Many of these questions require yes-or-no answers. Lawyers will be able to ask follow-up questions later.
Trump followed along intently with his own copy of the questionnaire as the first possible juror, a woman, gave her answers.
While Donald Trump is in court in New York for the Stormy Daniels hush-money trial, his account on his social media platform is posting through it.
His Truth Social page is putting up new posts minute by minute, full of boasts about Trump or complaints about the charges he faces in this case and others.
The hush-money trial is the first of Trump’s cases to go to trial. This incessant posting could be an indication of how he intends to market himself amid the court battles, a way to distract from the case itself.
It is also a sign that he thinks leaning into the court cases, rather than avoiding talking about them, helps him with his followers.
The frenetic pace of the posts, though, with dozens just this morning, is a lot even for Trump. It’s unclear whether Trump himself is posting or people from his team are.
So far this morning, he has posted claiming the cases are an example of election interference and a sign that Biden and the Democrats are scared he will win. He has shared articles and videos about the cases, the border, the “stolen” election, his golf game, the Israel war, Ukraine, polls. He has posted videos about the cases with platitudes about how “they” are trying to steal the election from him and his supporters.
The judge asked prospective jurors to raise their hands if they believed they could not be fair and impartial. Judge Merchan said:
If you have an honest, legitimate, good-faith reason to believe you cannot serve on this case or cannot be fair and impartial, please let me know now.
More than half of prospective jurors in the first panel of 96 people have been excused.
Judge Merchan listed the names of more than 40 people who could be involved in the trial, including Stormy Daniels, Michael Cohen, David Pecker, members of the Trump family, Rudy Giuliani, former Trump presidential staffer Hope Hicks and Trump’s former chief of staff Reince Priebus.
The judge noted that not all of them will appear as witnesses but that their names could be raised at trial.
Merchan is giving the first batch of jurors introductory instructions, extolling the importance of jury service while explaining the basics of the case. He told jurors:
You are about to participate in a trial by jury. The system of trial by jury is one the cornerstones of our judicial system.
Many of the prospective jurors stretched their necks to get a look at Donald Trump once in their seats. One giggled and put her hand over her mouth, looking at the person seated next to her with raised eyebrows. Several appeared to frequently stare at the former president as Merchan introduced the case.
The jury’s responsibility is to evaluate the testimony and all of the evidence presented at the trial … The trial is the opportunity for you to decide if the defendant is guilty or not guilty.
Trump stood and turned around as he was introduced as the defendant, giving the prospective jurors a little tight-lipped smirk.
Trump looked straight ahead, expressionless in the direction of the judge as Merchan addressed the prospective jurors, occasionally looking towards the jury box.
Merchan has rescheduled the hearing for whether Donald Trump will be held in contempt of court has been changed from 24 April to 23 April 9.30am ET.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
