Group of Potential Jurors Dismissed on First Day of Trump Criminal Trump
Manhattan prosecutors accuse Trump of falsifying business records in making a hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels.
Here are the latest’s
- Judge Won’t Let Trump Attend Supreme Court Hearing
- Court Adjourns
- Few Jurors Left
- More Than Half of First Panel of Jurors Excused
- Potential Jurors Sworn In
Judge Won’t Let Trump Attend Supreme Court Hearing
President Trump exited the courtroom telling the press what happened today was incredulous.
“Amazing things happen today. 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. My son has worked very, very hard. And he’s a great student,” he said.
Justice Merchan had declined to decide whether he will excuse President Trump from court that day.
He had, however, said President Trump could not be excused next week to attend his Supreme Court hearing on April 25 in a separate case.
“An urgent hearing on immunity and this is something that we’ve been waiting for., a long time, and the judge, of course, is not going to allow us,” President Trump told reporters. “He won’t allow me to leave here for a half a day go to DC and go before the United States Supreme Court, because he thinks he’s superior.”
Court Adjourns
Right before 4:30 p.m., Justice Merchan gave potential jurors instructions that court would adjourn for the day and resume again 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.
Few Jurors Left
After returning from a break around 4 p.m., three prospective jurors answered the questionnaire. None have attended Trump rallies or are on Trump campaign email lists.
One was a woman who lives in Midtown East and works in business development. She gets her news from New York Times, CNN, Google, Wall Street Journal, and podcasts.
Another was a middle-aged man who lives in Midtown and works as a creative director. He has previously served on a criminal jury that reached a verdict. He gets his news from the New York Times, USA Today, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal.
The last was a woman who lives on the Upper West Side and works for a city agency in communications. She gets her news from the New York Times, CNN, and Google.
More Than Half of First Panel of Jurors Excused
More than 50 the first batch of potential jurors were excused after being asked whether they believed they could be fair and impartial.
Around nine more were excused for not being able to serve for other reasons.
One juror who left the courtroom was heard saying, “I just couldn’t do it.”
3 Jurors Left
After returning from a break around 4 p.m., three prospective jurors were left. None have attended Trump rallies or are on Trump campaign email lists.
One was a woman who lives in Midtown East and works in business development. She gets her news from New York Times, CNN, Google, Wall Street Journal, and podcasts.
Another was a middle aged man who lives in Midtown and works as a creative director. He has previously served on a criminal jury that reached a verdict. He gets his news from New York Times, USA Today, CNN, and Wall Street Journal.
The last was a woman who lives on the Upwer West Side and works for a city agency in communications. She gets her news from New York Times, CNN, and Google.
More Than Half of First Panel of Jurors Excused
More than 50 the first batch of potential jurors were excused after being asked whether they believed they could be fair and impartial.
Around nine more were excused for not being able to serve for other reasons.
One juror who left the courtroom was heard saying, “I just couldn’t do it.”
Potential Jurors Sworn In
The first panel of potential jurors have been sworn in.
Several stare at the former president as the judge introduces the case.
“The jury’s responsibility is to evaluate the testimony and all of the evidence presented at the trial,” Justice Merchan told the group. “The trial is the opportunity for you to decide if the defendant is guilty or not guilty.”
The judge will ask potential jurors if they believe they cannot be impartial or cannot serve, and they will be excused.
Judge Merchan read aloud dozens of people who may serve as witnesses or whose names may be mentioned during the trial. The lengthy list included several Trump family members, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.
Jurors Being Brought In
The first panel of 96 potential jurors went through security beginning around 2 p.m.
Justice Merchan told parties that all names of potential jurors need to be kept secret except to the parties.
Twelve juror and six alternates will be chosen to try the case.
Judge Delays Hearing on Trump Fine
Justice Merchan said he would hold a hearing on April 23 on prosecutors’ request to fine President Trump $3,000 over social media posts about witnesses including Michael Cohen.
The defense was given an April 19 deadline to file a response.
Trump Returns to Court
President Trump returned to the courtroom without addressing the press.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg returned around the same time.
Prosecutors Ask for Trump Gag Order Fine
Prosecutors asked for a $3,000 fine on President Trump for violating the gag order. They pointed to three social media posts and asked the court to fine him $1,000 per post.
“The defendant has demonstrated his willingness to flout the order. He’s attacked witnesses in the case,” said Christopher Conroy, one of the trial prosecutors.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche said the three social media posts prosecutors referenced “do not violate the gag order.”
“It’s not as if President Trump is going out and targeting individuals, he is responding to salacious, repeated vehement attacks by these witnesses,” he said.
The gag order prohibits President Trump from making statements about witnesses, jurors, court staff and counsel, and their families, or directing others to do so in a way that interferes with the case.
In that, the gag order may prohibit President Trump from making statements about key witnesses Michael Cohen and Stephanie Clifford. Defense attorneys had pushed back on this arguing that both witnesses are public figures who have made media appearances to talk about President Trump.
The court took a 10 minute break while the judge considered it, and President Trump did not speak to the press on his way out of the courtroom.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
500 Jurors Waiting
Justice Merchan said there were 500 jurors awaiting questioning, putting an end to debate on procedures and pretrial motions.
The judge on April 8 approved finalquestionsfor potential jurors, and the court will need to seat 12.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Prosecutors Can’t Use ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape
Justice Merchan ruled the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape where then-candidate Trump was recorded on a hot mic cannot be played for the jurors.
However, the prosecutors will be allowed to present internal campaign emails that Assistant District Attorney Steinglass said contained “powerful evidence of the campaign’s reaction to the incendiary language contained in the Access Hollywood video.”
Judge Rejects Defense Requests From the Bench
Justice Merchan made a few more decisions from the bench on pretrial motions, including denying the defense’s request to add juror questions and to allow Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who alleged an affair with Donald Trump, to testify.
“This is by far the most exhaustive questionnaire this court has ever used,” the judge said.
Ms. McDougal was paid $150,000 in 2016 by the parent company of the National Enquirer for the rights to her story about her alleged 10-month affair with Trump in the mid-2000s. President Trump denies any affair.
The company suppressed McDougal’s story until after the election. American Media Inc. has acknowledged that its payments to McDougal were done specifically to assist Trump’s election bid and were made “in concert” with his campaign.
While these claims are not part of the charges, prosecutors argued it provides important context to their allegation that the $130,000 payment to Michael Cohen in the indictment is part of a larger scheme.
The judge also allowed prosecutors to introduce evidence of National Enquirer suppressing negative stories about then-candidate Trump and boosting the candidate’s attack of political opponents.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told the judge the meeting was the root of a scheme to suppress three potentially damaging stories about Trump, including the claim that adult actress Stephanie Clifford, better known by her stage name Stormy Daniels, of an affair she had with him in 2006.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche argued the evidence “would do nothing but confuse the jury about the actual crime charged.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump Requests Day Off to Attend Son’s High School Graduation
Trump’s lawyers have requested that the trial not be held on May 17 so that the former president may attend his son Barron’s high school graduation. A Trump lawyer has also requested the trial not be held June 3 so that he could attend his own son’s graduation.
Justice Merchan said he was not prepared to rule on either request, but that if the trial proceeds as planned he’s willing to adjourn for one or both days. “It really depends on how we’re doing on time and where we are in the trial,” Justice Merchan said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Judge Won’t Step Down
From the bench, Justice Merchan rejected the defense’s motion that he recuse himself from the case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump Takes a Seat as Jury Selection to Begin
1 hour ago
Hands folded, President Trump stares straight ahead as his lawyers settle in around him at the defense table. He’s flanked for the proceedings by attorneys Todd Blanche to his right and Emil Bove and Susan Necheles to his left.
Hundreds of people from Manhattan will file into the courthouse today to be considered as possible jurors in a process that could take multiple days.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump: ‘Proud to Be Here’
President Trump addressed reporters before heading inside the courtroom.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” he said. “There is no case and they said, people who don’t necessarily follow or like Donald Trump said, ‘this case is an outrage.’ This is political persecution.”
“This is an assault on America. And that’s why I’m proud to be here,” he added. “This is an assault on our country … it’s a country that’s run by a very incompetent man who’s very much involved in this case. This is very much an attack on a political opponent, that’s all that it is.”
Trump Supporters, Protestors Chanting Outside
Around 200 Trump supporters are outside the courthouse and roughly 40 other individuals are there protesting against the former president, both groups chanting various slogans as President Trump arrives.
There is perhaps more press than all demonstrators combined.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump Arrives at Courthouse
Crowds and cameras are lined up outside the courthouse for the criminal trial of any former U.S. commander-in-chief in history.
Because he is also the presumptive nominee for this year’s Republican ticket, the trial will produce the head-spinning split-screen of a presidential candidate spending his days in court and, he has said, “campaigning during the night.”
President Trump arrived just after 9 a.m., traveling from Trump Tower.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump Claims Election Interference Hours Before Trial
Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social hours before trial to claim election interference.
“The Radical Left Democrats are already cheating on the 2024 Presidential Election by bringing, or helping to bring, all of these bogus lawsuits against me, thereby forcing me to sit in courthouses, and spend money that could be used for campaigning, instead of being out in the field knocking Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the History of the United States. Election Interference!” he wrote.
The trial is expected to last around six weeks, four days a week without Wednesdays, and could take President Trump off the campaign rail for a significant amount of time.
The Trump Campaign also sent out an email blast calling the trial a “Biden Trial,” and claiming Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is politically motivated.
Jury selection began on April 15.
The date was meant to encompass observing Jews in jury selection, and moved from April 25 so it wouldn’t overlap with Passover. However, President Trump reposted a comment that the trial being scheduled for Fridays could exclude Orthodox Jews from taking part.
What Alvin Bragg Has to Prove
To secure a felony conviction, Mr. Bragg must convince a jury that President Trump not only falsified the relevant records but also did so with the intention of concealing another crime.
It’s unclear whether Mr. Bragg will even need to cite the second crime during the trial. Attorneys told The Epoch Times that Mr. Bragg doesn’t need to give the jury a specific campaign finance or tax violation to secure a conviction.
“If I were teaching this case, I would certainly use it as an example of an overzealous prosecutor improperly dividing a single misdemeanor into multiple charges, and then turning them into felonies by purporting to enforce federal campaign finance laws when the [Justice Department] already declined the case,” John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both Bush administrations, told The Epoch Times.
President Trump could defend himself by claiming that he made the payments to prevent his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, from hearing about the affair allegations.
In a motion to dismiss rejected by Judge Merchan, President Trump’s attorney said that the payments were, in fact, part of a retainer agreement for legal services.
Trump to Testify
Michael Cohen Back in Spotlight
In this case and his Georgia trial, President Trump has the disadvantage that codefendants have taken deals acknowledging guilt in the schemes he’s alleged to have perpetrated.
Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation in 2018 and said that he completed the payment to Ms. Clifford as part of an effort to prevent negative information from surfacing before the election.
AMI entered a non-prosecution agreement in 2018 in which it acknowledged payment to ensure Ms. McDougal “did not publicize damaging allegations” about then-candidate Trump.
“For Trump to say this money was purely a retainer, I think there would have to be some additional evidence,” Keith Johnson, a criminal defense attorney, told The Epoch Times. “That’s where Michael Cohen is going to be the state’s best witness.”
In March, Judge Merchan rejected a motion by President Trump to exclude testimony from Ms. Clifford and Mr. Cohen. It’s unclear how the jury will view the two, given that one is an adult performer and the other has admitted to lying to Congress.
Heritage Foundation Vice President John Malcolm told The Epoch Times that Mr. Cohen’s credibility is “on the surface, quite suspect” and that it will be “eminently attackable.”
“[Mr. Cohen] is going to have to be thoroughly cross-examined as being an incredibly biased witness—the one who has a bone to pick with the president, someone who had been to federal prison, someone who has been on multiple media outlets talking about his disdain for the former president,” Mr. Malcolm said.
“That’s where the case is going to be won or lost, in my opinion.”
Gag Order
Trump Makes Accusation Against Judge 1 Day Before ‘Hush-Money’ Trial Begins
Jury Selection Process in Trump Criminal Trial Falls Short, Says Legal Expert
Requests Shot Down
President Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly asked for a postponement of the trial because the prosecution withheld some 100,000 documents until late in the game making it impossible for them to review the evidence properly before the trial.
They have also sought to have the trial moved to a different jurisdiction, in view of widespread adverse publicity and hostility to the GOP’s current front-runner in one of the staunchest Democrat strongholds in the country.
These efforts have met with failure, in the form of Judge Lizbeth Gonzalez’s April 8 decision upholding the April 15 start date, and Associate Justice Cynthia Kern’s April 9 ruling denying a request for an interim stay of the trial. Another delay attempt was rejected on April 12.
Hence, the trial looks set to begin as scheduled on Monday, as a selection of 12 jurors and six alternates from a pool of randomly summoned 500 prospective jurors gets underway.
The prosecution will take place under the auspices of a court system run by such powerful Democrats as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who explicitly campaigned on a promise to hold President Trump to account for alleged shady dealings.
“If the case was brought in other parts of the country, the jury pool might be more impartial, but here in New York, given all that has happened with the district attorney, the state attorney general, and the judge himself, there’s nothing to compare this to. This is going to be fascinating,” Mr. Kushner said.
President Trump on Friday said jury selection “is largely luck. It depends who you get.”
“It’s very unfair that I’m having a trial there,” he said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
High-Profile Trials
The criminal trial will be the latest in a series of legal processes that have garnered worldwide attention as they have played out in New York’s courts.
What sets this one apart from those of past years, Mr. Kushner noted, is the ubiquitous coverage that the matter has received in forums as varied as TikTok, X, Facebook, YouTube, streaming channels, and other platforms and media that were not around until recent years.
Thanks to the online buzz and 24/7 discussion and debate, many if most jurors are certain to enter the Manhattan courtroom with pre-formed opinions.
By way of comparison, Mr. Kushner recalled his direct personal involvement in the November 1998 case United States of America v. Osama Bin Laden et al., in which federal prosecutors indicted the terrorist leader and affiliates for their role in planning and organizing the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Mr. Kushner has intimate knowledge of that case, having provided his expert opinion on how voir-dire in that case ought to proceed and how to ensure as fair a jury as possible.
He recalled his interactions with the defense team in that case and said that even back then, before the advent of all the social media that are now universal features of life, the question of how to ensure a disinterested and impartial jury in such a notorious case was on everyone’s mind.
“We were very much involved in the jury selection process: could we find 12 jurors and alternates who would render a fair verdict, given the publicity in that case? This trial now is 10 times greater, given the technology and the social media that are around today,” he said.
Mr. Kushner also played a role on behalf of survivors of the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center who sued the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
There, too, serious doubts existed as to the possibility of impartial proceedings in a case that everyone in the city had heard about and had strong views on, he said.
The case of People v. Trump is, of course, quite different from prosecutions and lawsuits related to terrorism, but Mr. Kushner firmly believes that the likelihood of a fair trial is even dimmer now, given the ubiquity of social media and their tendency to encourage people to obsess about the proceedings even before they begin.
“If you’re looking for people who haven’t made up their minds, good luck. You can have the best jury consultants, but there’s no standard for what is happening in this case,” Mr. Kushner stated.
Neither Mr. Bragg’s office nor Ms. James’s office responded by press time to a request for comment.
